Tempered Tenacity: The Leadership Required to Work Across Boundaries

Abstract

The chapter introduces the notion of “tempered tenacity” as a way of theorizing a combination of cognitive, behavioural, and emotional aspects of leadership practice which enabled 25 National Health Service (NHS) leaders to work well across boundaries. Using Action Research methodology, we explore how seeing organizations through the lens of complexity science became a helpful way for leaders to rethink the nature of boundaries, leadership, and change. These leaders discovered the power of small, often repeated gestures in building relationships and creating the conditions for dialogue to achieve what one called “wedlock over deadlock”. Emotionally, the dominant theme was the resilience required to keep going despite setbacks and delays. Further research is required to explore the usefulness of tempered tenacity more broadly.