Seeing the Whole: A Story of Systemic Leadership
“I thought I was brought in to fix a broken process,” she said.
“But it turned out the process was fine — the system was hurting.”
When Amira joined the leadership team at a mid-sized design agency, she was told morale was low and deadlines kept slipping. Her task? Restructure the team.
But in her first few weeks, she did something different.
She listened. Deeply.
She mapped out not only who was talking in meetings, but who wasn’t.
She noticed that ideas from certain people were celebrated, while others barely made it into the room.
She looked at where friction occurred — and traced it back, not to personalities, but to unclear incentives and siloed communication loops.
And instead of starting with a reorg, she asked one simple question:
“What are we really trying to create — together?”
That’s when things shifted.
What Is Systemic Leadership?
Systemic Leadership is a practice that invites us to see the whole system — not just the individuals or surface-level problems. It asks leaders to step back, to observe the interconnections, power dynamics, values, structures, and hidden patterns that shape how work really gets done.
Unlike traditional leadership models that focus on the individual leader’s behavior or charisma, Systemic Leadership emphasizes context, relationships, and culture.
It’s less about having the answers.
And more about holding space for emergence — for inquiry, collaboration, and adaptive solutions that serve the whole.
Why It Matters
According to MIT’s Sloan Management Review, companies that apply systems thinking in leadership report a 36% higher capacity for innovation and are 28% more resilient in times of crisis.
At Thryve, we’ve seen that when teams adopt systemic leadership principles, they don’t just get better at solving problems — they get better at seeing themselves. And that’s where transformation really begins.
Practices of a Systemic Leader
Map the system – Understand relationships, feedback loops, and flows of power and information.
Listen with presence – Not just for what’s being said, but what’s not being said.
Host the dialogue – Create containers for collective meaning-making and shared insight.
Name patterns – Gently bring attention to dynamics that shape the group experience.
Hold paradox – Complexity often lives in both/and — not either/or.
Final Thought
Amira didn’t fix her team by imposing control. She held space for them to see themselves, and design their way forward. That’s the quiet power of systemic leadership: it transforms not through force, but through deep attention and trust in the system’s capacity to evolve.