Today’s key leadership question is not “What’s the right way to lead?”

Instead, more fitting to the times in which we live, we must ask: “What does our situation require?”, “Who can fill any gaps?”, and “What are the implications for the organization and its people?”

Leadership is no longer about fixed styles or traits. It’s about flexibility and responding to what’s happening around us.

HR must help shift thinking away from outdated leadership models and towards more adaptive, responsive approaches.

Why context matters more than style

There is no single ideal leadership style. What works in one setting, such as a fast-growing tech start-up, may fail in another, like a long-established regulated business.

Many organizations still rely on the idea of the ‘ideal leader’, but this approach belongs to a more predictable past-it served us well, providing clear development pathways and career certainties.

But the future needs a fresh approach. Periodically examine what each part of the business needs.

This means asking: Are we hiring and developing leaders who can take us forward?

Are we recognizing the differences between departments, cultures, and stages of organizational growth?

An alert leadership depends on having a clear and up-to-date view of context.

In this way, a more adaptive approach to leadership pays off.

Five principles of adaptive leadership

Context shapes leadership: Leaders must first understand the situation they are in before choosing how to act. HR should support this by encouraging flexible thinking and situational awareness.

Culture matters: Leadership success depends heavily on organizational culture. HR must hire and develop leaders who either slot well into the culture or can challenge it in constructive ways.

Strong teams beat hero leaders: The organizations fit for the future build leadership teams with a mix of strengths. HR should focus on team balance rather than relying on single individuals.

Unusual leaders can bring innovation: Leaders with different backgrounds and styles often generate fresh thinking. HR must be open to candidates who don’t fit traditional molds.

Adaptability is key: The ability to change and learn is now a core leadership skill. HR should measure and develop adaptability alongside technical and strategic ability.

Turning adaptive leadership into reality

Traditional leadership models are often built around fixed traits.

Adaptive leadership, by contrast, focuses on understanding the environment and responding to it.

This means moving away from rigid competency frameworks and instead use flexible, role-based profiles.

These profiles should consider the organization’s stage of growth, how fast things are changing, and how complex the environment is.

Diagnostic tools can help match leadership capabilities to specific needs. Some leaders who have succeeded in the past may not be right for the future.

Given the fading away of old certainties, learning through real-world experience is more effective than just classroom training.

Leaders learn best when they face ambiguity, pressure, and complexity.

HR should provide learning opportunities like job rotations, live business challenges, and simulations of crisis situations.

These stretch experiences help leaders build resilience, adaptability, and the ability to lead in uncertain times.

Creating a culture that supports adaptability

Leaders cannot thrive in rigid, risk-averse cultures. For adaptive leadership to succeed, the wider organization must support experimentation, openness, and shared decision-making.

HR can help by running culture audits, encouraging psychological safety, and changing reward systems.

Instead of only rewarding individual performance in silos, organizations should reward teamwork and cross-functional contributions.

Governance models also need to shift. Distributed decision-making—such as agile teams or leadership through collaboration—supports more flexible and responsive leadership.

Most performance systems still reward stability over adaptability. This reinforces outdated models of leadership.

HR should update performance metrics to include how well leaders manage uncertainty, influence others, and adapt to new demands.

New tools such as adaptive scorecards or fit assessments can help. Succession planning should focus on inclusive potential and recognize those who have grown through non-traditional paths.

Leadership development is no longer about identifying a few exceptional individuals. It’s about creating systems that support ongoing learning and change and this should apply to a wider group of people.

An action plan for HR

HR plays a central role in embedding adaptive leadership. This can be done through three main actions:

Redesign leadership models: Update leadership frameworks to include contextual intelligence and adaptability. Use real-life scenarios, project rotations, and challenges as development tools.

Align culture and incentives: Promote psychological safety, feedback, and reward learning from failure. Create an environment where new thinking and experimentation are welcomed.

Update evaluation and support: Use tools that measure how well leaders adapt to change. Support new leadership structures, such as shared leadership models and decentralized decision-making.

Overcoming common challenges

Without skillful management, introducing adaptive leadership approaches can cause friction, especially in organizations used to clear hierarchies and fixed roles.

Leaders might resist flexible expectations. Senior leaders may feel their authority is being challenged.

HR must be proactive and lead the way. Start with small teams who can test and model new behaviors. Provide coaching and reflection tools for leaders adjusting to new roles. Engage senior leaders early on and support their shift in mindset.

History offers warnings: Kodak, Blockbuster, and Nokia didn’t fail because of a lack of resources—but because they didn’t adapt, they continued along familiar paths. When top leadership is rigid, the whole organization risks falling behind.

Conversely, new ways may be led by those at first perceived as “oddballs”.

Breaking free from past culture and behaviors, here are some leaders who have succeeded by adopting quite a different stance.

They include:

Alan Yentob (BBC): Took creative risks and crossed boundaries, shifting from hands-on programming to executive roles. By no means a conventional bureaucrat, defying the norms of operational and management disciplines, he succeeded through boldness and adaptability. His legacy shows that leadership thrives in different forms, supported by audacity, networking and the courage to balance inspiration and accountability.

Steve Jobs (Apple): Moved from an erratic, controlling style to a more collaborative, strategic and more emotionally intelligent approach during Apple’s most innovative phase.

Malala Yousafzai (educational campaigner): Though not from the corporate world, she successfully navigated powerful global institutions while staying true to her values.

Satya Nadella (Microsoft): Working collaboratively, he strategically shifted the company’s focus from Windows to cloud computing and AI, renewing growth. Nadella pushed Microsoft away from a rigid, know-it-all culture to a more open, learning-oriented one, encouraging curiosity over certainty, and learning from failures.

Each of these leaders adapted to changing demands instead of sticking to one leadership style.

What this means for HR and L&D

HR must take the lead in changing how leaders are developed.

That means:

• Defining leadership based on the organization’s unique needs.
• Challenging the idea of a one-size-fits-all leader.
• Offering tailored development through mentoring, coaching, and feedback.
• Linking development to succession planning and business strategy.
• Promoting learning and inclusive career growth—even for those without formal leadership titles.

HR’s role is front and center here. The future will benefit from this proactive stance.

Tomorrow’s leaders must be flexible, collaborative, and ready to grow.

HR must create the systems and culture that support these qualities. That means recruiting for potential, encouraging cross-context learning, and building leadership into everyday business.

Leadership development must now be:

• Context-driven
• Experiential
• Inclusive
• Supported by new systems and policies

Organizations should move away from selecting and developing a small group of “high potentials.”

Instead, they should ask: What’s next? How do we adapt and grow? HR is well-placed to lead this shift to make adaptability part of the organization’s DNA.