What is effective leadership these days? Times have changed since leadership looked and felt like overpowering men, knowing it all, solving it all, and pressing us all into a specific direction. Our time deserves, and frankly it desperately needs, a new kind of leadership.

In the old days, leaders knew most about the content and could thus offer directives to their teams. However, this top down approach is not suited for the hyper complexity of our current day to day and the enormous challenges we are facing. As Jacqueline Brassey of McKinsey explains in this interview with the Dutch paper FD, we need our leaders to be able to work with all kinds of specialists: big data experts, social media specialists, online strategy consultants, technical specialists etc.

The Leadership Qualities of our Time

There is no way any leader will be the most knowledgeable about all of the subjects. Effective leadership nowadays requires humility, and great listening and strategic skills to hear all these different perspectives and combine them into the most optimum approach.

Effective leaders are able to listen deeply, instead of tell others what to do. They need to build connection to themselves and to the people around them, instead of keeping a distance. This connection is both with their own emotions, beliefs, and feelings and the people they work with.

Effective leadership implies vulnerability over a macho kind of self-assurance. This doesn’t mean our leaders shouldn’t trust their own judgement. It requires a deeper sense of self-awareness, instead of a puffed up sense of ‘I am invincible and all-knowing’.

Our time needs leadership that is more than a skill set. People do not follow skills, they follow people. We need what we call Sovereign Leaders.

What is Sovereign Leadership?

Sovereignty means to be fully aligned with your true self, and to be completely free to express that.

That freedom grows as you learn to:

• take full ownership of your life and let go of any feelings of victimhood.

• know your triggers, your fears, and your patterns so well, that they lose their power over you. You will therefor no longer project hidden feelings onto other people.

• rise above the chaos of every day life to see the opportunities and potential that is available in the challenges you, your team and your company faces.

Who you are as a person, and how far you’ve developed yourself, is highly relevant to well you will do as a leader. In order to effectively lead with impact, we believe it requires taking full ownership of who you are.

Your journey

Do you sense you could be learning more about your self, and grow yourself in such a way that you will be able to provide this new type of effective leadership?

We offer one-on-one executive coaching for entrepreneurs and C and VP-level managers. Read more about our offerings here.

About the author

Rosalie Puiman is the founder of The Sovereign Leader and the author of The Mindful Guide to Conflict Resolution. She works with executives and founding teams to bring forth effective, impactful and purpose-driven success.