Six paradoxes of leadership

Global minded: being open to other beliefs, market structures and wanting to learn from what the world has to offer.

Localist: fully focused on making the local market successful.

The paradox underlines the importance of being both close to the local market and connected across the globe at the same time.This requires someone to be able to recognise their biases resulting from the lens through which they view the world. But also be able to learn how to operate most effectively in any local market without jeopardizing the success of another market in which they wish to operate. To be able to use the power of the organisation to make significant and targeted progress in unknown places. This requires both national and international connection and the ability to negotiate between locations in order to stimulate joint success.

Strategic: gaining insights and observations by looking to the future and thus influencing current decision-making.

Executor: Dealing with today's challenges with excellence and turning them into action.

The paradox is that people usually have a preference for strategy or execution. The best approach is to define a strategy and understand how it should develop. Doing so with both the present and the changing future in mind. Execution without strategy creates a greater chance of an even greater crisis in the future. However, it is also not effective to spend time thinking about the future and missing the need to act right now. Leaders need to find a way to be strategic in solving today's challenges with a view to tomorrow.

High Integrity: Ensure integrity and build trust in every interaction.

Politician: Gain support, negotiate, form coalitions, overcome resistance to keep moving forward.

The paradox is that in a political situation people can lose their integrity. Too much time is often spent on meeting the needs of others and managing the political playing field to implement plans. Driving change is a constant for leaders and affects the balance of power, with some parties feeling like they are losing. The integrity of the leader becomes even more important and must therefore ensure the involvement of all people. Try to reconcile political interests without neglecting your integrity for optimal results.

Tech-savvy: Encouraging and improving technology to achieve success.

Humanist: understanding human effectiveness in systems.

The paradox is that those with technical skills do not automatically have the necessary skills to understand or guide people's human needs. As a result, many people who drive technological advances are unable to respect the human side of their work. The opposite is also true, because those responsible for people do not always realise the impact that technology has on their business and workforce. The leader’s role is to anchor the success of the business and, in doing so, offer a better future for their people. That means finding a balance between technically savvy with a focus on the people.

Humble: ensuring a deep personal resilience in self and others, recognising when they need to help and be helped.

Hero: exude confidence with flair and self-respect. 

The paradox is that leaders feel they have to behave like heroes - show confidence - in these uncertain and changing times. However, having confidence is not the same as not being willing to change course. Leadership requires the ability to adopt different opinions and make decisions based on various inputs. Leaders need personal resilience to show their vulnerability, to admit their inequality, and to allow others to make mistakes. In order to promote trust in the entire organisation.

To be able to make smart decisions and navigate through failure are critical opposing characteristics that leaders must possess and that enable people to see their leaders as human beings as well.

Traditioned: bringing the purpose of the original idea and the value to the present. 

Innovator: driving innovation and try new things; have the courage to fail and allow others to do the same.

The paradox is that it's tempting to keep doing the things you do really well, and to miss the opportunities that will help you stay relevant. It requires the ability to respect the past and decide what to bring to the future, while also having the courage to try new things. But all too often, innovation is seen as a completely new experiment, rather than something that is incremental and builds on what already exists. It must contain both elements, leaders must therefore determine when to preserve the past on the way to the future and when they must create completely new things.