Why traditional leadership training falls short and what to do instead?

Leadership has traditionally been viewed as the domain of individual heroes - visionary figures who set direction, align their followers, and provide motivation. Theories such as Kotter’s stepwise models and transformational leadership frameworks reinforce this notion, portraying leaders as charismatic individuals who single-handedly drive progress. These ideas assume that leaders can predict the future and control others. However, this perspective has been widely critiqued for oversimplifying reality.

Anton Obholzer and Vega Zagier Roberts, drawing on the Tavistock model (which integrates psychoanalysis and systems theories), highlight the emotional dimensions of leadership. Work generates stress and anxiety (especially if it mean coming into contact with a client group who are distressed and/or disturbed). Leaders play a crucial role in containing anxieties and perceptions within an organisation, maintaining boundaries, clarifying roles and responsibilities, and enabling colleagues to think and work in service of the organisation’s purpose. This means leadership is as much about managing emotions, group dynamics, and collective perceptions (such as transferences and projections) as it is about strategy and decision-making.

Instead of being the product of one individual, as thinkers like Kevin Flinn and Simon Western say, leadership is a social, relational, and emergent phenomenon. Leadership is not just about personal traits but about the interactions between formal and informal leaders and their collaborators. Simon Western for instance suggests leadership is a psycho-social influencing dynamic. Leaders influence and are influenced by their teams and colleagues, creating a dynamic where leadership exists in the space between people rather than residing solely in an individual. It is shaped by group dynamics, organisational structures and broader societal factors.

Moreover, leadership is inherently political. It involves contesting and negotiating power, ideas, beliefs, and values. Leaders form coalitions and networks, seek legitimacy and credibility from stakeholders, and may challenge established norms to bring about meaningful change. This political dimension is often overlooked in traditional leadership models but is essential to understanding how leadership functions in practice.

Leadership experiences are shaped by gender, race, and socio-economic status, among other visible and invisible factors. For example, the "glass cliff" phenomenon demonstrates that women and people of colour are often appointed to senior leadership roles during crises and high-risk situations, where the likelihood of failure is higher.

Leadership is not just about making bold decisions; it is also about knowing when to embrace uncertainty. Negative capability, the ability to sit with ambiguity without rushing to premature conclusions - is a critical leadership quality. Effective leaders do not always provide immediate answers; instead, they create spaces for experimentation, learning, and reflection. They balance accountability with learning, fostering environments where their teams can navigate complexity.

Additionally, leaders act as "storytellers-in-chief," crafting narratives that help organisations navigate change. However, this must be done carefully - an over-reliance on abstract visions or managerial jargon can disconnect leaders from the lived experiences of their teams.

Leaders often act rationally in the self-interest of their agencies, sometimes at the expense of collective outcomes. To counteract this, they must function as "boundary spanners", working across sectors, organisations, and communities to identify shared interests and foster collaboration. By building coalitions, framing issues effectively, and inspiring change, leaders can amplify collective power and facilitate meaningful change.

If leadership is not merely about individual traits but about relationships, power, and context, how can we improve leadership capacity? The answer lies in embracing experiential, relational, and reflective approaches.

The foundations of leadership start early. Quality education at secondary and higher levels plays a crucial role in shaping leadership values and behaviours. Early exposure to leadership principles, collaborative learning, and critical thinking fosters future leaders who can navigate complexity and uncertainty. Educational experiences also build networks that facilitate collaboration and instil progressive values beyond traditional work settings.

Many leadership development programmes focus on training individuals (albeit in groups) to adopt specific behaviours and competencies through short-term, theory-heavy programmes. These often rely on rigid frameworks and risk becoming coercive - promoting conformity to managerialist ideologies rather than fostering critical thinking. While such training can be useful, it has limitations.

Effective leadership development requires sense-making, reflexivity, and practical judgement. This is best achieved through approaches rooted in the realities of organisational life - those that encourage participants to reflect on their lived experiences and challenge dominant ideas. Long-term, context-sensitive investments are more likely to yield sustainable leadership outcomes than one-off or short-term interventions. Leadership development is most effective when embedded in everyday organisational practices.

Rather than relying on rigid frameworks, leaders might benefit from developing adaptable ‘rules of thumb’ for navigating specific circumstances. Psychoanalytic and relational approaches can help leaders understand the unconscious and under-acknowledged dynamics within teams and organisations, fostering deeper awareness and improved connection.

There is no single set of activities that universally improve leadership. However, the most effective approaches foster reflexive curiosity, sense-making, and practical judgement. Some methods that support this include:

• Group relations conferences, role consultation, and personal therapy help leaders understand themselves within groups and explore how group dynamics shape leadership.

• Balint groups are facilitated, reflective peer groups which originate in healthcare settings to explore the emotional and relational aspects of their work with clients and/or patients.

• Action learning encourages collaborative inquiry into real-life challenges, promoting problem-solving and reflection.

• Coaching helps leaders reflect on their unique contexts and navigate specific challenges.

• Theatre and experiential methods: highlight the relational and performative aspects of leadership, helping leaders become more attuned to their interactions.

• Reflexive discussion helps participants examine their own assumptions, beliefs, and roles within a given situation.

• 360-degree feedback provides insight into how leaders are perceived by others, helping to enhance reflexivity.

However, none of these are a silver bullet, with each having their limitations.

Although leadership training is often conducted in groups, the groups rarely work as teams. Participants frequently return to unchanged environments that do not reinforce the changes they experienced during training. Without organisational buy-in or systemic change, new ideas and motivations are quickly "knocked out" by the status quo. To create lasting impact, leadership development is better focused on whole teams or organisations, embedding learning within broader organisational change efforts.

Leadership development works best as a shared endeavour: strengthening networks and enabling groups to lead collaboratively rather than reinforcing hierarchies. By moving away from outdated, individualistic models and embracing relational, ethical, and adaptive leadership development, we can build leadership capacity that is truly fit for the complexities of today’s world.

Organisations are better off investing in experiential, collective, and reflexive leadership development practices, ensuring that leaders at all levels are equipped to navigate uncertainty, engage with power, and facilitate change (and stability). In doing so, leadership becomes not just the responsibility of a few but a shared and evolving practice that benefits entire organisations and communities.