This is not my usual format for blog posts. However, Joan Lurie posted an insightful article on LinkedIn that warranted a longer reply than allowed on social media.

Here’s my reply to Joan’s post:

Joan, thank you for this insightful post and analysis. I’m going to respond from my perspective of my inner leader journey over the past 15 years.

The inner leader journey is one of learning how to transcend the mind-made sense of identity and ego, which opens the door to greater intelligence and insight from beyond the mind.

Reviewing the three organizational paradigms you’ve outlined, I see a clear reflection of the evolution of leadership and consciousness itself. The technical and psychosocial paradigms still operate largely within the confines of the mind and its need for control and improvement.

They focus on fixing, optimizing, or managing external structures and processes or the interpersonal dynamics. These paradigms often come from a need to “do” more or “achieve” more, which mirrors the ego’s attachment to outcomes.

The complex systems paradigm, however, aligns much more closely with my own experiences. It begins to step beyond the mind’s habitual need for control and into a space of presence and deeper awareness, where leaders recognize the interconnectedness of all things.

From this perspective, leadership is no longer about managing or fixing. It’s about allowing the system to unfold and emerge from a place of stillness and awareness.

We need to let go of the need to control outcomes and instead change our focus to deepening our inner awareness.However, as you pointed out, many leaders today are trying to navigate this complex systems space without having done the necessary inner work.

Without transcending the egoic structures that dominate the technical and psychosocial paradigms, they risk conflating these older approaches with systems thinking, often leading to confusion rather than clarity.

The real shift requires moving from doing to being—from striving to allowing. In my experience, this transition cannot be taught in the traditional sense; it has to be felt and lived. It arises when we stop identifying with the mind and ego and open ourselves to the greater intelligence that flows through life itself.

What’s really interesting is that leadership then becomes effortless. It’s no longer something we “do,” but something that naturally unfolds through us as we align with the deeper intelligence behind life. The challenge now is that while we are beginning to talk about complex system leadership, the practices and inner transformations needed to embody it are largely undeveloped.

This new paradigm calls for leaders who lead from a place of greater awareness and openness to the unknown. I believe we may be on the cusp of a profound shift in leadership that begins with the journey inside.

It was the late Dee Hock, founder and CEO of Visa, who said the inner leader journey is the path we all must take in the 21st century. From my inner leader journey perspective, I don’t see how we solve the many complex challenges we face today and go forward until more of us take this journey.

— Bill

Bill Fox, Founder, LeaderONE​
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Pioneering Leadership from Within | Unlocking Human and Organizational Potential