The nonsense of Wax on, wax off

The Karate Kid is playing in cinemas, and I think: if “wax on, wax off” works for Daniel, then surely it’ll work for me too! So I throw myself into Shotokan karate. With my youthful extra pounds, I mostly excel at sweating on a cold gym floor. After losing a few kilos, I move on to taekwondo via Chuck Norris. No success there either—about as flexible as a broomstick. So I give aikido a go, convinced it’ll bring me ultimate control. Unfortunately, I’ve got the patience of a kid with a glitchy iPad. Only after some wandering around in a local jiu-jitsu club did I dare to think I had any grasp of self-defence.

Until reality stepped in. Twice.

First, during a shootfighting seminar, where a skilled opponent effortlessly slammed me to the mat. Since then, I know exactly how a turtle feels on its back, and how limited any style becomes once the situation changes.

The second time was at a Krav Maga seminar, focused on self-defence against multiple attackers. That didn’t go well either. Fixated on the person in front of me, I didn’t notice the one who had slipped behind. When that one put me in a chokehold, I was literally confronted with my blind spot. My vision went dark. Only afterwards did I realise how little I had trained for pure chaos. No structure, no sequence, no predictability.

Leadership is no different. There are no perfect styles—and certainly no scripts for chaos.

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The myth of the perfect style

In leadership circles, the idea still lives on that there is one style you must master to be successful. But just as a high kick is useless against a judo throw, a single leadership style doesn’t work everywhere. Research backs this up. In a meta-study, Antonakis and Day (2021) concluded that the effectiveness of leadership is always context-dependent. What works in a start-up may fail in a hospital. And what worked last month, could be outdated by next month.

So leadership today demands less allegiance to one doctrine and more capacity to combine, adapt and shift. Or, to extend the metaphor: it’s no longer a traditional martial art, but a kind of MMA where versatility is the biggest asset.

But your versatility is useless if you can’t see the bigger picture in which you operate.

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Chaos is the new dojo

Today’s leaders are in a kind of endless fight with multiple opponents at once: economic uncertainty, technological disruption, mental pressure on staff, rising customer expectations—and then there are the shareholders. In this complexity, leaders constantly face apparent contradictions: offering trust while keeping control, cutting costs while investing in people, reacting quickly while thinking strategically. At first glance, these choices seem mutually exclusive. But that’s exactly what defines a paradox: two seemingly conflicting truths that can’t be reduced to a single right answer, but that can co-exist—if you’re willing to balance.

We see this in the literature too. Uhl-Bien and Arena (2021) state that organisations are becoming less and less predictable and linear. Instead of stable systems, they’re complex networks where change and uncertainty are the norm. Leadership in such contexts, they argue, requires creating what they call “adaptive space”—room for innovation to emerge without collapsing the existing system. That doesn’t mean choosing between structure or freedom, but continuously seeking the right mix, depending on timing, people, and situation.

Staying clear-headed in such a strategic street fight is the real challenge—much harder than the controlled focus on a single opponent, neatly timed on a familiar tatami. That’s why balanced leadership isn’t a luxury—it’s a necessity.

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Balanced leadership

There are no perfect leadership styles, and certainly no scripts for chaos. So what we don’t need are leaders trying to score points with a few tricks or models. The social, ecological, and economic needs are simply too great for that. That’s why more and more leadership theories emphasise one thing: the raison d’être—and perhaps even the moral obligation—of modern leaders is to create long-term added value. Not just for their organisation, but for employees, clients, and society at large.

In recent frameworks like responsible and sustainable leadership, the focus shifts from pure operational efficiency to long-term wellbeing. That demands more than just vision. It takes the ability to stay on course in a constantly shifting context. In other words: it requires balanced leadership.

Balanced leadership is the ability to navigate flexibly between seemingly contradictory demands, without falling back on one fixed style or rigid method. It starts from the recognition that leadership is not a one-size-fits-all approach, but a dynamic practice of managing paradoxes, tailored to context.

So it’s no surprise that we at StreetwiZe embrace this approach. After all, we’re still family to StreetSmart, which supports street children worldwide through our mobile school. And anyone who’s ever seen a street worker in action—in Bolivia, Bangladesh, or Romania—knows that leadership there isn’t cast from a single mould.

Our facilitators not only support children in their development but constantly balance between giving autonomy and providing direction, between freedom around the mobile school and loyalty to a proven process. What works in Managua might clash head-on in Nairobi. And what landed well yesterday in Bukavu could backfire tomorrow in Bucharest.

Balanced leadership there isn’t theory—it’s daily practice. And strikingly: the skills needed on the street are the same as those needed in the boardroom.

It begins with value-driven action: knowing what you stand for and acting from values that go beyond quarterly goals. Leadership isn’t just about performance—it’s about creating meaning. That takes a clear and shared sense of purpose, a direction that connects and motivates people, even when things get tough.

To live those values, context awareness is crucial. Knowing what the moment demands, recognising when to adjust, sensing when to wait. What worked yesterday is often outdated today.

Next comes the ability to manage paradoxes: leaders who want to make an impact can’t afford black-and-white thinking. They must handle tensions between freedom and structure, closeness and distance, direction and autonomy.

That only works with cognitive flexibility: the ability to hold multiple perspectives at once, consider scenarios, and avoid locking yourself into one style or truth.

Then there’s self-awareness: recognising your own beliefs, reflexes and blind spots—and owning them.

Empathy is the glue that holds it all together. Not as a soft extra, but as a condition for building trust, understanding emotions and striking the right tone in meaningful conversations.

And finally, there’s decisiveness. Not just to act yourself, but to mobilise others. Because leadership isn’t about control—it’s about sparking energy in your team and your environment. That’s not a bonus, it’s a baseline for sustainable results.

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Cobra Kai had a point

In martial arts, there’s one golden rule: you learn nothing if you train alone. You need an opponent to keep you sharp, a coach to point out your blind spots, and other dojos to realise that your style isn’t always the right one. You only grow when you're actively challenged—physically and mentally.

Leadership is no different. It’s not a solo discipline but a collective sport. Today’s challenges are too complex, too layered, too fast for a single top-down vision to solve them. Balanced leadership, therefore, doesn’t just ask for self-reflection and agility—it asks for activating leadership in yourself and others. That means making space for initiative, sharing responsibility, and strengthening others in their role.

Because strong leadership doesn’t start with the strongest person in the room, but with the one who makes others stronger. That’s why strengthening the talents on the street is StreetSmart’s mission, strengthening the talents in your company is StreetwiZe’s mission, and striving for a world where every talent can flourish is the mission of the Mobile School Group.

Join us, and help shift the balance of leadership.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I suddenly feel an irresistible urge to try the crane stance on an imaginary opponent. After all, balance starts with yourself.

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Recommended reading
For those wanting to dive deeper into the themes of contextual and balanced leadership, here are some relevant academic and practical sources:

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