Source: Nicolas Frangos

What kind of leader are you? Are you bold? Are you creatively explosive? Do you break the rules (whilst explaining why, and creating new better ones) challenging the status quo?

Leaders of today are much more conscious of the threat of disruption, and are looking for ways to be the disruptors instead of being disrupted.

As a leader, it's easy to operate within your comfort zone after a period of stability, when things are going well, and the day-to-day operations of a structure already established, are moving along without more than the sporadic small problem only creating wavelets in the surface. But leading this way it's average leadership at best.

Being disruptive is exactly the difference between leader and manager.

A manager motivates and brings together the teams. A leader exemplifies a vision and transforms business. Both are important, but if you really want to transform — in the age of digital transformation — you need an exceptional leadership.

So how can you make disruption work for you? By getting a little uncomfortable.

Here's my understanding of the attributes of disruptive leaders:

  • They are business savvy with highly refined interpersonal, collaboration, and influencing skills.
  • The future they seek is bold, compelling, and captures the very essence of winning.
  • They take time to build trust and bring people along, speaking authentically and operating with consistency and integrity.
  • They have intense and competitive ambition, willingness to take risks and embrace ambiguity coupled with curiosity, empathy.
  • They have a growth mindset, and focus on the positive change of their organization (How to achieve effective organizational change, implementing inspirational Leadership).
  • They are contrarians - entrepreneurial minded people, leading not by the bureaucratic book of rules but by thinking and behaving in unconventional ways, at the speed of innovation, creating the new and the different.
  • They are game-changers, decisive with endless stamina, creativity and tenacity, relentlessly pursuing the truth.

Leaders of the future will need to embrace change and innovation and make their business disruption ready. They will need to re-invent their-selves being intellectually versatile, highly authentic and reflective, continually improving, upgrading, being entrepreneurial and agile, seizing new market opportunities.

Forward thinking leaders, I believe, they must disrupt and execute simultaneously, whilst giving space to employees to innovate and get involved with entrepreneurial acceleration work, creating market-leading solutions.

Disruptive leadership style is only effective if it ties to business strategy and targets. Leaders of tomorrow will be the ones with the ability to keep balance between structure and innovation, between achieving their goals and exploring the market for new opportunities.

In my opinion balance between disruption and pragmatism will be the leadership trend for years to come.

Nicolas Frangos