We’ve all seen it: the latest leadership fad takes over LinkedIn. Servant leadership. Transformational leadership. Even—brace yourself—authentic leadership. Great buzzwords. But often, they reveal more about what leaders want to be seen as rather than what their organizations actually need.
As Proverbs reminds us: “To everything there is a season.” Leadership is no different. There’s a style for every season. The real challenge? Leaders too often cling to labels instead of leading the moment.
Servant Leadership: Good Intentions, Empty Results
Servant leadership, popularized by Robert Greenleaf, is about putting others first—cultivating empathy, sharing power, and nurturing growth. At its best, it fosters trust, collaboration, and wellbeing.
But what happens when servant leadership runs during the wrong season? I once served under a self-proclaimed servant leader during a time when our organization desperately needed a strategic pivot. Guess what happened? We made zero strategic shift—but felt really good about being stuck.
That’s the leadership latte effect: frothy, warm, ego-boosting… but ultimately unsatisfying.
When Crisis Hits: Sensemaking Over Speeches
During turbulent times, servant rhetoric or motivational platitudes aren’t enough. What employees really need is sensemaking—the ability to interpret confusion and create clarity.
Karl Weick introduced sensemaking as a leader’s secret weapon for navigating complexity. It’s about crafting plausible explanations for ambiguous situations, testing them, and revising as needed.
Research shows that sensemaking strongly predicts leadership effectiveness. Yet only about 4% of traits cited as “great leadership attributes” involve sensemaking. Go figure.
Sensemaking isn’t soft—it’s survival.
Authentic Leadership: When “Authentic” Becomes a Weapon
Authentic leadership promises transparency and integrity. Beautiful idea—until it’s wielded by someone who is “authentically” manipulative or abrasive.
Leaders who weaponize authenticity often use empathy to disarm and manipulation as strategy. Congratulations: you’re not shaping culture—you’re exploiting it.
Authenticity without ethics? That’s just Machiavelli with charisma.
What Smart Leaders Actually Do
Forget the trending taglines. Ask instead:
- What does this moment demand?
- Does my team need a strategist, a healer, a chaos-navigator—or all three?
- Am I flexible enough to shift styles as the situation evolves?
Real leadership isn’t about style—it’s about situational wisdom.
Call to Action: Lead Like It Matters
Some days you need to serve the team. Other days you need to cut through ambiguity with clarity. And yes, sometimes you need to confront chaos head-on with sensemaking, not speeches.
So here’s your leader-to-leader reality check:
Stop trying to fit leadership into a hashtag. Start fitting your style to the season.
Lead with intelligence. Lead with integrity. And above all, lead with the courage to actually lead—no filters needed.
