"Elemental" Leaders -- Can They Benefit Your Organization?

Last week, Tyler Comeau released his new book, The Elemental Leader: Unlocking Your Potential Through Values, Perseverance, Adaptability, and Innovation. This comprehensive leadership development guide reimagines the classical elements -- Earth, Air, Water, and Fire -- as metaphors for foundational leadership principles. Designed to help leaders unlock their full potential, the book grounds leadership practices in these elemental concepts:

• Earth represents core values and a grounded mindset.

• Air symbolizes perseverance and the ability to overcome adversity.

• Water reflects adaptability and skillful navigation of change.

• Fire embodies innovation, motivation, decision-making, and risk-taking.

Through a blend of personal anecdotes, case studies, research, and actionable strategies, Comeau offers a holistic framework for leadership growth that is both practical and inspiring.

When I spoke with Tyler this week, I asked him, “What are elemental leaders, and how do they benefit organizations?” He began by sharing this passage from his book and then distilled his thoughts:

“As you ignite this journey, remember that the most effective leaders are not those who rigidly adhere to a set of rules but those who are adaptable, resilient, and open to new ideas. They are the ones who dare to take risks, learn from their mistakes, and constantly evolve their practice. They are the elemental leaders, the ones who understand that leadership is not just about imparting knowledge but about igniting a spark within each colleague that will burn brightly for a lifetime.”

At its core, elemental leadership is about cultivating versatile, grounded, and deeply human leaders. These individuals:

• Create organizations where values are not just words on a wall but active guides for decision-making (Earth). 

• Foster cultures that treat setbacks as opportunities for growth (Air).

• Lead teams through transitions with openness and flexibility (Water).

• Embrace bold opportunities and calculated risks (Fire).

Organizations benefit from elemental leaders because they model wholeness rather than rigidity. Rather than relying on a single leadership style, they bring a dynamic toolkit that adapts to diverse challenges. This versatility fosters trust, strengthens workplace culture, and sustains long-term momentum.

In a world defined by complexity and constant change, elemental leaders don’t just endure -- they empower their organizations to thrive.

What are your thoughts on Tyler’s approach? Does your organization cultivate leadership that enhances engagement and builds a resilient, values-driven culture?

Leadership Development -- What Is Lacking?

Back in January, Geoff Ribbens, Mark Abraham, and Alistair Cumming published a new book entitled Team Leadership: How to Define, Apply, and Measure It, which presents a unique, people-centric, and scientifically researched theory of leadership linked to an accurate data-based assessment and diagnostic product. For individual leaders looking to maximize personal development and results or for organizations wanting to analyze leadership and its effects across an entire structure or business, this book redefines understanding and development.

When I spoke with the authors this month, I asked them a series of questions starting with "What is currently lacking in leadership development?" Here are their responses:

In our book, we start by identifying four major errors that have held back leadership development and understanding for many years. No doubt all of us have made some, or all, of these errors in the past.

The first error is looking at the leader to understand leadership. Eminent social psychologists have stated that this "leader-centric" approach is “deeply flawed” and not at all useful. We expand on why it is so flawed in the book. We conclude that it is much more useful to concentrate on the perception of those being led.

The second error is to assume that the term "leadership" means the same in a multitude of different contexts such as political leadership, moral leadership, organizational leadership, and team leadership. Different contexts obviously require different definitions and approaches. This is why the book concentrates on the "leadership" of teams.

The third error is to assume that "business success" equates with leadership. This approach only states what the writer hopes leadership will deliver, not what it is. It also assumes that the only people who have leadership are senior managers and CEOs.

The fourth error is simple. Nowhere in our research do we find a definition of the term ‘leadership’ that was objective and measurable.

MS: “So what is the solution to all these myths, assumptions, and lack of definition?”

All the assumptions and errors above have been solved by our innovative approach called Emergent Team Leadership (ETL). We focus on the leadership of teams, whether it is the executive team or the team on the factory floor. We show that all team leaders at every level, have the potential to have "leadership" and it is now measurable.

ETL measures the degree to which team members "willingly and enthusiastically accept their team leader." By examining how team members perceive their leader we created a 12-point profile. The profile is created by the team members, it might not be how the leader perceives themselves or is perceived by the organization. The profile is a simple radar graph and is easy to understand.

MS: “So why focus on teams and team leaders?”

The relationship between the team and the team leader is fundamental to team and organizational performance. If team members "willingly and enthusiastically accept their leader’" then the team leader is more able to deliver positive results because the team supports them. Also, team and team leader well-being is achieved, and there is less disagreement and conflict.

MS: "I can see the improved well-being of the team and team leader but are there any other benefits?

The simple 12-point profile indicates to the team leader what they need to do to move from merely managing their team to the true leadership of that team. The profile is not based on the leader’s personality but on the team’s perception. What is important is that the leader can change that perception. The leader is not a ‘servant’ of the team but can increase their influence by understanding how their team perceives them.

There are many benefits for the team, the team leader, and the whole organization. One obvious benefit is that for the first time leadership training, coaching, or appraising can be tested and retested, and progress can be measured. Our research also found that team leaders themselves found the 12-point profile powerful and relevant, more relevant than other leadership assessment processes they had experienced. If an organization uses ETL this can have a profound positive effect on the organization’s whole team leadership culture.

What do you think of the authors' (Geoff Ribbens, Mark Abraham, and Alistair Cumming) view on the current state of leadership development? Do you agree with what the authors perceive as errors and their proposed solutions?

How Can Senior Leaders Be Effective in Times of Constant and Dramatic Change?

At the beginning of January, I spoke with author Joanne Irving about her latest book entitled The C² Factor for Leadership: How the Alchemy of Curiosity and Courage Helps Leaders Become Champions and Lead Meaningful Lives. This book answers the questions: How do we effectively lead in times of constant, often dramatic change? And, equally important, how do we simultaneously create a satisfying, meaningful life? In addition, it reveals that when leaders manifest both traits, they embrace the professional and personal opportunities the future brings. When the landscape is shifting beneath our feet the C² Factor enables us to lead more effectively and helps us cultivate more fulfilling personal lives.

During our conversation, I asked Joanne: "How can senior leaders be effective in times of constant, often dramatic change?" Here is her complete answer:

How can we prepare for the future when COVID and all the changes it provoked remind us of just how surprised we are when it arrives?

Cognitive skills such as business competence, creating a vision, and strategic thinking; and emotional intelligence such as communicating, inspiring, and developing others are necessary but insufficient for leadership today. Beyond specific skills, beyond IQ and EQ, leaders today need personality characteristics that enable them to respond to changes regardless of what conditions emerge. To embrace and exploit the future, leaders need to develop and exercise the C² Factor -- the application of profound curiosity and relentless courage

While both curiosity and courage are often mentioned on lists of desired leadership qualities, the alchemy of the two -- the C² Factor -- is where the magic is. 

Curiosity and courage are symbiotic and when applied synergistically, produce exceptional leadership. To be curious often requires courage – the courage to examine one’s assumptions, beliefs, and attitudes, the courage to be curious about what options have not been considered, whose opinion has been left out, why the organization is structured the way it is…

And it helps us be courageous when we adopt a curious mindset. When faced with a challenge, instead of reacting with defensiveness we can explore the validity of that challenge, be interested in what opportunities it could bring, and what innovation it might inspire. Courage is what enables us to take action in the face of ambiguity.

Leaders who want their organizations to nimbly navigate the lightning-speed change of today and be prepared for an assuredly uncertain future must model the C² Factor and embed it in their organization’s culture. This means:

● Hiring from groups with diverse backgrounds

● Enabling innovation by encouraging challenges to the status quo

● Providing time and resources for exploration outside of one’s immediate area of expertise

● Rewarding judicious risk-taking, even when those experiments fail

Today’s world is different from what tomorrow will bring so business as usual does not work. Leaders must ask questions and make decisions that challenge or even defy conventional wisdom.  They must take action to respond to conditions they have never anticipated. They must exercise their C² Factor.

What do you think about Joanne's ideas? Do you believe that this synergistic application of curiosity and courage results in more effective leadership? 

An Enduring Business versus a Successful Business -- What are the Misconceptions?

At the beginning of this month, Rebecca Morgan published an interesting book for manufacturers entitled Manufacturing Mastery: The Path to Building Successful and Enduring Manufacturing Businesses. This book is a dynamic guide for manufacturing leaders who want to develop a realistic, progressive, and responsive thinking process that enables success. It provides a business operating system framework that is the foundation for connecting the many pieces of a manufacturing business into an effective, profitable operation. Rebecca walks through the elements, relationships, capabilities, and mutability 21st-century manufacturing requires. 

When I spoke with Rebecca recently, I asked her: "What are leaders’ biggest misconceptions about an enduring business versus a successful business?" Here is her complete answer:

Most of us consider a business successful if it is profitable. And if it’s profitable over several years, it must be enduring. But endurance isn’t simply a run of profitable years. It is the result of intention and commitment.

Businesses that endure focus on a mission that matters, not on building a bigger today. Perhaps that distinction is why so few manufacturing businesses stand the test of time.

Of course, an enduring business earns profits to fund its future but distinguishes accounting profits from strategic profits. They focus not on maximizing profits, but on leveraging profits in alignment with core values to accomplish the mission. Earning, saving, and investing strategic profits facilitate forever. Maximizing today’s profits does not.

Endurance requires growth. Not the financial growth that many view as success. Growth for the leader and every employee. Relationship growth with all five constituencies. Growth in value provided. Growth of capabilities, of thinking, and sometimes into a more evolved mission. 

Successful companies are profitable today; businesses that last are continually perceived as integral to a healthy future. That confidence does not reflect technical capabilities, but rather attitude, exploration, and sharing, and true partnering to develop expertise in anticipating and addressing opportunities. 

A significant distinction is the commitment to serve the mission by always preparing the organization for passing the company baton to the next generation of leaders. “Don’t drop the baton” is very different thinking from “if it hits the ground, we’ll just run a different race.” 

That commitment is an eternal challenge for the enduring business. It relies on developing strong leaders with an unwavering focus on mission and core values, never forgetting that baton. It can all be ended by one poorly prepared or chosen leader not quickly addressed. The mission is bigger than any one person.

What do you think of Rebecca's perspective? Does your company leverage profits in alignment with core values?

Are Evolving Stakeholder Expectations Affecting Your Business, Its Products, and Its Leadership?

In January, Raj Aseervatham published a thought-provoking book entitled Leading Tomorrow: How Effective Leaders Change Paradigms, Build Responsible Brands, and Transform Employees, which addresses the evolving expectations of the stakeholders -- such as, customers, investors, society, governments, and employees -- regarding businesses and their products and how leadership must respond.  These stakeholders are increasingly making choices about if or how they support businesses – through the purchase of their products and services, shareholdings and financing, regulatory approvals, and even experiences working for them – based on not just what a business does, but how it does it.

Raj's book considers how the emerging generation of leaders must change paradigms and transform their employees to do more than just operate a business. It examines how to effect culture shifts that are necessary to innovate businesses so that they simultaneously meet market needs while meeting stakeholder expectations on concerns as varied as ethical business conduct, labor practices, climate change, responsible use of diminishing natural resources, and contribution to socio-economic challenges in their market catchments.

When I spoke with Raj this month, I asked him: "How are stakeholder expectations changing regarding supporting businesses? What paradigms must leaders change to meet these new expectations?" 

Here is his complete answer:

The three most significant support groups for successful businesses are customers, investors, and employees. These stakeholder groups are part of a larger ecosystem; our increasingly interconnected, increasingly knowledgeable society, and the communities of which we are a part. 

Societal awareness of the environmental, social and governance (ESG) problems that society faces grows daily. As the world’s population increases, these problems grow and exacerbate each other. Climate change, ecological breakdown, water contamination, air pollution, pandemics, corruption, infractions of human rights in the supply chain, gender and cultural discrimination, and many others take a compounding toll on society. 

Unsurprisingly, an increasing proportion of stakeholders demand to know what businesses are doing to diminish these problems. They disassociate from those businesses that worsen the problems and migrate to better-performing competitors. Their insights improve continually. Greenwashing and PR are more easily seen through. 

As this awareness extends across and deepens within society, customers, investors and employees are making more informed choices about who they will buy from, who they will invest in, and who they will purposefully work for. These trends amplify as older generations give way to younger generations and new values supersede old ones. Commodity markets, money markets, and human resource markets adapt to these inexorable trends. 

Business leaders are seeing these ESG issues as the new frontier of strategic management. Responsible businesses are more likely to sustainably prosper. 

Leaders must now understand the myriad issues and own the most important ones in the context of their business stakeholders and business strategy. Then they must authentically lead their employees to meet or exceed rapidly changing stakeholder expectations of responsible business practice. Growing and harnessing such societally attuned business cultures will increasingly define successful business leaders. 

Like any journey of authentic and transformative leadership, the first steps are taken within the leader. This book provides illumination to guide those first critical steps to leading tomorrow.

What do you think of Raj's perspective? Have you seen a shift in your customers' and stakeholders' expectations? What steps are you taking to address these new expectations? 

Does Your Organization Suffer from Leadership Without Leaders?

In December, John Varney published an important book entitled Leadership as Meaning-Making Take the Hero's Journey to Transformation, which takes a fresh look at leadership as a systemic shared phenomenon. It is one aspect of the evolutionary principle of bringing people to maturity as human beings – transforming the immature through purposeful adventure. 

I spoke with John this month and asked him: “What are the most common misconceptions about leadership and its meaning?” Here is his complete answer:

Leadership without leaders. 

We are conditioned to think of leadership as what leaders do – and hence to look around for leaders to help solve the great issues of the day.  But this is leadership only as it manifests through control and command hierarchies of power. Such leadership consigns the rest of us to be followers – subservient and powerless. Followers are there only to do the work and sustain the status of those who presume to lead. Followership is disempowering and often demeaning. As a follower, you do what is expected of you (your so-called "duty") and take the blame for any shortfall. 

This kind of leadership sustains a whole industry of leadership training and development. This, we might cynically observe, teaches managers the manipulative techniques that get the followers to do their bidding, willingly and unquestioningly. Leaders are sometimes popular because they do our thinking for us and absolve us of feelings of responsibility. 

A very different kind of leadership is latent in the relationships between us and comes to the fore when we come together in common cause. This is leadership as a flow of energy and resources directed by our sense of purpose. It engages all of us and all our talents and potential. It is leadership in which all participate, stepping into and out of the flow of energy and resources (the value-adding stream) as we intuitively respond to our calling. 

Both modes of leadership have their place and their value but only one leads to freedom and wholeness. In self-organising communities of practice, individuals grow inwardly as they realise their potential in service to their elective mission. Nobody is pulling their strings as they discover and pursue their freely chosen purpose in life. This is leadership as meaning-making. As I say in the book, “Perhaps the hiatus of the pandemic will enable us to show that a more organic and holistic way of being is not only possible but is more wholesome and fulfilling."

How do you define "leadership" in your organization? How has it affected workplace culture? Has it evolved past "command and control"?