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At Nous, we believe in the sustaining power of great organisational leadership. Over the past two years, we have launched the Nous Leadership Way (NLW), a leadership model and development program that articulates the core principles of effective leadership at Nous. Developing NLW has prompted Managing Principal and CEO Tim Orton to think more broadly about the challenges of great leadership, the attributes of great leaders, and how we think about these at Nous.
“All the world’s a stage” Shakespeare tells us in As You Like It, “and all the men and women are merely players.” The famous monologue compares life to a play. Leadership is similarly performative. Given the circumstances a leader is in at any given moment, they should always ask themselves: What role do I need to play and how should I lead for the organisation to succeed at this moment?
Effective leadership orients itself to the needs of the people being led. It is demand-focused. In other words, leaders should embody the leadership the organisation requires.
What about authenticity?
Authenticity is widely seen as a virtuous characteristic of leaders. But I think authenticity is overrated.
Yes, leaders of organisations must have self-awareness, self-reflection, genuineness, and sincerity. But the reality of leadership, especially in dynamic organisational contexts, which are characteristic of the modern world of work, is that it often demands different things from leaders at different times. You might need to demonstrate conciliation and compromise in one meeting, while the next calls for you to be more authoritative and assertive and be willing to call the shots.
In this context the maxim “just be yourself” is particularly bad advice for leaders. It is neither necessary nor sufficient for good leadership.
Leadership is better thought of as an act of embodiment
At Nous, we prefer to think of leadership as an act of embodiment. Embodiment is one of the thirteen tenets of the Nous Leadership Way, our organisation’s leadership model and philosophy.
The way we think about it is this. Leadership is an act of will. Leaders must choose what kind of leader they will be, and how they will lead, at different times. When they walk into a room, they choose how they should best engage with that room. They embody the leader that the room requires of them.
This is a fundamentally more selfless way of thinking about leadership than one centred around authenticity. Instead of asking, “Who am I?” we ask, “Who do my colleagues and clients need me to be?” If the animating idea behind authentic leadership is to “know thyself,” leadership as an act of embodiment implores you to “know thy room.” This approach asks us to think from the perspective of the person being led as to what they need from us as a leader in order for them to be successful.
None of this means that one should behave wildly out of character when one takes on a leadership role. But it does that mean one should not be constrained by who one takes oneself to be.
A world of possibility
Conceptualising leadership as an act of embodiment also opens up possibilities for leaders. Rather than be wedded to one approach to leadership – be it democratic, affiliative, visionary, or autocratic – one is free to choose the approach that suits the moment.
The context-specific dynamism that results allows leaders to address the divergent, multitudinous needs they face on a day-to-day basis: those of the individuals around them, those of the individual projects they’re working on, and those of the broader ecosystem in which they and their organisations operate. It’s the ability to play multiple roles to multiple audiences that ultimately leads to an encore.
Get in touch to discuss how you can better embody leadership within your organisational context.
Connect with Tim Orton on LinkedIn.
This is the fourth article in Tim Orton's 'Exploring Great Leadership' series. It was originally posted on LinkedIn on 6 May 2025.
Read the other pieces in the series:
