Composite Leadership Model
Build your own leadership style from the best traits in multiple people
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 91%
The Composite Leadership Model replaces the search for one perfect role model with deliberate synthesis. Start by observing several effective leaders, including people whose identity or background differs from yours. Extract a particular quality, behaviour, or practice from each rather than copying anyone wholesale. Then combine those selected parts into a leadership vision that fits your own values and circumstances. The mechanism is useful when representation is sparse: the absence of an exact precedent no longer blocks development because multiple partial examples become the inputs. Practice turns that composite into an authentic style rather than an imitation. Over time, feedback and experience reveal which borrowed elements genuinely fit and which should be discarded.
Origin
Purushothaman developed this approach at Deloitte when she saw strong leaders around her but hardly any women, women of color, or Indian women in senior roles.
Core principles
- 01A useful role model does not need to share your full identity
- 02No single leader has to embody everything you want to become
- 03Leadership style can be assembled deliberately rather than copied wholesale
How to run it
- 1
Survey the field
List six to ten leaders you have observed closely enough to evaluate. Include people outside your identity group rather than waiting for a perfect match.
Pro tip Use leaders from different roles so the pool contains varied strengths.
Watch out Do not confuse visibility or seniority with leadership quality.
- 2
Extract one useful part
Name the concrete trait, habit, or decision pattern you admire in each person. Keep the person separate from the practice so you do not inherit their whole style.
Pro tip Describe observable behaviour, not a vague label such as charisma.
- 3
Filter for fit
Compare each selected practice with your values, personality, and context. Remove anything that would require you to erase who you are.
Watch out Copying the dominant model unchanged can reproduce the pressure to conform.
- 4
Build the composite
Combine the remaining elements into a short description of how you want to lead. Make the result coherent enough to guide choices under pressure.
Pro tip Write the composite in your own language rather than naming the people it came from.
- 5
Practice and revise
Use the composite in meetings, decisions, and feedback conversations. Retain the parts that feel effective and authentic, then revise the rest.
Watch out A composite becomes authentic through practice, not through description alone.
In the wild
Purushothaman could not find an Indian woman leader at Deloitte to model. Instead, she observed six to ten white leaders, selected different useful parts from them, and combined those parts into her own vision of leadership.
→ She created a viable path to leadership despite the lack of an exact role model.
Common mistakes
Waiting for a perfect role model
Sparse representation can make the search endless. Use multiple partial examples instead of treating an exact identity match as a prerequisite.
Copying one person wholesale
Every leader also carries habits that may not suit you. Extract specific practices and keep ownership of the final style.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for emerging or underrepresented leaders who have access to varied examples but no obvious person to emulate completely.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal for someone seeking a rigid leadership script or avoiding the work of testing behaviours personally.
From the transcript
“what i ended up doing was taking from multiple people so i took from six or ten white leaders and kind of took different parts…”
“if you don't see it maybe i'm not it but i can pull from different people and have a vision of what i want that…”
From the episode
Deepa Purushothaman: Redefining Power In Corporate America
Deepa Purushothaman