In this year’s survey, 40% say their organizations are putting even more emphasis this year than last on building a change-ready organization.

“We use the 4B analysis as we look at the workforce we’ll need in the future and determine how we are going to get it. Are we going to buy, build, or borrow the talent, skill, or expertise? Or does this task get transferred to a button or bot? This kind of analysis is done in every market, every function, every business line now.”

— Head of Corporate Training & Development at a Multinational Food and Beverage Company

44% of survey respondents say their organization will put greater emphasis this year than last on supporting workforce upskilling and reskilling in their leadership development programs.

“We have [many] technical people who are strong technical experts, but
with a lower capability in transmitting knowledge back into the leadership.”

— Head of HR in North America for a Multinational Transportation Company

Whether learning initiatives are designed to develop a skill, create alignment, improve collaboration, foster new ideas, or encourage changes in perspectives, they all have new requirements: they need to be more easily scalable, happen faster, and be delivered in context for the organization.

“Taking a broader view that considers how I can strengthen collective intelligence by supporting collective memory, attention, and reasoning can open opportunities to unlock the true potential of human-AI collaboration.”

— Christoph Riedl, “How to Use AI to Build Your Company’s Collective Intelligence,” HBR.org

In this year’s survey, 70% say it is important or very important for leaders to master a wider range of effective leadership behaviors to meet current and future business needs.

“The number one thing our business leaders need to do differently is to recognize that the things that have gotten them to the place they are—that they’re very good at— will not get us to the next level. [We all need] an internal introspection on not just our strengths and weaknesses, but on those things that we don’t like to do—and embrace the changes.”

—Senior Director, Learning and Development at a Global Health Care Company

Leadership today is far more than a set of skills and behaviors. Decisions about how and when to employ those skills and behaviors are crucial to leadership effectiveness.

“What’s out-of-date is the idea that a leader should adopt a fixed leadership style that’s agnostic to the specific context in which he or she is operating. A single approach to leadership, whether traditional or emerging, is not going to meet the myriad of challenges that today’s leaders face.”

—Jennifer Jordan, Michael Wade, and Tomoko Yokoi, HBR.org

Leaders today regularly face situations with opposing choices that look like solutions on their own but are actually paradoxical, with “contradictory yet interdependent elements that exist simultaneously and persist over time.”

“For many of us, these competing and interwoven demands are a source of conflict. Since our brains love to make either-or choices, we choose one option over the other. We deal with the uncertainty by asserting certainty.”

—Wendy Smith and Marianne Lewis, Both/And Thinking

In exchange for their dedication, many people now want a real commitment on the part of their employers to proactively help them enhance their skills and genuinely work to help them reach their full potential.

“Indeed, upskilling will always be a crucial aspect because while everyone recognizes the importance of communication and problem-solving … even with the increasing automation, human intervention remains vital.”

—HR Head at a Global Pharmaceutical Company

Sixty-eight percent of respondents expect the ability of all leaders to not just endure but embrace ambiguity and uncertainty to rise in importance

“This concept of teaching our leaders to be able to be prepared for a volatile and uncertain global environment is very important from a competitive standpoint.”

—Jennifer Jordan, Michael Wade, and Tomoko Yokoi, HBR.org

Forty-six percent anticipate there will be a greater need to adapt to the penetration of emerging technologies, such as generative AI

“Many decisions which were traditionally made by leaders based on research or data analytics are being replaced by much faster automated decision making. The problem is a lot of people don’t know how to use it and so they waste either a lot of time trying to understand how it works or trying to prove it wrong if it doesn’t agree with their judgment … I think upskilling that talent is becoming a huge challenge for the CEO.”

—Partner business development at a global technology company

Seventy-six percent of respondents say there will be more demand for human-centric skills, such as communicating with empathy and demonstrating high social and emotional intelligence

“Employees now expect their manager to care about them personally … They will share that they are emotionally struggling, which rarely happened before. One of the changes is being able to more holistically engage an employee appropriately … but many leaders still don’t know how to do it.”

—Chief people officer at a global technology company

Forty-eight percent of respondents share there will be a greater need for the ability to ensure productivity and business growth amid growing adoption of gig, hybrid, and dynamic models

“Keeping quality staff and making sure that we have our pipeline of people coming through behind them—given the remote work culture that we now work in—is more of a challenge than it used to be.”

—Business development head at a pharmaceutical product distribution company