Navigating Leadership Paradox

One of the most significant management challenges in modern companies and organizations is dealing with unavoidable, complex paradoxes. Today’s world is multidimensional, multipolar, and multipurpose, and increasingly, classic management challenges such as leadership vs. management; exploitation vs. exploration, virtual vs. physical presence, economic sustainability vs. environmental sustainability, localization vs. globalization, etc. assume the characteristics of paradoxes rather than problems or dilemmas.

Leadership of paradox is not about making a decision once and for all or prioritizing tough trade-offs, but about navigating between opposing considerations. Navigating Leadership Paradox argues that academic knowledge pools can support leaders’ decision-making and sense-making in organizations and navigating paradoxes. The book outlines a practical pathway for management leaders and professionals for steering through paradox using 5 phases, 10 paradoxes, 15 tools, 20 cases, and 25 learning points. It delineates how to identify a paradox by assessing the nature of your challenge and discusses the appropriate courses of action individually as well in collaboration with other stakeholders. It also gives inspiration and advice for professional helpers assisting others in navigating paradox as part of organizational development or other educational purposes.

This book will be essential reading for practitioners and academicians in the fields of leadership paradox, complexity management, change management, leadership dilemmas and organizational paradox.

• Outlines a practical pathway for professionals for working through different types of paradox.
• Focuses on tools and practices that can be used by managers at all hierarchical levels and in organizations of all sizes.

Rikke Kristine Nielsen, PhD is Associate Professor at the Department of Communication & Psychology at Aalborg University. Her main research areas are organizational and leadership paradox, global leadership as well as academia-practitioner co-creation. Nielsen is an active research disseminator, speaker, and consultant in private, public, and civil society organizations, as well as an engaged scholar co-producing research with managers and HR professionals in practice.

Frans Bévort, PhD, is Associate Professor at the Department of Organization, Copenhagen Business School. His main research focusses on HRM, professions and management. A special research interest is the tensions between management as a professional discipline and other disciplines. His work is informed by institutional theory and symbolic interactionism.

Thomas Duus Henriksen, PhD, is Associate Professor at the Department of Communication and Psychology at Aalborg University, Copenhagen, Denmark. His main research interests are in the intersections between learning theory and technology, addressing areas like virtual human resource development, hybrid work forms, hybrid management, and learning games for organizational development, while using paradox theory and French philosophy to address the complexity of such processes.

Anne-Mette Hjalager is a professor at the Department for Entrepreneurship and Relationship Management at University of Southern Denmark. She works with innovation, entrepreneurial processes, and management – particularly, but not only, in the tourism sector.

Danielle Bjerre Lyndgaard holds a Master of Science in Economics and Business Administration (MSc(Econ.)) from Copenhagen Business School (CBS) and a Master of Management Development (MMD) also from CBS. Lyndgaard is Director at the Confederation of Danish Industry, Department of Global Talent & Mobility, where she is responsible for all aspects of (global) leadership and HR processes related to global talent and mobility.

"Navigating Leadership Paradox provides an evidence-based approach to managing dilemmas that stump traditional decision makers. Our global/local, VUCA and multi-plex world creates organizational challenges where no obvious solutions exist. This author team provides a clear framework and process to make this complexity manageable iteratively over time, helping managers expand their comfort zones and capacity for both reflection and action." --Denise M. Rousseau, H.J. Heinz II University Professor of Organizational Behavior and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University

"More than ever managers need to master and embrace the complexity of a new era ripe with　leadership paradox. Managing through the pandemic in a world that has become even more digital and uncertain has accelerated the need for managers to be able to balance a range of both personal and organizational leadership paradoxes. Spanning from strategic insights and decisions to execution in a (global) world, where not much seems to be as it used to, this book provides managers with relevant, ‘easy-to-use’ inspiration and tools that helps you navigate the high level of leadership complexity and grasp the new reality." --Kinga Szabo Christensen, Deputy Director General, The Danish Confederation of Industry

"Paradox in organizations is one of the main reasons why we need leadership and leaders. These are the situations where we need to be capable of navigating and relating to the consequences of our decisions. Therefore, it is important to train paradox leadership – for all of us to become better managers. The insights and tools of this book will help you navigate leadership paradox in practice." --Rikke Molter, COO, Knudsen Extrusion

"I think this book is really needed. This is an area that has continuously gained more attention in the past years with the increased complexity of today’s world. I can picture myself using it as a textbook in my Bachelor, Master and Executive level classes. In my mind, managers are those who are eager to learn and develop this area most. I can see them buying the book autonomously or within the context of a leadership course. I personally would assign the book and recommend it." --Dr Camille Pradies, EDHEC Business School, France

"This is a wonderfully thoughtful, imaginative, evocative, and helpful book. It focuses on paradox in practice, and shows the opportunities paradoxes create for navigation by leaders and other managers, not only recognizing and accepting tensions, but also acting on them meaningfully. Further, the action can take place in managerial groups, and based on action learning approaches; it does not have to be taken alone. Anyone who encounters paradoxes and tensions in their daily (work) lives can benefit from this book." --Jean M. Bartunek, Robert A. and Evelyn J. Ferris Chair, Department of Management and Organization, Boston College

"Anyone with leadership responsibilities will benefit hugely from this book. Developing a paradox mindset is possibly one of the most important leadership abilities for effectively navigating the complexity of today’s business activities. This book provides a much needed compass for developing the capacity to work through the tensions and contradictory demands that consistently bedevil all organisations, large and small. Real examples of leadership paradoxes will be easily recognisable. Importantly they provide rich food for thought, when charting your own course in practice. An extensive toolbox mapped to each stage of the navigation process will strengthen your ability to lead organisations that thrive in the face of a volatile and uncertain future." --Jane McKenzie, Professor of Management Knowledge and Learning, Henley Business School

"Navigating Leadership Paradox is a very timely addition to this book series. Global crises have exposed many tensions that were bubbling under the surface and put those in charge under great pressure. Trade-offs can create even bigger challenges when you are dealing with complex problems in a changing world. The authors bring paradox to life with 10 common examples that are easy to relate to. Then they offer a process and a suite of tools to help managers grapple with the paradoxical problems facing them in their own world. It’s a mindset and skillset that is sorely needed, if we are going to step up and engage with the pressing global challenges we are facing." --Dr Sharon Varney, author of Leadership in Complexity and Change: For a world in constant motion

"The ideal of paradoxical thinking – the ability to reconcile apparently polar positions – and the accompanying challenge of putting this ideal into practice captures the essence of this intriguing volume. The authors immerse the reader in the challenges posed by organizational life in an increasingly volatile, uncertain world. Getting away from rather static either-or thinking, the idea of and/also positioning is crucial given the persistence of these challenges over time, where short-term, trade-off thinking is literally incapable of producing desired, sustainable outcomes. Rather than necessarily viewing all of this as a series of stresses literally cascading on top of each other, the volume underscores that understanding the power of paradox can be energizing, providing a conceptual road map of how to make sense of the myriad tensions that surround us. This highly readable volume provides deep insight into the processes of navigating paradox – the ability to understand (mindset) and create meaning (action/meta-skill set) – with a host of highly usable tools and techniques to guide the reader through this messy process." --Anthony F. Buono, Professor Emeritus, Bentley University