Discover which leadership style is best for change. Compare transformational, adaptive, and situational approaches to find the right style for leading organisational transformation.
Written by Laura Bouttell • Thu 13th November 2025
Transformational leadership consistently emerges as the most effective style for leading organisational change, achieving 78% higher success rates in transformation initiatives according to McKinsey research. However, the most honest answer recognises that no single leadership style works for all change situations—the best leaders adapt their approach based on change type, organisational context, and stakeholder needs. Understanding which leadership style is best for change requires examining how different approaches address different transformation challenges.
This guide explores the leadership styles most effective for change, helping leaders match their approach to specific transformation requirements.
Leading change requires capabilities beyond routine leadership—the ability to create urgency, build coalitions, articulate compelling visions, empower action, and sustain momentum through resistance and setbacks. Change leadership must address both technical and human dimensions of transformation.
Core change leadership requirements:
Vision articulation: Creating compelling pictures of desired futures that motivate others to embrace change despite its discomforts.
Urgency creation: Building recognition that change is necessary and that action cannot wait.
Coalition building: Assembling groups with sufficient power and influence to drive change forward.
Resistance management: Understanding and addressing the inevitable pushback that change generates.
Implementation capability: Translating vision into action through concrete steps and measurable progress.
Sustainability focus: Embedding changes so they persist beyond initial implementation efforts.
Change initiatives fail for predictable reasons—understanding these illuminates why leadership style matters:
| Failure Factor | Frequency | Leadership Implication |
|---|---|---|
| Insufficient sense of urgency | 60% | Need for compelling case |
| Inadequate guiding coalition | 55% | Need for influence building |
| Lacking clear vision | 50% | Need for vision articulation |
| Under-communicating vision | 45% | Need for persistent communication |
| Not removing obstacles | 40% | Need for empowerment |
| Not creating short-term wins | 35% | Need for progress demonstration |
| Declaring victory too soon | 30% | Need for sustained focus |
| Not anchoring in culture | 25% | Need for institutionalisation |
Effective change leadership addresses these common failure points through appropriate style and approach.
Transformational leadership is highly effective for change because it directly addresses the psychological and motivational requirements of transformation. Transformational leaders inspire followers to transcend self-interest for collective goals and to achieve more than they initially believed possible.
Transformational leadership components:
Idealised influence: Leaders serve as role models, demonstrating commitment to change through their own behaviour. Trust and respect enable influence.
Inspirational motivation: Leaders articulate compelling visions of future possibilities. They communicate optimism and enthusiasm that energises others.
Intellectual stimulation: Leaders challenge assumptions and encourage creative thinking. They create environments where questioning and innovation flourish.
Individual consideration: Leaders attend to followers' individual needs for growth and development. Personal attention builds commitment.
Research on transformational leadership and change:
Studies consistently show transformational leadership correlates with successful change implementation:
Transformational leadership works best when:
Major cultural change: When transformation requires shifting underlying beliefs, values, and behaviours—not just processes or structures.
Voluntary commitment needed: When change cannot be mandated and requires genuine buy-in from stakeholders.
Long-term transformation: When change unfolds over extended periods requiring sustained motivation and commitment.
Innovation-driven change: When transformation involves new ways of working that require creative problem-solving.
Emotional engagement required: When change involves significant disruption requiring emotional support and inspiration.
Adaptive leadership is an approach specifically designed for addressing complex challenges where solutions aren't known in advance. Unlike technical problems with known solutions, adaptive challenges require learning, experimentation, and changes in values or beliefs.
Adaptive leadership principles:
Distinguish technical from adaptive: Technical problems have known solutions; adaptive challenges require learning. Different challenge types need different approaches.
Get on the balcony: Step back from immediate action to observe patterns and dynamics. Perspective enables better intervention.
Identify adaptive challenges: Name the adaptive work required. Clarity about what must change enables focused effort.
Regulate distress: Keep people in productive discomfort—enough pressure for change without overwhelming their capacity to function.
Give work back: Resist solving people's problems for them. Enable others to develop their own solutions.
Protect leadership voices: Ensure diverse perspectives can be heard, especially those challenging prevailing wisdom.
Adaptive leadership suits:
Unprecedented challenges: When organisations face situations without established solutions or clear paths forward.
Learning-dependent change: When success requires discovering solutions rather than implementing known answers.
Complex stakeholder dynamics: When multiple groups with different interests must align around new approaches.
Values-based transformation: When change requires shifts in fundamental beliefs and priorities, not just behaviours.
Distributed ownership needed: When sustainable change requires widespread capability development rather than dependency on single leaders.
| Change Type | Technical Solution | Adaptive Response |
|---|---|---|
| Cost reduction | Process efficiency | Culture of cost consciousness |
| Digital transformation | Technology implementation | Workforce capability development |
| Customer focus | Service process changes | Customer-centric mindset shift |
| Innovation | R&D investment | Risk-tolerant culture creation |
| Merger integration | System consolidation | Cultural alignment |
Situational leadership proposes that effective leadership varies based on follower readiness—their ability and willingness for specific tasks. Applied to change, this means adjusting leadership style based on stakeholders' change readiness.
Situational leadership approaches for change:
Directing (high task, low relationship): For stakeholders with low readiness—limited capability and willingness. Provide clear direction and close supervision during early change phases.
Coaching (high task, high relationship): For stakeholders with some capability but limited confidence. Combine direction with support and encouragement.
Supporting (low task, high relationship): For stakeholders with capability but inconsistent commitment. Provide encouragement and facilitate participation.
Delegating (low task, low relationship): For stakeholders with high capability and commitment. Trust them to execute with minimal supervision.
Flexibility matters because change affects different stakeholders differently. Some embrace change readily; others resist strongly. Some have skills for new requirements; others need development. Effective change leaders adjust their approach accordingly.
Benefits of flexible change leadership:
Meeting people where they are: Different stakeholders need different support. Flexibility enables appropriate responsiveness.
Building capability progressively: As people develop change capabilities, leadership can evolve from directive to supportive.
Managing resistance appropriately: Resistant stakeholders may need different approaches than enthusiastic adopters.
Maintaining momentum: Flexibility allows leaders to adapt when initial approaches aren't working.
Efficient resource allocation: Leaders can focus intensive support where needed whilst delegating where appropriate.
Different leadership styles address change challenges with distinct strengths and limitations:
| Style | Primary Strength | Main Limitation | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Transformational | Inspiration, motivation | May overlook implementation details | Cultural, values-based change |
| Adaptive | Complex problem-solving | Can feel slow, uncertain | Unprecedented challenges |
| Situational | Flexibility, responsiveness | Requires accurate diagnosis | Varied stakeholder readiness |
| Servant | Building trust, engagement | May lack urgency | Voluntary, participative change |
| Directive | Speed, clarity | May generate resistance | Crisis-driven change |
| Participative | Commitment, ownership | Time-intensive | Change requiring buy-in |
Different change types call for different leadership approaches:
Crisis change: When urgent response is required, directive leadership provides necessary speed and clarity. There isn't time for extensive participation.
Strategic transformation: Major strategic shifts benefit from transformational leadership's vision articulation and inspiration combined with adaptive leadership's learning orientation.
Process improvement: Incremental improvements may benefit from participative approaches engaging those closest to the work.
Cultural change: Deep cultural shifts require transformational leadership's attention to values and meaning alongside sustained, patient effort.
Technology implementation: Technical changes need clear direction with supporting coaching as people develop new capabilities.
Merger integration: Integrations require adaptive approaches to navigate complex stakeholder dynamics whilst transformational leadership provides unifying vision.
Effective change leaders develop specific capabilities:
Communication excellence: Articulating vision compellingly, listening actively, tailoring messages to different audiences, maintaining consistent messaging.
Emotional intelligence: Understanding and managing one's own emotions, reading others' emotional states, navigating interpersonal dynamics during change.
Political acumen: Understanding organisational dynamics, building coalitions, managing stakeholders, navigating resistance.
Resilience: Persisting through setbacks, maintaining composure under pressure, recovering from disappointments.
Learning agility: Quickly understanding new situations, extracting learning from experience, adapting approaches based on feedback.
Systems thinking: Understanding interconnections, anticipating ripple effects, seeing patterns in complexity.
Developing change leadership capability:
1. Seek change assignments: Volunteer for transformation initiatives. Experience builds capability that training cannot replicate.
2. Study change models: Learn established frameworks—Kotter's eight steps, ADKAR, Bridges' transitions. Models provide useful structures.
3. Build self-awareness: Understand your default leadership tendencies. Awareness enables intentional adjustment.
4. Develop emotional intelligence: Invest in understanding emotions—your own and others'. Change is fundamentally emotional.
5. Learn from failure: Analyse unsuccessful change efforts. Failure often teaches more than success.
6. Find mentors: Learn from experienced change leaders. Their insights accelerate development.
7. Practice flexibility: Deliberately vary your approach. Expanding your repertoire increases effectiveness.
The most effective change leaders integrate multiple styles rather than relying on single approaches. They combine transformational inspiration with adaptive problem-solving and situational flexibility.
Integrated change leadership:
Foundation of transformational: Use transformational leadership as foundation—articulating vision, modelling commitment, inspiring effort, developing people.
Adaptive for complexity: Apply adaptive approaches when facing unprecedented challenges requiring learning and experimentation.
Situational adjustment: Adjust specific interactions based on stakeholder readiness and needs.
Servant orientation: Maintain underlying commitment to serving those you lead—removing obstacles, providing resources, enabling success.
Directive when necessary: Be willing to provide clear direction when situations require speed or authority.
Integrated change leadership in practice:
Early change phases: Lead with transformational inspiration to create urgency and vision. Build coalition using political acumen. Apply adaptive approaches to understand the challenge fully.
Middle implementation: Use situational flexibility to support different stakeholders appropriately. Maintain transformational communication whilst addressing resistance adaptively.
Sustaining change: Combine servant leadership's developmental focus with continued transformational vision. Delegate increasingly as capability builds.
Throughout: Monitor and adjust. Be willing to shift styles as circumstances evolve.
Common change leadership mistakes to avoid:
Over-relying on single style: No single style works for all situations. Rigid adherence to one approach limits effectiveness.
Underestimating emotional dimension: Change is emotional. Leaders who focus only on rational arguments miss crucial dynamics.
Moving too quickly: Impatience leads to insufficient groundwork. Sustainable change requires thorough preparation.
Insufficient communication: Leaders typically under-communicate during change. More communication is almost always needed.
Ignoring middle management: Middle managers can enable or block change. Neglecting their concerns undermines implementation.
Declaring victory prematurely: Early wins don't mean change is complete. Premature celebration leads to regression.
Failing to model change: Leaders who don't demonstrate personal commitment undermine their own messages.
Avoiding change leadership mistakes:
Build style repertoire: Develop capability across multiple styles. Practice approaches outside your comfort zone.
Attend to emotions: Create space for processing feelings. Acknowledge losses. Celebrate progress.
Invest in preparation: Build coalition, develop vision, create urgency before launching change initiatives.
Communicate relentlessly: Repeat key messages through multiple channels. Listen as much as broadcast.
Engage middle management: Involve middle managers in planning. Address their concerns. Develop their change capabilities.
Maintain long-term focus: Resist pressure to declare victory. Keep attention on sustaining and embedding change.
Lead by example: Demonstrate personal commitment through visible behaviour. Model the changes you seek.
Transformational leadership is generally most effective for change, achieving significantly higher success rates than other approaches. However, the best change leaders adapt their style based on context—using transformational inspiration for vision and motivation, adaptive approaches for complex challenges, and situational flexibility to meet varied stakeholder needs. Effective change leadership integrates multiple styles rather than relying on any single approach.
Transformational leadership is effective because it addresses both rational and emotional dimensions of change. Transformational leaders inspire followers through compelling vision, model commitment through their own behaviour, stimulate creative thinking about new possibilities, and provide individualised support. This comprehensive approach generates deeper commitment than transactional approaches relying on rewards and penalties.
Adaptive leadership is an approach for addressing complex challenges without predetermined solutions. Unlike technical problems with known answers, adaptive challenges require learning, experimentation, and shifts in values or beliefs. Adaptive leaders distinguish adaptive from technical challenges, regulate distress to maintain productive discomfort, give work back to stakeholders, and protect diverse voices offering new perspectives.
Situational leadership applies to change by adjusting leadership approach based on stakeholder readiness—their capability and willingness for change. Leaders provide more direction to those with low readiness whilst delegating to those with high capability and commitment. This flexibility enables leaders to meet different stakeholders where they are whilst developing their change capabilities progressively.
Change leaders need communication excellence for articulating vision and maintaining dialogue, emotional intelligence for navigating interpersonal dynamics, political acumen for building coalitions and managing stakeholders, resilience for persisting through setbacks, learning agility for adapting to evolving situations, and systems thinking for understanding interconnections and ripple effects.
Change initiatives fail due to insufficient urgency, inadequate guiding coalitions, unclear vision, under-communication, failure to remove obstacles, lack of short-term wins, premature victory declaration, and not anchoring changes in culture. These factors relate directly to leadership—effective change leaders address each through appropriate leadership approaches and persistent attention.
Effective change leaders combine multiple styles rather than relying on single approaches. They use transformational leadership as foundation for vision and inspiration, apply adaptive approaches for unprecedented challenges, adjust situationally based on stakeholder needs, maintain servant orientation toward those they lead, and provide directive clarity when situations require. Style integration increases effectiveness across varied change situations.
Which leadership style is best for change? The evidence points toward transformational leadership as generally most effective, yet the most honest answer recognises that effective change leadership requires stylistic flexibility. Different change types, organisational contexts, and stakeholder needs call for different approaches.
The best change leaders develop capability across multiple styles and integrate them thoughtfully. They inspire through transformational vision whilst adapting to unprecedented challenges. They adjust situationally whilst maintaining servant orientation toward those they lead. They know when to direct and when to delegate.
Like Churchill shifting from wartime urgency to peacetime governance, or Shackleton moving between visionary explorer and practical survival leader, effective change leadership requires knowing which approach serves the moment. The question isn't which style is best universally but which style is best now, for this change, with these stakeholders, in this context.
Develop your change leadership repertoire. Learn multiple approaches. Match your style to your situation. Lead change with the flexibility that transformation demands.