Welcome to the Holos Glossary.

Language shapes how we think, lead, and change. At Holos, we use words intentionally - many familiar, some reframed - to support clarity, depth, and shared understanding in complex systems.

This glossary offers a window into the language we use when we talk about leadership, culture, and transformation. It’s not just a reference - it’s an invitation to explore how meaning evolves when we lead with authenticity, curiosity, and purpose.

An organisational state that embodies both high reliability, in which those processes that can be managed are being so, and those activities that require leadership are receiving equal attention. Both management and leadership contribute toward the achievement of the long-term vision and the organisation may be a disruptor in its market. Decision-making and ideas are widely distributed, and several business models may exist contemporaneously.
Agape (Ancient Greek, agapē), a Greco-Christian term referring to love, “the highest form of love, charity”. It embraces a universal, unconditional love that transcends and persists regardless of circumstance.
Leading from a place of personal authenticity and enabling it in others.
A style of leadership that creates sustained success by enabling everyone to be the best version of themselves (“Knowing yourself and being it skilfully in all situations”)
Knowing yourself and being it skilfully in all situations
The capacity to devote time, focus and attention.
A leadership style motivated by status, competition and achievement.
A leadership style that prioritises status over purpose and is motivated by competition and achievement. It only achieves short-term success because it is stealing from the future. Note it can describe “how” someone is rather than “who” they are when caused by triggering).
The reasons an organisation exists – includes Vision, Purpose and Mission.
The conditions we work within – including principles, behaviours and habits.
A combination of self-awareness, other awareness, maturity and global perspective.
The things that are going on in the world and our organisations that must be taken into account in pursuing the Cause and leadership.
A perspective that takes decisions by looking to others for validation, direction, or shelter.
The experience of an entirely new competitor entering a market pace and eating your lunch – such as Google, Amazon or Tesla
A mindset that takes value from natural and human resources while offering little or nothing in return.
The skill of designing and delivering experiences that help teams or groups to solve problems or understand complex concepts and a somatic level
Fix
An organisational condition in which there is duplication, crisis or panic, and too many tasks. Processes and practices are not fit for purpose and there is no leadership bandwidth for anything except execution.
Followership
The skill of seeing someone else doing something great and following, supporting and enabling them.
Future-Proof Leadership
The foresight and skill to use authentic leadership to deliver Sustained Success
Independent
A perspective that takes decisions primarily from the primacy of the self, possibly in competition with others, and usually for the short term.
Integral
A perspective that takes decisions by considering all available interdependencies, causes, and effects, to the maximum possible good of all life over the very long term.
Interdependent
A perspective that takes decisions by considering the connections around us and creating mutually beneficial results, usually for the longer term.
Leader
Individual personalities who seek to disrupt and make change.
Leadership
Enrolling and aligning people around disruption and change.
Management
Enrolling and aligning people around steady-state reliability and efficiency.
Median
The point at which there are as many above that number as there are below it.
Megatrends
A series of global experiments that we have already started and will change everything – for example – Decarbonisation, Digitisation and Ageing population.
Mission
The resources required for the pursuit of the purpose and vision.
Motivation
What truly underlies your intentions in wanting to effect a change; usually aligned to either status or purpose.
Ownership
An organisational state in which culture is beginning
to become the medium for success. Delegation and empowerment has moved out of decision-making centres and teams are beginning to align towards the achievement of a long-term vision. There is leadership bandwidth to horizon-scan and to pay attention to becoming fully Adaptable.
Perspective
How we take decisions in relationship to our current level of self-awareness and the awareness of our interconnectivity with others and the world.
Psychological Safety
The quality of feeling safe to speak out and act authentically in groups.
Post-Conventional
Businesses that disrupt themselves as a part of their business model (and disrupt other businesses by default). Conventional Businesses that are (were) able to be successful just by being reliable (and are/will soon be disrupted by post-conventional businesses.
Purpose
The reason why we exist as an organisation or team; the thing we are fundamentally here to do.
Reach
One’s ability and capacity to affect sizes of systems, for example yourself, a family, a team, an organisation, a region, a country, a bloc, the world – etc.
Reliability
An organisational condition in which internal processes and practices are as reliable as external ones. Goals are being met and promises being kept. Management is the preferred medium for achievement and leadership bandwidth is minimal.
Ruler, Rulers
A leadership style motivated by status, control and the maintenance of power.
Self
A perspective that takes decisions with only self-interest in mind.
Situational Agility
The ability to flex between the skill of leadership, management and followership sometimes in the same conversation.
Sustained Success
A culture and a system resulting from Authentic Leadership that enables a business to enjoy long term success regularly.
Triggering
The moment when one is emotionally stressed and becomes a lesser version of yourself – is exacerbated by hunger, tiredness, busyness etc.
Universality
An organisational state that exists beyond Adaptability, in which the general dreams and aspirations of humanity may also be bound up in the organisational purpose and reach, with business activities become relevant and useful to all.
Vision
The destination, insuring to all stakeholders, we may seek to reach through the pursuit of our purpose.
Visionary, Visionaries
A leadership style motivated by purpose, creating new power-bases, and the pursuit of an audacious vision.
An organisational condition in which there is duplication, crisis or panic, and too many tasks. Processes and practices are not fit for purpose and there is no leadership bandwidth for anything except execution.

The skill of seeing someone else doing something great and following, supporting and enabling them.
The foresight and skill to use authentic leadership to deliver Sustained Success
A perspective that takes decisions primarily from the primacy of the self, possibly in competition with others, and usually for the short term.
A perspective that takes decisions by considering all available interdependencies, causes, and effects, to the maximum possible good of all life over the very long term.
A perspective that takes decisions by considering the connections around us and creating mutually beneficial results, usually for the longer term.
Individual personalities who seek to disrupt and make change.
Enrolling and aligning people around disruption and change.
Enrolling and aligning people around steady-state reliability and efficiency.
The point at which there are as many above that number as there are below it.
A series of global experiments that we have already started and will change everything – for example – Decarbonisation, Digitisation and Ageing population.
The resources required for the pursuit of the purpose and vision.
What truly underlies your intentions in wanting to effect a change; usually aligned to either status or purpose.
An organisational state in which culture is beginning
to become the medium for success. Delegation and empowerment has moved out of decision-making centres and teams are beginning to align towards the achievement of a long-term vision. There is leadership bandwidth to horizon-scan and to pay attention to becoming fully Adaptable.
How we take decisions in relationship to our current level of self-awareness and the awareness of our interconnectivity with others and the world.
The quality of feeling safe to speak out and act authentically in groups.
Businesses that disrupt themselves as a part of their business model (and disrupt other businesses by default). Conventional Businesses that are (were) able to be successful just by being reliable (and are/will soon be disrupted by post-conventional businesses.

The reason why we exist as an organisation or team; the thing we are fundamentally here to do.
One’s ability and capacity to affect sizes of systems, for example yourself, a family, a team, an organisation, a region, a country, a bloc, the world – etc.
An organisational condition in which internal processes and practices are as reliable as external ones. Goals are being met and promises being kept. Management is the preferred medium for achievement and leadership bandwidth is minimal.
A leadership style motivated by status, control and the maintenance of power.
A perspective that takes decisions with only self-interest in mind.
The ability to flex between the skill of leadership, management and followership sometimes in the same conversation.
A culture and a system resulting from Authentic Leadership that enables a business to enjoy long term success regularly.
The moment when one is emotionally stressed and becomes a lesser version of yourself – is exacerbated by hunger, tiredness, busyness etc.
An organisational state that exists beyond Adaptability, in which the general dreams and aspirations of humanity may also be bound up in the organisational purpose and reach, with business activities become relevant and useful to all.
The destination, insuring to all stakeholders, we may seek to reach through the pursuit of our purpose.
A leadership style motivated by purpose, creating new power-bases, and the pursuit of an audacious vision.