Flexibility First: Rethinking Leadership Fitness in a Shifting World
Every now and then, a big idea lands with enough quiet clarity that it lingers. McKinsey’s June 2025 ‘A new operating model for a new world‘ is one of those. It speaks less like a rallying cry and more like a systems-level nudge: If your strategy still feels right, but performance is lagging, maybe it’s time to redesign how you’re business is built to deliver that performance. This applies as much to us as independent businesses as it does to McKinsey’s corporate businesses. We’ve been thinking a lot about this at Thomas Jardine & Co especially through the lens of Leadership Fitness, where we explore not just what leaders do, but how well-prepared we are to lead through shifting terrain.
McKinsey’s “Organize to Value” framework is an evolution of their 7-S model that was designed for a previous, more stable world. The new model describes a 12-part operating model ( based around purpose, value agenda, structure, ecosystem, leadership, governance, processes, tech, behaviors, rewards, footprint and talent) all of which interact to shape an organization’s fingerprint. It’s complex. It’s messy. And it demands something more than linear thinking.
So, how does this connect with Leadership Fitness?
Flexibility: The Defining Trait
Among the four core capacities (strength, flexibility, endurance, and balance) it’s flexibility that emerges most clearly in the McKinsey narrative. Modularity, agility, AI-enabled workflows, and empowered teams are the hallmarks of the new design playbook. Rigidity is out. Responsive architecture is in.
Balance: The Quiet Force
But none of this works without balance. Twelve elements. Competing outcomes. System tensions that can’t be resolved, only navigated. The real test for leaders? Holding that paradox gently while still moving forward.
Strength & Endurance: The Anchors
Clear purpose, aligned rewards, and grounded leadership provide the base strength to act with intention, and endurance to sustain it. These aren’t glamorous traits, but they’re what keep systems standing when strategies flex.
So what?
If McKinsey gives us the blueprint, Leadership Fitness gives us the posture to use it.
Where are you most fit right now? Where could your leadership stretch a little further?
Contact us, we’re willing to listen
