Certain Uncertainty

6Leading with the Head and Heart: The Modern Leader Our World Needs Today

Kirstin Ferguson

This century, and even more recently through the pandemic, our notion of leadership has been turned on its head. No longer do we expect or want our leaders to be wise, heroic figureheads with decades of experience and who may have inherited their place in the world.

Our world needs modern leaders who recognize leadership itself is the privilege and not for the privileged few.

Just as our personal histories—including our origin stories, educational background, gender, sexuality, disabilities—define our individual leadership, so too does the history of who we have celebrated as leaders in the past. The idea that only some men were entitled to lead has driven our views of leadership for the past two centuries. Nineteenth‐century Scottish historian, essayist, and philosopher Thomas Carlyle's Great Man theory rested on the assumption that all great leaders are born with certain traits allowing them to lead by instinct and to wield authority and power. So unique were the traits these men were born with, and so strong their power to inspire, they deserved to lead; the world needed such great men at the helm.

It has only been in recent years we have ushered in a new era of leadership recognizing leaders must lead from both the head and the heart. Corporate leaders like Satya Nadella, Marc Benioff, the late Arne Sorenson, along with former New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Ukraine's ...