A leading-edge way for a person to practice contingency leadership would be to look for research-based evidence about the best way to deal with a given situation. Evidence-based leadership or management is an approach whereby managers translate principles based on best evidence into organizational practices. The systematic use of scientific evidence, along with evidence from other sources such as experience, had its origins in medicine about twenty-five years ago.

Quite often the best evidence is recent, but old principles can still be useful. For example, it has been known for at least a century that when a manager has too many subordinates, coordinating the work of subordinates is difficult. The alternative to evidence-based leadership is to rely heavily on common sense and adopting practices used by other companies, whether or not they fit a particular situation.

Evidence-based leadership and management is not yet widely practiced, but taking the study of leadership and management seriously will move managers and organizations toward basing their practices and decisions on valid evidence. The result is likely to be more precise contingency leadership.