There are more people in the world than you can ever work with; each one with their own unique personality. That personality and their unique life experiences shape these individuals, creating the potential for an effectively infinite number of human interactions. No leadership course or school can teach you the algorithm for dealing with each personality and each problem, it simply can't be done.
What can be done is for leaders to learn tools and strategies to help them lead. They can create a toolbox to draw from but that is all... beyond that, leaders need to improvise.
Leadership is not a static art that has been constant throughout the ages. There are certain facets and concepts that seem timeless, but as people change, so does leadership. With that in mind, leaders need to not only be free to improvise, but they need to be encouraged to do so. This goes back to that "if at first you don't succeed, try, try again," and Einstein's "insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result."
So, try new things, again, and again, using all of the tools in your toolbox, until you find the one that works, then add it to your toolbox. When that stops working, try and try again. We need to improvise not just to lead, but also to become better leaders so we can keep leading.
Do the leaders in your organization have room to improvise, or are they caught up in policies, procedures, and standardized leadership training?
-Alexander C. Cook MEng, MBA, PEng, PMP
-Image Source: http://quotesta.com/albert-einstein-quotes-insanity-3/