This research aims to critically examine how people exercise authority (including governance, leadership, management, and command); to determine those capabilities and systems necessary to deliver more successful outcomes during situations of extreme context; and how through effective leadership, society can leverage unfortunate events to thrive, rather than merely survive? To achieve this, it is necessary to deconstruct the term leadership and examine the DNA of each of its components. To date, this has revealed concepts that had been lost to contemporary leadership thought and a theoretical spectrum which at times, struggles to cope with the dynamism present in extreme contexts.