The Supreme Discipline of
Leadership:
Leading in times of success

What does a leader do when every­thing is running smooth­ly? The neigh­bour­hood project is complete, the new branch abroad is up and running estab­lished, the project devel­op­ment has been sold with record figures – what happens next?

This is where true lead­er­ship qual­i­ties come to the fore. A foot­ball coach cannot rest on the laurels of a cham­pi­onship win. The same applies in compa­nies: success is the begin­ning of the next stage, not the end.

In gener­al, lead­er­ship in 2025 is more than just manag­ing process­es and achiev­ing goals. A strong leader ensures that organ­i­sa­tions remain success­ful, resilient and inno­v­a­tive in the future. In the “Gover­nance | Lead­er­ship­Im­pulse” series in the Valdivia News­room, we recent­ly high­light­ed the topic of “Sustain­able Lead­er­ship”. Today, we will take a look at the aspects of leader tasks and respon­si­bil­i­ties  when the compa­ny is stable. After all, what happens when every­thing is running smooth­ly and every­one is satisfied?

Core tasks in times of success

Success tempts us to contin­ue on the same course. Howev­er, as in foot­ball, lead­er­ship must contin­ue. Accord­ing to the results of a recent study carried out by the German Asso­ci­a­tion for Person­nel Manage­ment¹ , modern managers should ques­tion process­es, iden­ti­fy poten­tial and look to the future. They create struc­tures for inno­va­tion and promote a culture of learn­ing and devel­op­ment. In addi­tion to the clas­sic focus on strat­e­gy and effi­cien­cy, newly conceived and poly­math­ic approach­es are gain­ing in impor­tance. Managers who bring togeth­er differ­ent disci­plines lay the foun­da­tion for inno­va­tion and future viability.

Avoid­ing complacency

A key lead­er­ship prin­ci­ple is to prevent compla­cen­cy. Success­es must not become a comfort zone. As in rowing, only when every­one pulls in the same rhythm does the boat stay on course. A coach ensures preci­sion, team spir­it and clear instruc­tions – in the same way, a manag­er keeps enthu­si­asm alive in the organ­i­sa­tion. This includes a culture of feed­back, real­is­tic but ambi­tious goals and exem­pli­fy­ing one’s own will­ing­ness to change – even in times of success.

Contin­u­ous improve­ment as an attitude

Stand­ing still means falling behind – in sport as in busi­ness. A success­ful team stays at the top by contin­u­ing to devel­op its play­ing style and remain­ing open to inno­va­tion. Lead­ers natu­ral­ly keep an eye on key figures: finances, customer satis­fac­tion, employ­ee engage­ment, process qual­i­ty and inno­v­a­tive strength. These indi­ca­tors ensure long-term success. At the same time, lead­ers estab­lish struc­tures for contin­u­ous improvement.

This is partic­u­lar­ly evident in sport: lead­er­ship in success is like an ultra-marathon. It does­n’t end after the marathon, because the next stage is already wait­ing. If you want to survive in the long term, you have to pace your­self wise­ly, achieve inter­me­di­ate goals and keep moving. In the same way, lead­ers succeed in turn­ing indi­vid­ual success­es into a last­ing success story.

Secur­ing success – the will to devel­op further

What happens next when you are success­ful? There are paral­lels in sport that show how to remain compet­i­tive. Roger Feder­er, the cele­brat­ed tennis star with 20 Grand Slam titles, repeat­ed­ly adapt­ed his style to become better. Michael Jordan, six-time NBA cham­pi­on and legend of the Chica­go Bulls, worked hard, changed his role in the team and set new stan­dards – thus becom­ing not only a play­er but also a leader. Cris­tiano Ronal­do, five-time Cham­pi­ons League winner and also five-time World Foot­baller of the Year, remains at the top of his game even after many success­es because he trains consis­tent­ly, eats a disci­plined diet and constant­ly adapts his game tacti­cal­ly. True excel­lence is self-manage­ment and the will to devel­op further.

These exam­ples show that true lead­er­ship means build­ing on success­es and contin­u­ous­ly devel­op­ing. Espe­cial­ly in phas­es of success, lead­er­ship means opti­mis­ing process­es and strength­en­ing the adap­tive perfor­mance² of the team. Stud­ies show that managers can active­ly promote the adapt­abil­i­ty of their teams. A key approach to this is the contin­u­ous improve­ment process (CIP)(^3):it offers managers a prac­ti­cal tool for strength­en­ing partic­i­pa­tion, moti­va­tion and will­ing­ness to learn. Modern lead­er­ship is thus evident not only in strate­gic deci­sions, but above all in the consis­tent support of every­day improve­ments – a deci­sive factor for sustain­able success.

Compe­tence radar – 16 skills

These impres­sive paths to success are, of course, only possi­ble if, in addi­tion to strong moti­va­tion and passion for one’s own work, a broad range of skills is also avail­able. Today – in times of crisis as well as in times of success – in addi­tion to clas­sic compe­ten­cies^, many new char­ac­ter­is­tics of modern lead­er­ship² are in demand, often summarised under the term “humble lead­er­ship“⁴, such as self-reflec­tion, open­ness and modesty.

1. Strate­gic think­ing – recog­nis­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties, plan­ning for the long term, provid­ing guidance.
2. Vision­ary power – paint­ing a picture of the future and inspir­ing teams.
3. Will­ing­ness to inno­vate – build­ing on success­es, embrac­ing new ideas.
4. Sense of respon­si­bil­i­ty – taking deci­sions and build­ing trust.
5. Abil­i­ty to dele­gate – promot­ing talent and creat­ing freedom.
6. Empa­thy – listen­ing, under­stand­ing and strength­en­ing bonds.
7. Strong commu­ni­ca­tion skills – commu­ni­cat­ing clear­ly, open­ly and appreciatively.
8. Deci­sive­ness – remain capa­ble of acting, even in uncer­tain situations.
9. Resilience – over­com­ing setbacks and radi­at­ing stability.
10. Self-manage­ment – confi­dent­ly manag­ing time and priorities.
11. Integri­ty – exem­pli­fy­ing values and acting authentically.
12. Role model – provid­ing guid­ance through your own behaviour.
13. Coach­ing & mentor­ing – recog­nis­ing poten­tial and promot­ing development.
14. Adapt­abil­i­ty – Accept­ing and shap­ing change.
15. Results orien­ta­tion – setting goals and pursu­ing them consistently.
16. Contin­u­ous improve­ment – estab­lish­ing struc­tures for contin­u­ous learning.

Carry­ing success into the new season

Lead­er­ship in times of success means not stand­ing still. This is when it becomes clear whether a manag­er thinks strate­gi­cal­ly, promotes talent and keeps moti­va­tion and momen­tum high. Sustain­able and modern lead­er­ship is rele­vant not only in crises, but also in situ­a­tions of success – espe­cial­ly through values, culture, partic­i­pa­tion and adapt­abil­i­ty, as a study by the Nieder­rhein Univer­si­ty of Applied Sciences ⁵shows. The char­ac­ter­is­tics described help to use success as a spring­board for further devel­op­ment and to posi­tion the organ­i­sa­tion for the future.

This is again impres­sive­ly demon­strat­ed inthe world of sports: a coach of a cham­pi­onship team is not content with defend­ing the title. He refines tactics, promotes new talent and keeps ambi­tion alive so that a victo­ry becomes a last­ing success story. In the same way, lead­ers succeed in laying the foun­da­tion for sustain­able top perfor­mance in times of success.

Sources (selec­tion)

1. 1. German Asso­ci­a­tion for Human Resource Manage­ment, LEADERSHIP, Five Trends in Modern Lead­er­ship, _16-23.pdf
   2. Boni­ni A, Panari C, Cari­cati L, Mari­ani MG (2024) The rela­tion­ship between lead­er­ship and adap­tive perfor­mance: A system­at­ic review and meta-analy­sis The rela­tion­ship between lead­er­ship and adap­tive perfor­mance: A system­at­ic review and meta-analy­sis | PLOS One
   3. Innolyt­ics: https://www.innolytics.de/kvp-kontinuierlicher-verbesserungsprozess/
   4. Harvard Busi­ness Review, Febru­ary 2025, The Power of Humble Leadership
   5. Nieder­rhein Univer­si­ty of Applied Sciences, Future Lead­er­ship. Lead­er­ship skills for the new world of work (March 2024) PdF_Skript_SS2020

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