The shift from heroic individual leaders to collaborative, cross-functional ambidextrous leadership teams is indeed a defining feature of 21st-century leadership. This model recognizes that complex, fast-changing environments require divergent expertise: decentralized decision-making, and the ability to simultaneously exploit existing strengths (efficiency, optimization) while exploring new opportunities (innovation, adaptation). 

If you have ever been part of a Start-Up Team for a new business, you know that addictive excitement of high adrenaline.  It is exhilarating to be part of an innovative, cohesive and high energy team.   This type of team works as if everyone is an owner and all share accountability for the ultimate success of the project or business. That is the type of healthy exuberance we must replicate in our businesses today.

Here are prominent examples of organizations successfully applying this team leadership model:

Alphabet (Google):

1. 1. • Model: Highly decentralized structure with semi-autonomous business units (Google Search, YouTube, Cloud, Waymo, Verily, etc.), each led by its own CEO/President and cross-functional leadership team.
      • Cross-Functional & Ambidextrous: Each unit’s leadership team combines deep technical expertise (engineering, AI), product management, marketing, finance, and legal. Crucially, the overall Alphabet structure embodies ambidexterity:
        • Exploit: Core Google business (Search, Ads) focuses on optimizing massive scale and profitability.
        • Explore: “Other Bets” (like Waymo, Verily) operate as independent units with dedicated leadership teams focused solely on high-risk, high-reward innovation, shielded from the quarterly profit pressures of the core business.
      • Why it Works: Allows focused execution in core areas while providing resources and autonomy for moonshots. Leadership teams within each unit make rapid decisions relevant to their domain.

Haier Group:

• • Model: Pioneered the “Rendanheyi” model, dissolving traditional hierarchy into a network of thousands of self-managing, micro-enterprise teams (“Micro-Enterprises” or MEs).
  • Cross-Functional & Ambidextrous: Each ME is essentially its own small business with a cross-functional leadership cell responsible for its P&L. They must be ambidextrous to survive:
    • Exploit: Continuously optimize their core product/service for their specific market segment.
    • Explore: Constantly sense market changes, user needs, and technological shifts to pivot or launch new offerings. Failure to innovate means the ME loses funding/users and dissolves.
  • Why it Works: Pushes decision-making, innovation, and customer focus to the very edges of the organization. Leadership is distributed and entrepreneurial within each cell. Decision making happens on the frontline where it is relevant and actionable. There is no time lag and so business potential is seized and grown or discarded before the window of opportunity closes. 

Spotify (in its earlier, formative scaling phase – while evolved, the core philosophy remains influential):

• • Model: Famously structured around “Squads,” “Tribes,” “Chapters,” and “Guilds” (though implementation varies).
  • Cross-Functional & Ambidextrous:
    • Squads: Small, autonomous, cross-functional teams (engineers, designers, product owners, data scientists) responsible for a specific feature or user journey end-to-end. This is the core execution/exploit unit.
    • Tribes: Collections of squads working on related areas, led by a Tribe Lead who facilitates alignment and removes blockers. Tribe leadership fosters collaboration between squads.
    • Chapters/Guilds: Horizontal communities of practice (e.g., backend engineers, UX designers) providing skill development and knowledge sharing across squads/tribes, enabling exploration of new methods/tools.
  • Why it Works: Balances autonomy (squads innovate and execute quickly on their mission) with alignment (tribes ensure squads work towards common goals). Chapters/Guilds foster cross-pollination of ideas for broader exploration.

NASA (on Major Projects like Artemis or ISS Operations):

• • Model: Complex missions require integrated leadership teams spanning multiple centers, disciplines, and often international partners.
  • Cross-Functional & Ambidextrous:
    • Program/Project Leadership Team: Includes leaders from engineering (various disciplines – propulsion, avionics, life support), science, safety, mission operations, finance, procurement, and international partner liaisons.
    • Ambidexterity: Must relentlessly focus on mission-critical execution and safety (exploit existing systems/procedures) while simultaneously innovating to solve unforeseen problems, incorporate new technologies, and adapt plans in real-time during missions (explore).
  • Why it Works: No single leader possesses all the necessary expertise. Success depends on the integrated leadership team’s ability to synthesize diverse inputs, manage complex interdependencies, balance risk, and make unified decisions under extreme pressure, embodying both operational excellence and adaptive problem-solving.
  • This approach means that bottlenecks of centralized decision making and the assumption that team members are underage and irresponsible partners are both removed. 

Key Commonalities in Successful Applications:

• Clear Autonomy & Accountability: Teams have defined decision-making authority within their domain and are accountable for outcomes.
• Psychological Safety: Crucial for open debate, admitting mistakes, and proposing risky ideas within the leadership team.
• Strong Alignment on Vision/Goals: While decentralized, all teams must understand and work towards the overarching organizational purpose.
• Robust Communication & Transparency: Information flows freely vertically and horizontally to enable coordination and trust.
• Focus on Team Dynamics: Deliberate effort is put into building trust, resolving conflict constructively, and leveraging diverse perspectives within the leadership team itself.

This team-based, ambidextrous model isn’t just trendy; it’s a structural and cultural response to the overwhelming complexity and pace of change in the modern world, proving more effective than relying solely on a single visionary at the top.

This is why highly competent, multi-functional and multi-discipline Leadership Teams are a necessity and not a nice-to-have feature of the 21st century leadership model. 

About Author

Fay Niewiadomski

I awaken leaders to purposefully discern the best way forward, with such clarity, that they find within themselves the courage, wisdom, and compassion to do what they never dared to do before.

I’ve been privileged to work closely with C-level officers, presidents, ministers, global chairpersons, diplomats, board members, senior business and political leaders, and their teams to successfully navigate complex, high-stakes situations and make sound business and personal decisions resulting in profound and lasting change.

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