The role of the traditional leader was developed in an age in which the world was focused on industrialization, making widgets (Bass, 2008). This contextual orientation still permeates organizations; however, these traditional ways of operating are insufficient to meet the complex problems facing the current healthcare system (Uhl-Bien & Marion, 2008). There is a need for dramatic change that impacts the social and economic operation of health care. Innovation is a subset of change that is both new and dramatic. Innovation dramatically changes the fundamental struc- ture of how an organization operates both socially and economically (Weberg, 2009). Three problems associated with traditional leadership assumptions will be discussed below: linear thinking, organiza- tional culture unawareness, and being unprepared for innovation.