Distributed Leadership for the new Era

The Myth of a Cape-clad Leader

Hughes et al. (2019) explain the predicament of having a “hero leader” fixing the puzzle paradigm with “right” and “wrong” answer within the organization with the VUCA world where the definition of challenges is so unclear and will be problematic for the leader to apply the same approach to problem solving. In this type of world, you will need more than one person to solve the puzzle often rising from the perspective of their individual and collective intelligence, experience and wisdom. They further debunk the myth of a cape-clad hero who will be here to save the day, and shared the 4 key paradigms of leadership to be reconsidered being:

1. The hero leader paradigm
2. The male over female leader paradigm
3. The monoculture over diversity in leadership paradigm
4. The older over younger leader paradigm

These paradigms, in combination, have created an exclusive model of leadership. When shifted, the potential to unlocking organizational success through the better utilization of all skills and resources available at all levels will be exponential. And this is what they meant by “abundant” leadership. With this in perspective, there are still many hero leaders making centralized decisions that hinders their team to…