Leading with Integrity – Leadership in the Tension between Humanity & Structure

Leadership means more than organizing: it means taking responsibility for processes, relationships, and culture. This unit shows you how to understand leadership as a stance—between clarity and empathy, structure and trust. With a view toward systemic thinking, conflict competence, and a culture of feedback, you develop strategies that make your leadership more present, meaningful, and effective in a human way.

Warm up

Take a few minutes and reflect...

  • Which three values guide your leadership behavior?

  • In which typical everyday situations do these values manifest concretely?

Done? Discuss with your buddy and consider: What is the relationship between stance (integrity) and impact?

Learn

Lead Wolves” are not authoritarian but present, clear, and trustworthy

Jesper Juul describes leadership as authentic, relationship-oriented action.
Stance is shown in language, decisions, behavior—and in how you react to mistakes or criticism.

Characteristics of stance-based leadership:

  • Integrity and clarity instead of control

  • Relationship-building as a leadership skill

  • Taking responsibility—not distributing it away

  • Role awareness and self-reflection

  • Openness to feedback and perspective shifts

The leader influences the system—but is also shaped by it.

Systemic leadership means:

  • Recognizing interactions

  • Seeing resources instead of deficits

  • Considering contexts and relationships

FIND OUT MORE

Discuss with your buddy: What impact does my stance have on my team?

 

Dive in 1

Leadership always moves in the tension between:

  • Relationship vs. results orientation

  • Closeness vs. distance

  • Trust vs. control

  • Openness vs. directives

These tensions cannot be solved—but they can be shaped.
Conflicts are not disturbances—they are opportunities for growth.

Conflict-competent leadership…

  • Recognizes early signals and names them.

  • Remains all-partisan (non-taking sides) and solution-oriented.

  • Creates spaces for dialogue (e.g., team supervision, peer consultation).

  • Reflects on own conflict patterns and body language.

Feedback as a leadership tool
Leaders need honest feedback.
Feedback helps to understand impact—not just intent.
A feedback culture is part of professional development.

GET FEEDBACK REGULARLY

Transfer 1

Prepare and conduct conflict conversations systemically:
Choose a conflict-laden situation. Prepare using these questions:

  • Who is involved?

  • What are their perspectives?

  • What patterns do I recognize?

  • Which blind spots?

  • What is my goal?

  • Which stance do I want to adopt?

Conduct the conversation in a role-play with your buddy—get feedback afterward.
Transfer insights into your daily work (e.g., create a conversation guide).

Reflect

Reflect

Self-reflection and feedback integration:

  • Keep a stance diary for one week (What was challenging? Where were you authentic?).

  • Collect targeted anonymous feedback (e.g., using a feedback form).

  • Choose 2 impulses and formulate concrete steps for change.

  • Optional: Develop your personal stance statement in 3 sentences (“I lead by….”).

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