Leadership in the 21st Century: Classical vs Modern Leadership Report

This report provides a comprehensive overview of 21st-century leadership, contrasting it with classical leadership styles. It begins by defining leadership and exploring key competencies such as communication, strategic thinking, innovation, talent development, and cross-cultural intelligence. The report then delves into various 21st-century leadership theories including servant, charismatic, pace setter, and laissez-faire leadership, while also examining classical leadership theories like trait, behavioral, contingency, and transformational/transactional approaches. A comparative analysis highlights the similarities and differences between these leadership paradigms, emphasizing the shift towards teamwork and knowledge transfer. The report also discusses the causes of changes in leadership, such as globalization, increased expectations, and the rapid pace of innovation. The report concludes by synthesizing the evolution of leadership from traditional models to contemporary practices, offering insights into the dynamic changes in the business environment and the skills required for effective leadership in the modern era.

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21st CENTURY LEADERSHIP

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Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................................1
What is leadership?.....................................................................................................................................2
Key competencies of 21st century leadership:.............................................................................................2
Similarities and differences between classical and 21st century leadership:................................................3
Leadership theories in 21st century:.........................................................................................................3
Leadership theories of classical leadership:.............................................................................................4
Similarities and differences:....................................................................................................................5
Causes of changes in the leadership:...........................................................................................................5
Requirements to face these changes:......................................................................................................7
Critical analysis of academic researches:.....................................................................................................7
Conclusion:..................................................................................................................................................7
References:..................................................................................................................................................8
Introduction:

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21st century leadership is all about responding to the changes that are happening in this dynamic
world. The new leadership is not only dependent on the people ‘in charge’ but it requires the
participation of all the associated links. Understanding the evolving trends in leadership styles
and theories is very important and it is becoming the area of interest for many researchers.
Various theories have been introduced regarding leadership since years and those theories have
evolved with time. This evolution is because of one of the most important and impactful driving
factor that is ‘change’. The dynamic environment of the organisations and the industries all over
the world has forced the leaders to make alterations in their leadership style. The leaders are
required adapt to handle the changes in every sphere of business either it is human resource,
production, or marketing.
In order to understand the concept, it is required to study the trends in the evolution of leadership
from early times to contemporary era and it is also required to understand the factors that have
impact on the changing leadership styles. Thus, in the context developed here, this report
presents a succinct literature of the 21st century leadership style comparing and contrasting it
with the classical leadership styles.
What is leadership?
Gary Yukl (2006) suggests that leadership is the process that allows the leaders to influence
other people in order to perform the activities that are required to be done and how they should
be done. In the opinion of the author leadership is the collective approach to achieve the shared
objectives. On the other hand, Peter Northhouse (2007) suggests that leadership is the process in
which an individual has to influence the group of other individuals so that they can collectively
achieve a common goal. These definitions suggest that leadership is about influencing others so
that ultimate gaols can be achieved by shared efforts of all the people that include the leaders as
well as their followers.
There are many theories on leadership which have undergone many changes and modifications
with time as per the changes occurred in the associated factors (Avolio and Yammarino, 2013).
This makes the 21st century leadership very different from the other leadership styles that had
been followed by the leaders in past.

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Key competencies of 21st century leadership:
Competencies can be defined as the qualities of an individual or an organisation. To analyse the
leadership competencies, it is required to understand the skills required for being a leader in 21st
century (Baron, 2016). Some of the key competencies for 21st century leaders are discussed
below:
Communication: It is the very important competency that the leaders of 21st century are required
to follow. Indirect communication or any gap in the communication leads to many issues in the
organisation. Thus, for making a better information flow, it is required for the leaders to
communicate properly with subordinates and with colleagues as well (Burns, 2012).
Strategic and critical thinking: In today’s era, smart working is required than hard working and
thus there is a need of strategic thinker at the place of leader so that effective strategic decisions
could be made. To deal with the dynamic environment of the company and the industry, the
leaders have to think critically about the positives and negatives of the alternatives available and
then have to make the decision (Chin and Sanchez-Hucles, 2007).
Encouraging innovation and diversity of thoughts: The leaders in 21st century have innovative
minds and diverse thinking. They do not rule by their set standards but allow the people to share
their opinion so that diversity of ideas can be generated to deal with the issues.
Developing talent: The leaders today are required to be talented enough so that they can develop
the talent in others as well. This is because, it is not only about performing good leadership but it
is about making others to perform efficiently (Dinh, Lord, Gardner, Meuser, Liden and Hu,
2014).
Cross cultural intelligence: Diversity of workforce and globalisation has brought up many
changes in the organisations and the type of workforce policies. Diversification in the workforce
requires the leaders to be cautious about the culture at the time of dealing with the employees
with different cultural background (Foss, Nåden and Eriksson, 2014). Thus, having a cross
cultural intelligence help the leaders to deal easily with the diversification in the workforce.

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Above are some of the major competencies that are required to be developed in the 21st century
leaders because this is what the market is demanding from the leaders in today’s era.
Similarities and differences between classical and 21st
century leadership:
Leadership theories in 21st century:
Some common leadership theories and styles of 21stcentury leadership are discussed below:
1. Servant leadership: It is the type of leadership style in which the leaders care about all the
needs and the requirements of their employees. Some of the leaders like Nelson Mandela
fall under this category. The modern servant leaders believe in taking interest in
professional as well as personal life of the employees (Frisch and Huppenbauer, 2014).
2. Charismatic: charismatic leaders are those leaders who have a charisma in their
personality that is the sign of their greatness. They believe in working together and are
very enthusiastic in nature. They not only delegate the work to their followers but also do
the same with them (Giuliani and Kurson, 2007). They try to utilise the best out of
everyone in the team and thus have great vision for their team. The leaders who follow
this approach would be able to balance between work burden and excellence.
3. Pace setters: pace setters are the leaders with great futuristic vision. They do not believe
in achieving short term goals but believes that setting the pace for doing the work or the
project will lead to greater achievement of long term gaols. They have big dreams and
thus more expectation from their employees. As servant leaders focuses on the needs of
the employees, the pace setters demand better and faster work from their employees at
any cost (Han, 2014).
4. Laissez faire: the leaders who follow this leadership style are self-motivated. They are
very good at delegating work and know how to communicate their followers with their
vision. They usually try to be with the team who is self-motivated and have knowledge
about their tasks. This is because they totally leave their team to takes the decision on any
of the issue and do not interfere in matters.

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Leadership theories of classical leadership:
1. Trait theory: this theory suggests that the leaders have some specific traits that help them
to develop the qualities of being a leader. It is necessary to possess those theories in order
to be the leader. The early researchers suggest that some of the traits like assertiveness,
intelligence and motivation are some of the traits that are innate in the leaders (Kotter,
2008).
2. Behavioural theories: this theory suggests that there are two types of behaviours of the
leaders. One is directive in which the leaders are concerned for the tasks and the other is
participative in which the leaders are concerned with the people working under them.
These two behaviours create differences in the way they handle and deal with the
employees.
3. Contingency theories: contingency theory is about dealing with the employees as per the
situation. The leadership style is selected as per the situation that needs to be handled at
that time (Latham, 2014). The leaders who follow contingency theory or style should be
smart enough to know that which style or which type of leadership can be implemented at
which situation.
4. Transformational and transactional leadership: the transformation leaders are the leaders
with big picture and great point of view while transactional leaders focus on short term
goals. Transactional leaders delegate the work to the employees and praise them after the
achievement of the gaols but the transformational leaders help the employees to follow
some of the guidelines in order to complete the work.
Similarities and differences:
According to the theories that are discussed above, it has been analysed that there are some of the
differences and the similarities between the classical and the modern 21st century leadership. The
basic difference that has been observed is that the classical leadership believes in achieving the
short term goals and never focuses on compromising the short term objectives to achieve the
higher gaols. As far as the concept of individualism is considered, it has been analysed that most
of the contemporary leadership theory and style talks about working in the team and not on
individual basis (MacDonald, Sulsky and Brown, 2008). The classical leadership styles believe

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in delegating work to the employees as an individual and team work was not that much
encouraged at that time. In today's era, leaders focus on working in teams so that the objectives
can be achieved effectively and efficiently. Classical leadership is about being an expert into
field but does not allow the leaders to transfer those expertise to their followers while the leaders
of 21st century believes that involving the team members or the followers is important for
knowledge transfer (Metcalf and Benn, 2013). This develops the people of the team as well as
the knowledge of the leader.
The leadership has evolved from inception to the present time. This is because of the changes
that have been experienced by the companies, workforce, industries etc. However, there are
some things and aspects of leadership that is continuing to be same even after so much of its
evolution (Nahavandi, 2016). One of the similarities between the classical and the modern
leadership is that both focus on achieving the gaols and developing the employees. The major
aim of being a leader is to show the path to the employees on which they have to walk in order to
complete their individual as well as organisational objectives.
Causes of changes in the leadership:
There is no doubt in the fact that leadership has experienced a great change and the definition of
leadership has altered totally. The interdependency of the organisation is affecting the type of
leadership in those organisations. It has been analysed from the research that the organisations in
Europe and Asia are moving towards collective leadership as compared to US organisations.
This may be because the European and Asian organisations are more dependent on each other.
Some of the causes that act as the driving force for change in leadership are:
Globalisation: Globalisation is the process that allows the companies to cross their boundaries
and develop trade relation across the countries. This requires the companies to enter and
understand the new market. Introduction of the company in the new market also require changes
in the already existing processes of the company as per the situation in the new market and
leadership is one of the important functions that gets affected. Thus, if the companies want to
have trade relations with other countries, they have to develop those competencies in them first.

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Increased expectations: In modern times, the expectations of the stakeholders of the companies
have changed or either increased. It is not limited to earning profits now. There are various
expectations that different stakeholders have from the companies and thus company has to take
decision over which needs should be fulfilled and how. The employees are the most important
stakeholders of the companies and they are experiencing a great diversity. Handling the diverse
workforce requires the leaders to develop that competency to understand different culture and
language.
Speed of innovation: today, organisations are focusing on what is next but the pace of making
innovations in the market is very high and to match up with this pace, it is required to make
innovations in the leadership style of the companies as well (O'Connell, 2014). Changes are very
frequent and thus bringing flexibility in the leadership styles help the leaders to deal with the
situations.
Requirements to face these changes:
New skill sets: The new leaders have to face these changes and develop bottom line skills
through collaboration, team work and innovation (Tyssen, Wald and Spieth, 2013). Achievement
of organisational objectives and earning profits are the major aims of organisations but they are
no longer the only requirements to be successful. Shift in skills is required that allow the
organisations to manage the change. Skills like relationship building, communications skills are
some of the major skills that need to be developed. Most of the best MBA programs are
providing such soft skills training to their student so that they can become leaders of modern
times.
Collaborations: great collaboration is the need of the hour because of the interdependency of the
organisations on each other. In today’s market, it is not possible to be successful and maintain
the success alone; it is required by the organisation to merge across boundaries to enhance. Here,
leaders play a major role by showing their relationship skills in order to develop great relation
across the borders.

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Critical analysis of academic researches:
Mumford, Campion and Morgeson (2007) suggests that there are skill sets of leaders such as
cognitive, interpersonal, business and strategic skills that are required by the leaders at different
level of the organization. The research has been conducted on around 1000 mid-level, senior and
junior employees. It has been concluded that the higher level of the employees have to develop
higher level of leadership skills as compared to lower level.
One of the researches was conducted to analyse the future direction of leadership in the
organisations. Mumford, Zaccaro, Connelly and Marks (2000) argues in the research that new
skill set model is required for the leaders to manage the change that will be appropriate for
dynamic environment of the industrial market.
Conclusion:
The above discussion concludes that change is the essence of life and adjusting the processes
according to the changes is the need of hour. It is to be done in order to achieve the success in
this dynamic world. Leadership is one of the aspects that are getting affected by the changes
happening. It has been analysed that many researches have been conducted in concern to the
topic and it has been suggested that there are lot of differences in 21st century leadership as
compared to the classical leadership styles and theories. These differences are because of the
changes that occur in the market such as globalisation, expectations of the stakeholders,
interdependency of the organisation, workforce diversity etc. Thus, it is required by the
organisation to manage those changes and develop new skills sets in their leaders so that the
changes occurring in the market and the world can be faced. The change is inevitable and thus
adjustments need to be made as per the changes.
References:

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and charismatic leadership. In Transformational and Charismatic Leadership: The Road Ahead
10th Anniversary Edition (pp. xxvii-xxxiii). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Baron, A., 2016.Are You a 21st Century Leader. The Huffington Post.
Burns, J., 2012. Leadership. New York, NY: Open Road Integrated Media.
Chin, J.L. and Sanchez-Hucles, J., 2007. Diversity and leadership.
Dinh, J.E., Lord, R.G., Gardner, W.L., Meuser, J.D., Liden, R.C. and Hu, J., 2014. Leadership
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pp.333-353.

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Metcalf, L. and Benn, S., 2013. Leadership for sustainability: An evolution of leadership
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Mumford, M.D., Zaccaro, S.J., Connelly, M.S. and Marks, M.A., 2000. Leadership skills:
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Nahavandi, A., 2016. The Art and Science of Leadership -Global Edition. Pearson.
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