Modes of Leadership

David Wilkinson described four modes of leadership in his 2006 book, The Ambiguity Advantage.

In situational leadership theory, styles of leadership refer to behaviors that a leader should engage with in different situations. By comparison, modes are different systems or levels of thinking, logic, and development from which people, and particularly leaders, view the world. Individuals either stay in one mode all of their life or move from one mode to another, in order, as they mature and develop. There is evidence that different people start naturally in different modes depending on their degree of maturity.

The four modes of leadership reflect differing views of the world and therefore different ways of seeing and solving problems, based on the work of Ronald A. Heifetz:

There are four validated modes. Each mode describes a levels of ability to deal with increasing degrees of ambiguity and complexity.

Philosopher Eric Thomas Weber suggests a new mode of leadership, which he calls "democratic leadership." This mode of leadership abandons the assumption that "leadership is a special or unique class of persons." Rather, leadership is viewed as a process "and one in which all citizens can engage." Weber combines the radical democracy of John Dewey and the Virtue ethics of Plato to explicate this new way to conceptualize leadership.

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