The Contextual Leadership Principles recognise the overarching importance of contextual awareness and self-awareness in effective leadership. Leadership context and self-awareness are the enablers of the three Contextual Leadership sub-principles: adaptability, empowerment, and collaboration.  The markers for Context Awareness, Self-Awareness, Adaptability Empowerment, and Collaboration, are indicated below. 

The Contextual Leadership Principles are centred around the proposition that effective leaders are capable of leadership in multiple contexts. The extent to which a leader is capable of applying their adaptive capacity will determine sustainable success in their selected leadership context. Effective leadership occurs consistently when contextual factors are analysed and the required leadership profile is designed and aligned accordingly.  It is the alignment of the self and context that is a significant factor.

The key to successful leadership in different contexts is self-awareness. Self-awareness enables leaders to understand their strengths and the type of environment that will support these strengths and lead to self-supporting performance improvement. Leaders are required to continually improve themselves and their practices through self-awareness and awareness of the needs of others. Self-awareness is the fundamental overarching principle of Contextual Leadership that then supports leadership adaptability, collaboration and empowerment in the appropriate context.  Additionally self-awareness reinforces that there are some contexts that do not align to your natural or preferred working contexts which is the interdependency with context.

Leadership is a set of actions whether taken directly or by empowering others to act which fulfils visions and produces results, outcomes and consequences that otherwise would not have occurred The greater the leader’s awareness of the implications for a leadership approach associated with a particular organisational context, and of him- or herself in that context, the more they can either adapt their leadership behaviour to foster empowerment, collaboration and adaptation to meet the needs of the organisation and its stakeholders; or exit the organisation due to lack of alignment.