Rethinking responsibility
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Innovative thinking
Leadership, rewired: The power of paradoxical thinking
IMD’s Andrew Sharman sits down with Amy Walters Cohen, whose award-winning book Ruthlessly Caring challenges conventional leadership – and offers a paradoxical path forward in a world in flux....
IMD’s Andrew Sharman sits down with Amy Walters Cohen, whose award-winning book Ruthlessly Caring challenges conventional leadership – and offers a paradoxical path forward in a world in flux.
Leadership today demands what the brain resists: holding two opposing truths at once.
That’s one of the core messages behind Ruthlessly Caring, a book shaped not by a dramatic turning point, but by research – deep, structured inquiry into what leaders really need to succeed in a world spinning with complexity and contradiction.
For the book’s author, Amy Walters Cohen, the journey began with a study of future-ready leadership. The patterns that emerged – particularly around paradoxical thinking, the ability to lead through contradiction rather than resolve it – were too powerful to ignore. What started as a research initiative soon became something more: a lens through which to reimagine leadership itself.
As a senior leader, you can find yourself churning around with no time to pause and take a breath before the next thing comes along, often from left of field.
A spin cycle of change
The backdrop for Cohen’s book is dizzying: 12 mega-trends transforming the very DNA of leadership. She refers to it as “a washing machine effect”: a sense of being constantly churned without pause.
These mega-trends, from AI to climate change, from social media to behavioral economics, are not arriving in isolation. They are converging, overlapping, and reshaping the expectations placed on leaders in every sector.
“As a senior leader, you can find yourself churning around with no time to pause and take a breath before the next thing comes along, often from left of field,” she explains.
Some forces are clearly dominant. “AI is definitely front and center,” she says, citing how much systems can now understand – and manipulate – human hopes, fears, and choices. Social media, too, is a growing force in shaping not just reputations, but realities. “We are in the post-truth era,” she says. “False news travels six times faster [on X].”
Enter the paradox
Rather than prescribe tactics or frameworks, Cohen’s book points toward mindsets.
When asked to unpack the findings, she described five paradoxical ways of thinking that emerged during her research, which included interviews with top executives. The five highlighted in the book are:
- Ruthlessly caring
- Confidently humble
- Ambitiously appreciative
- Politically virtuous
- Responsibly daring
“It’s aspirational to embrace all five, but that is the aim,” she notes.
Each mindset pairs seemingly contradictory traits – empathy and performance, humility and confidence – and explores how leaders must hold them in balance.
It’s about leaders embracing the ruthlessly focused part of their job to drive performance.
Ruthlessly caring: not an oxymoron
The title mindset captures the heart of the book’s message. Leaders are being pushed to keep transforming their organizations just to stay relevant, Cohen says. And with that, comes difficult decisions.
“It’s about leaders embracing the ruthlessly focused part of their job to drive performance,” she explains. “And about having empathy and staying compassionate to people no matter what.”
What people remember most, she says, is not always what was done, but how it was done. “People want leaders to drive results and change, and they want you to step up and care for people.”
The paradox we avoid
Do some mindsets prove more challenging than others? Cohen thinks it is deeply personal.
“Each leader will have different strengths and role models that inform their style,” she says. “Leaders operate in different cultures, which will make certain mindsets come to the fore.”
Pressed to name her own struggle, she says: “Politically virtuous is not one that comes easily to me.” While she acknowledges its necessity, she says “I struggle with leaders who exhibit the worst form of political maneuvering.” The important thing, she suggests, is for leaders to seek influence without sacrificing their values.
It’s about what is on your plate, what are you grappling with – and then which feels more relevant to you.
Small acts, not sweeping change
So where should someone start? Cohen resists prescribing a single entry point.
“It’s about what is on your plate, what are you grappling with – and then which feels more relevant to you.”
Instead, she suggests leaders “be the scientific observer of your own leadership style.” By watching how you behave under pressure – and recognizing default patterns – leaders can start to see which mindsets they may be avoiding.
These are rarely grand gestures. “It’s the small habits you do differently that add up.” That is especially true when it comes to care, a word that is often misunderstood.
Care is not fluffy
Sometimes, people have the perception that the concept is “fluffy.” Cohen disagreed firmly, noting that leading with care while driving results is actually a huge challenge, but a necessary one.
“If you’re focused on pleasing people, you might avoid the harder conversations,” she says. “But real care means supporting their growth and development, even when it’s uncomfortable.”
Asked what early signals might suggest a leader is successfully embracing these paradoxes, Cohen offers a practical view.
“If you went for ruthlessly caring, leaders should be more performance focused. You should see shorter project timelines, faster decisions, higher utilization rates, more measurable outputs.”
Visible metrics like performance reviews and delivery speed can reflect the mindset in action.
Misuse of AI could fundamentally undermine the knowledge of humankind – that is my fear.
Paradox or peril?
So, what happens if leaders do not develop these mindsets?
“It would look pretty dire without a few of them,” she says. “Without ruthlessness, who is delivering results? Without care, who is looking after people? Without confidence, who do you trust to lead through uncertainty and change?”
But she highlights responsible daring as the most dangerous paradox to lose. “Without that, no one is driving positive change.”
When responsibility is absent, she warns, leaders can retreat, overwhelmed by complexity, or unwilling to confront uncomfortable truths.
“Challenges are tricky. People might think, why bother? Or stick their head in the sand. There are lots of ways you can retreat into your shell.”
In the end, Cohen stresses that paradoxical leadership is not about adopting new skills, rather cultivating deep personal change. “It comes back to embracing these mindsets in a way that’s consistent and authentic with who they are.”
And as the world continues to shift, she believes more paradoxes will emerge, especially as technologies continue to advance. “Misuse of AI could fundamentally undermine the knowledge of humankind – that is my fear,” she says.
“As it seeps into the things we rely on as evidence, such as research. There will be more paradoxes that leaders need to embrace in five years as technology comes in.”
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