Flexible Leadership: Navigate Uncertainty and Lead with Confidence

by Kevin Eikenberry

Become a more flexible leader in today’s unpredictable world with a revolutionary approach to applying leadership skills—while remaining steadfast in proven principles and your values.

Despite the billions of dollars invested every year into leadership development, leaders aren’t collectively becoming more successful. Existing tools like assessments, models, and styles have proven largely inadequate in equipping leaders for today’s age of work.

For leaders to succeed in a landscape more unpredictable than ever, they need a new perspective and a brand-new set of skills that center around what is missing in the models and existing flexibility.

Kevin Eikenberry, Chief Potential Officer of the Kevin Eikenberry Group, a leadership consulting company centered on a philosophy of lifelong learning, explains the need for and how to effectively harness this essential flexibility in this guide for leaders at all levels.

A roadmap outlining a new toolkit for leaders frustrated with their current effectiveness and confidence, Flexible Leadership teaches readers
Distinguish between what has and hasn’t changed in the world of work—enabling them to lead with greater success and leverage flexibility more effectively Efficiently use, but not rely on, existing and familiar leadership models Apply a framework to be more situationally flexible and effective every day without compromising their values
The flexible leader has a clear mindset and increased confidence knowing that they can respond to their everyday situations with greater success, instead of being overly reliant on restrictive and complicated tools that can get in the way. Flexible Leadership is every leader’s guide to greater success in a world of increasing complexity and chaos.

Genres: Leadership

224 pages, Hardcover

Published March 25, 2025

About the author

Kevin Eikenberry is a recognized world expert on leadership development and learning and is the Chief Potential Officer of The Kevin Eikenberry Group. He has spent nearly 30 years helping organizations across North America, and leaders from around the world, on leadership, learning, teams and teamwork, communication and more. Twice he has been named by Inc.com as one of the top 100 Leadership and Management Experts in the World and has been included in many other similar lists. He is the author, co-author or a contributing author to nearly 20 books, including Remarkable Leadership and bestseller From Bud to Boss (with Guy Harris), The Long-Distance Leader: Rules for Remarkable Remote Leadership and The Long-Distance Teammate: Stay Engaged and Connected While Working Anywhere (with Wayne Turmel). His blog is consistently ranked among the world’s best, most read and most shared on leadership. He's also the host of The Remarkable Leadership Podcast.

Reviews

[Chantelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This offers practical, actionable strategies for adapting your leadership style to the ever-changing workplace. Eikenberry argues that great leaders are flexible, adjusting their approach based on the situation, team, and challenges they face. The book emphasizes self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and relationship-building as keys to effective leadership.

The audiobook is narrated with clarity and engaging pacing, making it easy to follow. The narrator’s calm yet confident voice enhances the material, ensuring it’s both informative and enjoyable to listen to.

While the content is highly practical, some of the concepts may feel repetitive or basic for more experienced leaders. Overall, this is an accessible and insightful resource for anyone looking to develop a more adaptable leadership style.

A great listen for aspiring and current leaders alike.

[Jodi · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read for new leaders

If you’re new to leadership and wondering where to start, Flexible Leadership is an excellent first step. Kevin Eikenberry breaks down what effective leadership looks like in a way that’s clear, relatable, and encouraging.

What I appreciated most is how approachable this book is—it doesn’t overwhelm you with jargon or abstract ideas. Instead, it focuses on the real challenges leaders face every day and offers practical, flexible strategies to handle them with confidence.

This book helps you understand that leadership isn’t about having all the answers—it’s about being present, adaptable, and people-centered. A great foundation for anyone beginning their leadership journey.

[Josh Z. · Rating 5 out of 5]

In our ever-changing environment, leadership has to be flexible! Flexible Leadership does an amazing job pointing this out and giving us a roadmap on how to think about it and what to do about it. This book provides an in-depth journey into a very insightful and practical framework that you can start to use right away to better navigate your leadership challenges, regardless how big or how small those challenges may be. Every leader needs to read this book!

[Megan Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Flexible Leadership is a very good introduction to flexible leadership and how to implement it if you have never heard about the concept before. If I am being completely honest, this book does nothing that has not been done before. None of these concepts were new to me, but will be good for my students who are just learning about leadership.

[Kristie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall I feel this is a good approach to leadership, but nothing in here is necessarily new information. It also felt like most of the points were repeated multiple times just to make the book longer. The examples did feel well thought out. I did find it inappropriate to bring religion into a leadership book.

The audiobook is read extremely slowly, but sped up is fine.

[Guy Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Flexible Leadership, Kevin Eikenberry, lays out a great framework for thinking through the complexities and uncertainty of leadership. For leaders who want to continue learning and growing, this is a must read book to fine tune and refine the ability to consider the "both and" nature of leadership rather than depending on "either or" approaches to comples problems.

[E Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Learning how to balance and flex your leadership style and approach is key when developing others. This books gives you tools and time to reflect on accountability. Really good book for those in leadership from any level.

Thank you NetGalley for the audiobook!

[Shauna Morrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the fact that Kevin shows both sides of flexibility leadership and how each situation needs to be assessed to ensure you are using the correct approach.

Kevin did a great job narrating his novel and his appreciation for his supporters was so heartfelt.