Systems Leadership — What Does it Mean?

Systems leadership is leadership that comes in to change things from a systems perspective on a systems level. But what does that mean?

Systems explain the interconnectivity of things. Look at the water department. There are engineers, people who conduct the piping, there are city analysts, politicians, oceanographers, etc. Changing something about a city’s water system would require change and leadership from a systems level.

Let me break it down further. Systems leadership is a multi-disciplinary leadership. It will require more than one, in most cases. Sometimes you will have the conundrum, the double or triple Ph. D with multiple certifications and specializations who can come in and consult on multiple levels.

However, most of the time, it is going to require a team. A team of scientists, analysts, consultants, engineers, etc. You get the picture.

Systems leadership is another, deeper, level of leadership. It requires more than cognitive, more than behavioral, more than psychological, more than technological, mechanical, engineering, it may require all of these and more.

As I stated, systems leadership speaks to the interconnectivity of independent systems. This means that not only do we need the specialists in those respective areas, but also the specialists of systems…