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Abstract
Contemporary business organizations are demanding models of leadership congruent with a contextual shift in culture and values. Systems thinking lies at the heart of this shift and focuses the leadership lens on person-context relationships as the unit of analysis. This study is an exploration into the meaning of leadership for one corporate leadership team self-described as systemic in nature. A phenomenological research lens was selected as the method of inquiry, specifically, the heuristic method. This method brings to the forefront personal experience and insights of the researcher by asking the question: What is my experience of this phenomenon and the essential experience of others who also experience this phenomenon intensely? Heuristics is concerned with meanings, not with measurements; with essence, not appearance; with quality, not quantity; with experience, not behavior. Eight core themes emerged from the heuristic process. The first, Support, functions as the framework or overarching structure for the model. The second, Core-Team Evolution represents the movement of the support model through time. The remaining six, Vision, Ground, Self-Awareness, Team-Success, Challenge, and Validation explicate the support model itself.