Mrs F., head of department in an IT company, presents her plan for a strategic approach to a difficult negotiation, but colleague X brushes off her proposal in a harsh tone. Mrs F then flies off the handle and tells him off in front of the whole team. This is not the first time this has happened to her; she is considered unpredictable. As a result, hardly anyone dares to express their own opinion. This weakens the overall team performance. A fatal situation for Mrs F. in her role as a manager.

For many leaders, it’s a daily reality: They are under a great deal of pressure. This is no coincidence, as job requirements and the complexity of their work have been rapidly increasing in the last few years. In addition, they must adapt to working conditions that have significantly changed in the hybrid context. They must develop solutions to problems that have never even existed before. Here, the traditional understanding of roles, where the leader is seen as a confident decision-maker who always has a solution at hand, no longer applies. Much rather, it’s essential to make use of the “know-how” of every member of the team, to create new ideas and solutions to pending problems. In theory, this seems obvious to most, but at the same time, the old understanding of roles in leadership is still very present – both the expectation within the minds of many leaders themselves and an expectation from employees who still wait for their boss to lead the way and tell them what to do.