Future-Ready Leaders

The role of leaders is changing. Whilst we sit and ponder the impact of AI on our future workforce, the shift of power has already begun.

Information is finding its way into the hands of those who need it faster and through fewer filters, enabling more autonomy in the workforce. Technology and greater access to data removes the need for middle managers to make routine decisions which can now be automated with relative ease. So how have leaders responded?

Unsurprisingly, some of those who traditionally held the most power within their organisation have tried to flex their power through control, for example by building restricted access to information into the design of organisational systems and workflows.

Is this really the best thing that we, as leaders, can do? How can we instead centre empowerment over control in this fast-evolving world?

As someone who has been studying the topics of leadership and power for the past 15 years and diving deep into the lived experiences and impacts of these on our psyche, I believe there is a vital role for human leaders to play in our future workplaces, but they are going to need a vastly different skillset.

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Future-ready leaders will be the guides who keep in touch with what is meaningful to themselves, to their team, to the audiences they are serving, and to our wider society. A key part of their role will be to see the organisation as something that fuels the individuals rather than the other way around. They will create the psychological safety required in their team for employees to innovate and thrive, which will include fostering vulnerability and authenticity. Where we as humans can add value is in our humanity.