One important question in today’s corporate world: Which leadership style is more effective in running a successful enterprise? Previously, the research on the effectivity of transformational and transactional leadership styles was limited due to the mere comparison of one’s effectivity over the other. However, the single leadership approach may not yield more incredible benefits. The present study intends to explore the combination of leadership styles that are more effective in handling ill-defined problems. The study intends to explain the unique combination of future-focused charismatic, past-focused ideological, and present-focused pragmatic leadership in creating a conducive environment for knowledge creation and subsequent employees’ innovative work behavior (IWB). The software developers in IT companies registered under Pakistan Software Export Board make up the study population. The research comprised quantitative data collected from four cities in Pakistan: Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, and Rawalpindi, using a purposive sampling approach. PLS-SEM has been used for the analysis of 362 responses. The results found a positive relationship between charismatic and pragmatic leadership and employee IWB; however, the effect was insignificant for ideological leadership. The study found a positive association between Charismatic, Ideological, and Pragmatic (CIP) leadership and employees’ Knowledge Creation. An indirect relationship was observed for mediation analysis and found significant positive mediation of employees’ knowledge creation between CIP leadership and employees’ IWB. The findings depicted that there is no fit-for-all approach to leadership, and a context-specific CIP leadership approach may serve the best. The IT sector may yield more advantages from the study as the success of the software projects is based on IT professionals’ knowledge and innovative behavior. The present study has novelty as it is the first to explain the role of CIP leadership in employee IWB in the IT industry. Moreover, also novel in explaining the mediation of Knowledge creation between CIP leadership and employees’ IWB.