Prepare for 2025: The Five Top Leadership Trends We’re Watching

2025 is mere weeks away. Are you ready?

After dozens of podcast interviews and hundreds of offline conversations, we have a clear picture of the big concerns trending amongst CEOs and other top leaders. These five top the list.

Geopolitics. With over 70 nations holding major elections in 2024, expect a large number of policy shifts in 2025 globally. No business truly operates in isolation anymore. Take a hard, objective look at the new policies in your government, and the governments of your customers, suppliers, trading partners, and other stakeholders. How will these affect the way you operate, price your goods and services, and compensate your teams? Plan now to avoid disruption. Scenario planning is a very effective tool for this.

BONUS: Disruptions open the door to innovation. How you respond may well reveal the path to a greater opportunity than you had before!

REMEMBER: If the policy changes are substantial anywhere in your chain, there will be a period of economic swings and adjustment; be certain you have the cash reserves to ride them out.

AI and the Changing Nature of Work. Here’s a little secret: most of the world isn’t ready for Artificial Intelligence. (70% of economies are unprepared in this study from Boston Consulting Group, for example.) But that doesn’t mean we’re not using it. Other surveys indicate anywhere from 40% to 60% of office employees are using AI, while their employers still have no official policy about it—much less have formally adopted or developed in-house AI systems.

In addition to remote work, hybrid work, flex schedules, and stark generational differences, AI adoption proves that the nature of work will continue to change in 2025. We continue to believe people won’t so much lose their jobs to AI, but to other people who understand how to use AI well.

Energy and Environmental Disruption. AI gobbles gigawatts of electricity. So much so that Amazon hopes to augment regional electric grids with mini nuclear power stations. Cryptocurrency eats up power, too. Our growing populations do, as well. Utilities balance legitimate concerns of all this overtaxing their infrastructure, so expect growing pains as wind, solar, and, yes, even some nuclear sources come online. Meteorologists and climatologists are certain extreme weather will continue, if not grow, in the coming year, so plan for power outages. Harden your buildings and other assets to prevent losses from disaster, too. (This handy tool from the Washington Post shows how resilient your city is so you can start your planning.)

Leadership Growth. We can all wrap our heads around this one easily. As tech continues to accelerate its growth, the workplace can seem more sterile and less human. This remains a major reason people feel disengaged and continue quitting. The solution: human-centered leadership. Put your focus on your people in 2025. We could list dozens of steps to take, from daily gratitude to mental health programs to bonus pay. But the central step is to be authentic and genuinely care about your people; the actions to take will follow.

NOTE: We’re also seeing a sharp uptick in the art and science of followership. Expect to see more research on this—including how leaders must learn to sit back and become followers of their own teams at times.

The Importance of Mindsets. Resilience and abundance mindsets will be critical components of every leader’s toolkit in the new year. Resilience is obvious: with all the changes and disruptions in the coming year, being able to roll with them and recover clearly benefits you and your team. But abundance? Certainly – disruption always offers new opportunities. Leaders with an abundance mindset are better able to see the opportunities behind obstacles, changes, and chaos. Spot them, innovate, solve them…and instead of reeling, you’ll start thriving.

You’ll find further perspectives on the trends for 2025 in our latest podcast, as guest host Christopher Washington probes the wide-ranging knowledge of our founder (and regular host) Maureen Metcalf. You’ll find it now on Podbean at https://bit.ly/LeaderTrends2025, on YouTube at https://bit.ly/LeaderTrends2025-YT, or search for “Innovating Leadership: Co-Creating Our Future” on your favorite podcast platform.

What do you see coming down the pike in 2025? Let us know in the comments. It’s always better when we face the future together.

This article was adapted by Dan Mushalko from our podcast episode Economic & Geopolitical Shifts: The Trends Leaders Need to Know for 2025.

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