The Challenge of Acceptability and Predictability

During the COVID-19 pandemic I read a bunch of books. (Can we talk about it in the past tense yet? Not likely. We can at least say we see in our future the transition from pandemic to epidemic.)

Many were about popular or historic leaders. Some were written by noteworthy leaders. As I read the various perspectives on leadership, I recalled a framework shared with me by a friend almost 40 years ago about the interplay of acceptability and predictability. Here is an illustration of the framework:

Acceptability and Predictability Framework

The idea is that at times the actions of a person are acceptable to those people they lead. At times they are not. Likewise, at times the actions of a person are predictable. At other times they are not. I am not sure the perceived ideal is that the actions of leaders are always both acceptable and predictable (upper right quadrant). I know that unacceptable actions that are also unpredictable are always bad (lower left quadrant)

If leaders seek to develop faithful — yet empowered — followers, then the general pattern must be that their actions are acceptable. The more a leader is…