The New Leadership Paradigm

Since its founding in 1992, publishing company Berrett-Koehler (BK) has strived to advance a new paradigm of leadership to replace the old, dominant, hierarchical, command-and-control paradigm. Founder and senior editor, Steve Piersanti, claims that much of BK's success is due to putting this new paradigm of leadership into practice.

Piersanti created a reference chart where he lays out ten dimensions of the old command-and-control leadership paradigm and ten corresponding dimensions of the new paradigm, which might be called “shared leadership,” “servant leadership,” or “collaborative leadership.”

These ten dimensions were drawn from concepts in many BK books. But they also reflect personal experiences Piersanti has had in his career over the years as well as many other experiences interacting with numerous organizations. He believes that we've all had our own experiences that reveal the shortcomings of traditional leadership approaches and the possibilities of new leadership approaches.

Here’s a sneak peak of some of the principles of New Leadership Paradigm:

• The organization is viewed as a network, not a pyramid: power is disbursed.

• Everyone is a leader, not a select few: utilize people's strengths.

• Collaboration is essential, not the exception: leadership through mutual respect.

• Purpose is what drives a company, not just profit: motivation, not money.

• Leaders are here to serve, not be served: everyone benefits.

Click here to download Piersanti's reference chart!