I n extremis: adverb. At the point of death.
In situations where followers perceive their lives are threatened, leadership literally defines the promise of future life, and capable leaders are therefore desperately sought by those at risk. Such high-risk situations, though challenging and inhospitable for researchers, are ideal settings in which to seek and find great leaders, and to assess how they might be different from those of us who lead in more mundane contexts. For the past two years, colleagues and I have been studying authentic leadership occurring under circumstances where the injury or death of followers must be actively avoided. We've found that men and women who lead other people in places and through situations that most of us would find intimidating, if not outright horrifying, will often behave in ways that may provide insights into our own leadership. We refer to such leaders and situations with a unique term, in extremis, meaning "at the point of death."
We define in extremis leadership as giving purpose, motivation, and direction to people when there is imminent physical danger, and where followers believe that leader behavior will influence their physical well-being or survival. In extremis leadership is not a leadership theory. It is simply an approach that views leader and follower behaviors under a specific set of circumstances-contexts where outcomes mean more than mere success or failure, pride or embarrassment. Outcomes in in extremis settings are instead characterized in terms of hurt or healthy, dead or alive.
In extremis leadership differs from the popular concept of crisis leadership. In crisis leadership, the focus is on how leaders react when thrust unexpectedly into an extreme challenge, disaster, or circumstance. Crisis leadership is based largely on military history vignettes and corporate case studies that seem to support recommendations for leaders to communicate better, to care more, to try to stay calm in the face of calamity.