{"id":3771,"date":"2025-04-02T19:22:57","date_gmt":"2025-04-02T19:22:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=3771"},"modified":"2025-07-09T15:14:36","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T15:14:36","slug":"leaders-paradoxical-mandate-of-current-success-and-innovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/leaders-paradoxical-mandate-of-current-success-and-innovation\/","title":{"rendered":"Leaders\u2019 Paradoxical Mandate of Current Success and Innovation"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher<\/a><\/p>\n

Business leaders and managers know disruptive technologies such as AI are going to upend a significant portion of what their company does. But does that mean that they have to throw out much of what they currently do? Many executives struggle to deal with strategic plans for dealing with a future marketplace where AI, machine learning, and related technologies are omnipresent, while simultaneously maintaining their company\u2019s current business model and core competencies.<\/p>\n

Academy of Management Scholar Wendy Smith<\/a> of the University of Delaware said that she\u2019s done research on business leaders who\u2019ve had to grapple with these kinds of tensions and issues balancing the present (the current technology and business model focused on short-term profitability) and the future (innovation and long-term sustainability).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe teach leaders to face these dilemmas and make really clear choices and move on and be really consistent within their strategy, but that\u2019s not what I found in the most successful leaders,\u201d Smith said. \u201cThe leaders who did it well were able to hold both the past, present, and future\u2014yesterday, today, and tomorrow\u2014the short term and the long term, the existing world and the innovation, hold them in their mind simultaneously and commit to both at the same time, and that\u2019s what we refer to as paradox.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such issues and tensions related to that paradoxical mandate come up in leaders\u2019 meetings about strategy, innovation, and sustainability. But it also comes up in our personal lives and how we make career decisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are all these questions that emerge, and we tend to experience them as either\/or tradeoffs, but underlying those binaries or paradoxical decision trees are the question of innovation and his relationship between the short term and the long term,\u201d Smith said. \u201cWhat we mean by paradoxical is that these dual experiences seem conflicting, or they are indeed in conflict with each other creating tension, but they\u2019re also interdependent contradictions that define each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd successful leaders can look at that paradoxical relationship, hold both aspects of it in their minds, and recognize that they have a much more creative, sustainable way of navigating these tensions, and that\u2019s what we call both\/and thinking, which is our lay language for explaining how leaders can accommodate the yin and yang, hold both opposing ideas in their mind, and embrace paradoxes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher Business leaders and managers know disruptive technologies such as AI are going to upend a significant portion of what their company does. But does that mean that they have to throw out much of what they currently do? Many executives struggle to deal with strategic plans for dealing with a future marketplace […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,21,19,342],"tags":[],"sp_smart_badges":[],"ppma_author":[70],"class_list":["post-3771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entrepreneurship","category-innovation","category-leadership","category-technology"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLeaders\u2019 Paradoxical Mandate of Current Success and Innovation - Academy of Management Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/leaders-paradoxical-mandate-of-current-success-and-innovation\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Daniel Butcher\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/leaders-paradoxical-mandate-of-current-success-and-innovation\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/leaders-paradoxical-mandate-of-current-success-and-innovation\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Daniel Butcher\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d1297a59039d9ca7bac9d9f0952e508c\"},\"headline\":\"Leaders\u2019 Paradoxical Mandate of Current Success and Innovation\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-02T19:22:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-09T15:14:36+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/leaders-paradoxical-mandate-of-current-success-and-innovation\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":404,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/leaders-paradoxical-mandate-of-current-success-and-innovation\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/innovation.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"ENTREPRENEURSHIP\",\"INNOVATION\",\"LEADERSHIP\",\"TECHNOLOGY\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/leaders-paradoxical-mandate-of-current-success-and-innovation\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/leaders-paradoxical-mandate-of-current-success-and-innovation\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/leaders-paradoxical-mandate-of-current-success-and-innovation\\\/\",\"name\":\"Leaders\u2019 Paradoxical Mandate of Current Success and Innovation - 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But does that mean that they have to throw out much of what they currently do? 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