Leading by Condition
How to Choose the Right Leadership Approach for the Moment You’re In
Every group, organization, or movement is an ecosystem: alive, interdependent, and constantly shifting. Sometimes it needs containment; sometimes it needs spaciousness. Sometimes it needs urgency; sometimes it needs rest.
Your job as a changemaker isn’t to impose your preferred way of leading, but to read the conditions and respond wisely.
I have come up with 10 common (and challenging!) situations changemakers encounter.
This guide shows you how to recognize what the system needs in each situation, and how to meet that need whether or not your authority is formally acknowledged.
1. When the System Is in Crisis or Chaos
What’s happening: Uncertainty is high. People are disoriented. Fear and confusion are clouding decision-making.
What’s needed: Direction, calm, and containment. Not debate.
Best styles: Directive leadership + Pace-Setting leadership
When your authority is formally acknowledged:
Step into command presence, but stay grounded. Offer short, clear instructions and frequent communication. Set priorities and eliminate noise. Your steadiness regulates the group’s nervous system.Create safety through structure, not control, like a dam channeling water without stopping the flow.
When your authority is not formally acknowledged:
Influence through clarity. Model calm and decisiveness in your own actions. People anchor to those who seem composed. Provide useful next steps rather than criticism. Help others orient themselves.
Watch for: Taking over or creating dependency. Directive energy must end once the storm passes.
Metaphor: Be the lighthouse: visible, stable, guiding others to steer themselves.
2. When People Are Disengaged or Apathetic
What’s happening: Energy is low, purpose is foggy, people have stopped believing their effort matters.
What’s needed: Emotional reconnection and shared vision.
Best styles: Charismatic leadership + Transformational leadership
When your authority is formally acknowledged:
Reignite meaning. Tell stories that connect individual work to collective purpose. Celebrate small wins. Let your own enthusiasm be contagious, but genuine. Focus on possibility, not guilt.When your authority is not formally acknowledged:
Spark curiosity and optimism through conversation. Ask visionary questions: “What would this look like if it worked?” Share inspiration in small ways, for example: art, language, kindness. Influence by reminding people why they care.
Watch for: Over-reliance on charisma or passion; energy fades if it’s not followed by structure.
Metaphor: Be the fire-keeper: tending embers into flame, keeping warmth alive until others remember their spark.
3. When Morale Is Fragile or Grief Is Heavy
What’s happening: Loss, burnout, or disillusionment have drained the group. People are present but tender.
What’s needed: Compassion, rest, and re-grounding in relationship.
Best styles: Servant leadership + Participative leadership
When your authority is formally acknowledged:
Lead by softening pace. Name the grief openly. Create safe containers for reflection and rest. Ask what people need before pushing for outcomes. Model vulnerability without collapsing into despair.When your authority is not formally acknowledged:
Offer care through presence. Listen more than you speak. Be the person others can trust with truth. You don’t need permission to bring gentleness back into the space. Small gestures can shift culture.
Watch for: Confusing care with passivity. Grief processed together eventually becomes fuel for renewal.
Metaphor: The forest floor: rich with decay, quietly composting loss into new soil.
This is a community of people thinking deeply and feeling a lot. You’re invited to be part of that. No pressure, just honesty.
4. When the Group Is Fractured or Polarized
What’s happening: Tension and mistrust dominate. People are talking at each other, not with each other.
What’s needed: Reconnection, shared purpose, and slow rebuilding of trust.
Best styles: Participative leadership + Interactional leadership
When your authority is formally acknowledged:
Call the group back to shared values. Facilitate structured dialogue. Name the conflict without assigning blame. Balance transparency with containment. Too much emotion too fast can re-injure the group.When your authority is not formally acknowledged:
Influence relationally. Listen to multiple sides and reflect understanding. Build quiet bridges between people. Sometimes leadership looks like hosting small, safe conversations in the margins.
Watch for: Trying to “fix” division through logic. Trust grows through relationship, not persuasion.
Metaphor: The mycelial network: invisible threads connecting roots beneath the surface, restoring communication after disruption.
5. When Things Are Stagnant or Stuck
What’s happening: The system is looping. Meetings without movement, ideas without action.
What’s needed: Fresh energy, experimentation, and forward motion.
Best styles: Transformational leadership + Pace-Setting leadership
When your authority is formally acknowledged:
Name the stagnation openly. Set one bold but achievable goal and move on it quickly to build momentum. Celebrate progress visibly to re-energize the group.When your authority is not formally acknowledged:
Start where you can. Prototype something small. Energy attracts attention. When others see movement, they’ll join. Don’t wait for permission to experiment.
Watch for: Moving for movement’s sake. Momentum should serve purpose, not ego.
Metaphor: The spring thaw: pressure building beneath ice until the current starts to move again.
6. When Burnout or Overwhelm Are Rising
What’s happening: People are stretched thin. The system is overextended and running on fumes.
What’s needed: Rest, decentralization, and care.
Best styles: Laissez-Faire leadership + Servant leadership
When your authority is formally acknowledged:
Slow things down. Redistribute work and autonomy. Cancel nonessential meetings. Protect recovery time. Demonstrate that rest is not laziness.When your authority is not formally acknowledged:
Model sustainable pace yourself. Step back from frantic cycles and normalize slowing down. Encourage collective care and boundaries. Even small withdrawals of urgency shift the culture.
Watch for: Swinging into neglect. Freedom must be paired with care.
Metaphor: The tide: retreating to gather strength before returning with renewed force.
7. When Creativity and Innovation Are Needed
What’s happening: The old solutions aren’t working. The system needs new thinking but is afraid to fail.
What’s needed: Space, trust, and experimentation.
Best styles: Laissez-Faire leadership + Participative leadership
When your authority is formally acknowledged:
Create psychological safety for risk-taking. Set broad direction, then step aside. Protect teams from premature judgment. Make curiosity a collective norm.When authority is not formally acknowledged:
Seed experimentation informally. Ask questions that open possibilities: “What if we tried…?” Prototype quietly and share what works.
Watch for: Mistaking brainstorming for change. Insight must eventually become action.
Metaphor: The pollinator: moving freely between ideas, cross-fertilizing what might bloom next.
8. When Accountability or Follow-Through Are Slipping
What’s happening: Promises are vague, deadlines drift, and integrity is eroding.
What’s needed: Clear expectations, boundaries, and renewed reliability.
Best styles: Transactional leadership + Directive leadership
When authority is formally acknowledged:
Re-establish agreements. Be explicit about who owns what, by when. Follow through on consequences with fairness. People relax when they know where responsibility lies.When authority is not formally acknowledged:
Model dependability. Keep your own commitments impeccably. Gently invite others to clarity: “Can we agree on a next step?”
Watch for: Letting structure harden into control. Accountability works best when paired with care.
Metaphor: The riverbank: firm enough to guide the water, flexible enough to bend with floods.
9. When External Resistance or Opposition Is High
What’s happening: Pushback, criticism, or active obstruction threaten the mission.
What’s needed: Steady courage and disciplined focus on shared purpose.
Best styles: Transformational leadership + Directive leadership
When authority is formally acknowledged:
Hold the vision firmly. Communicate strategy clearly. Protect your people from unnecessary conflict. Remind them what you’re for, not just what you’re against.When authority is not formally acknowledged:
Anchor in values. Model calm persistence. Offer a positive alternative rather than escalating confrontation. Influence hearts and narratives more than policies.
Watch for: Fighting every battle. Choose where impact is possible.
Metaphor: The mountain: unmoved by wind or weather, but slowly reshaping them through presence.
10. When Momentum Is Building and Leadership Needs to Scale
What’s happening: Growth is accelerating; the work is expanding beyond one person or core team.
What’s needed: Distribution of power and cultivation of new leaders.
Best styles: Interactional leadership + Servant leadership
When authority is formally acknowledged:
Shift from doing to teaching. Delegate real responsibility and mentor others. Build systems that outlast you. Trust others to interpret the vision in their own way.When authority is not formally acknowledged:
Practice shared leadership. Elevate peers. Encourage collaboration between emerging leaders. Influence culture more than control outcomes.
Watch for: Hoarding credit or micromanaging. Scaled leadership is about replication, not control.
Metaphor: The flock of geese: rotating leaders, each taking the headwind for a time, none carrying the journey alone.
I read every reply. You don’t need to say anything “profound,” just write what’s true for you. Hit ‘reply’ or send me a message below.
Effective changemakers don’t choose one way to lead.
They sense, they adjust, they respond.
They move like water, root like trees, and adapt like evolution itself.
When you hold authority, treat it as a resource to be shared.
When you don’t, let the clarity of your example make authority unnecessary.
FYI: Each week I share stories through For People and Planet, a newsletter focused on climate solutions and hope for the future. You can find it here if you’d like to follow along: forpeopleandpla.net
