Melis Senova
Leadership isn’t evolving, it’s leaping
As I work with many leaders in many organisations, I’m often left with a lingering, unsettling feeling.
Do we know how to respond to what’s ahead of us?
Leadership seems to be struggling. There’s more dysfunction, more conflict, more ‘formal HR processes’. This is not because the people in leadership are not well intentioned, it’s because the models we’ve normalised no longer serve us.
We are all contributing to this struggle. We have elected leaders with little regard for truth, factual accuracy, or relational maturity. Many model behaviours that are juvenile, rude, corrupt, and profoundly disconnected from the collective wellbeing. Meanwhile, the institutions we once looked up to—governments, organisations, systems of education and health—are increasingly met with distrust.
As a society, we are more segregated than ever. More polarised AND more disembodied.
We are influenced more by the algorithms we scroll through, than the deep work that ought to shape us.
I often think about my son, and his friends in this context. They will inherit a world grappling with climate collapse, AI-driven disruption, geopolitical volatility, mental health epidemics, and continued social fragmentation. The current perspective of leadership feels wildly inadequate to appropriate respond to this complexity.
And still, we persist with outdated frames.
We look for the same old signals: confidence, charisma, capability, control.
As if those will carry us through.
They won’t.
For too long, we’ve selected leaders based on traits that look good on paper, but often fail us in practice:
- Strategic brilliance without emotional depth
- Decisiveness without self-awareness
- Performance at the expense of people
- Executive presence as a mask for control
- Charisma that silences dissent
- Resilience mistaken for emotional numbing
- Communication as spin, not connection
These traits may have built past empires, but they won’t guide us through what’s coming.
Not when the world is burning, trust is eroding, and the systems around us are as fragile as the ones within us.
To meet this moment, we need more than an upgrade.
We need a leap—a radical shift toward a different kind of leadership.
One that is less about control and certainty, and more about becoming fully, fiercely human.
A while ago, an old friend and mentor of mine, Marty Neumeier wrote a book called Metaskills. I recently revisited this work, and combined with decades of experience walking alongside leaders, here are the three qualities I believe we must begin selecting and shaping for:
1. Relational Courage (Feeling)
In a world that is increasingly virtual, transactional, and polarised, real relational skill has become rare.
To lead now is to be emotionally literate and somatically grounded. To listen beyond words. To hold discomfort without retreat. To engage in real dialogue, listening with the pure intention to understand.
Relational courage is the ability to stay present in the face of complexity, rupture, and heightened emotion.
It means not outsourcing conflict to the ‘peacemaker’ in your team or collapsing into silence, avoidance or defensiveness. It means doing the inner work to remain open, curious, committed, even when every part of you wants to shut down.
This is not “soft.” It’s discipline. And in the years to come, it will define a leader’s effectiveness more than any credential.
2. Systems Wisdom (Seeing)
We no longer have the luxury of solving problems in isolation.
Everything is connected—ecologies, economies, psyches, supply chains. Leaders must be able to see the system: to recognise patterns, name dynamics, anticipate consequences.
But systems wisdom goes beyond intelligence.
It requires humility and a peripheral long term view.
The best leaders I know are not the ones with the sharpest minds, highest degrees from the most prestigious schools. They are the ones who know their place in the web—who understand that their actions ripple out, and that they are never acting alone.
This kind of perception takes practice. It’s slow, often invisible, and deeply felt.
But it’s necessary to know how to lead in service of life—not just a strategy.
3. Generative Imagination (Making)
We are in the in-between (kind of like the upside down without all the grey). A time where we haven’t left the old systems, though we know they are shaky and the new systems feel too edgy, or not well formed enough to catch us.
In this in-between, we need leaders who can imagine otherwise.
Not just critique what’s broken, but articulate what’s possible. Not optimise the existing system, but shape culture, language, and stories of the new.
This is the metaskill of making, where dreaming meets doing.
It’s creative, messy, and non-linear, and those who are comfortable in the unknown will become the most sought-after leaders of our time.
In amongst everything, people stopping to help each other, to be kind to each other, to take care of each other, has become an act of defiance. It’s radical and revolutionary to put another person’s needs before your own. This makes me feel sad, my heart aches as I connect with this.
It seems its becoming harder to rely on ‘solid character’ and good intentions to guide our organisations, our communities, or our futures. We need people who are awake to the moment and willing to do the quiet, difficult work to meet it.
The leaders we need now will not be perfect. But they will be humble, curious, courageous and committed to growing alongside the world they are here to serve.
I’ve sat across from many leaders at the edge of their own becoming. Not sure who they are anymore. Not sure how to lead without burning out or breaking down. And I’ve watched them turn inward, (reluctantly and painfully I admit) and find a way through that is more honest, more human, and more sustainable.
This is what gives me hope.
Because no matter the systems we’ve inherited, leadership is still a deeply personal act. And it’s one we can choose to reimagine, together.
Who is Melis Senova?
I am a coach and advisor to design leaders, C-level executives and leaders in government. My work in This Human is dedicated to the next generation of designers and leaders.
When you’re ready, here’s how I can help you:
Building confidence in your practice is essential for progress. Get started for free with this workbook.
This human community is a place for you to land, connect and learn. It’s free, and it’s yours.