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This paper aims to examine factors which influence how tacit knowledge is built and applied by client-facing consultants.

Qualitative methods (interviews, thematic analysis) were used to gather and analyse data from 15 consultants in an agricultural extension context.

Twenty-six factors about how tacit knowledge is built and applied to action emerged, and are presented grouped into four areas: tacit knowledge needed to be successful; how tacit knowledge is presently built; challenges in turning knowledge into action; and ways that building tacit knowledge might be better supported by the organization.

How the building of tacit knowledge can be accelerated for new organizational members will be of interest to those not only in agricultural extension, but more generally to those managers in organizations who must design and implement training and mentoring programmes for those who support customers and users of their products and services.

The findings provide insight into the mechanisms of building tacit knowledge in client-facing consultants. The experience-based perceptions about effective knowledge-building processes and strategies may contribute to more effective intake and training programmes for consultants.

The paper seeks to capture leadership tacit knowledge mechanisms built throughout leaders' careers. Learning to be a leader involves developing the tacit knowledge to give confidence in one's decisions. Most of the knowledge required cannot be acquired from explicit documents – rather, it is built through action, experience and reflection. This research focuses on leadership in the innovation context where learning potentially occurs through a variety of knowledge building processes.

Narratives from 31 leaders who have achieved success in innovation leadership were collected piloting a tacit knowledge articulation methodology. From the narratives, a model is proposed which is embedded in the leadership career pathways of these innovation leaders.

The findings suggest that leadership tacit knowledge mechanisms evolve with organisations' life cycle. A bi‐focal (developmental and “locus of knowledge“ factors) model was assembled to explain how successful leadership involves balancing “locus of learning” from internal and external sources and facilitating mind‐shifts (e.g. collaboration and communication paradigms underlying relationship and networking processes).

The study sample size was relatively small – further replications with a larger number of subjects and in different contexts are planned or under way.

This research has implications relevant to both leaders interested in bringing their organizations to their next developmental level and to practitioners because leverage points are identified at which interventions designed to share the lessons learned from successful leaders will be most effective.

Tacit leadership knowledge is not easily transferred into explicit “how‐to” instructions for consumption by a prospective innovation leader, yet it is a major source of competitive advantage. It is more appropriate to view innovation leadership development as a tacit knowledge building process in individuals and groups, rather than a knowledge transfer from knowledgeable leaders to wannabe leaders. A developmental model is proposed that integrates the changes occurring in learning patterns while firms expand their loci of knowledge.