Part 3: New Leadership Skills

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Emerging Skills – New Competencies for the Future. 

The future of leadership is taking shape in an environment marked by unprecedented technological advancements, societal shifts, and complex global challenges. To thrive, leaders must move beyond timeless and evolving skills to embrace entirely new competencies. These emerging skills—Ethical Foresight, Agile Leadership, Deep Work, and Empathy-Driven Innovation—represent the foundation for navigating uncertainty, inspiring innovation, and driving sustainable success.
This article explores why these skills are critical in today’s fast-changing world, what they look like in action, and how leaders can begin developing them. By understanding these competencies, leaders can equip themselves and their organisations to not only meet the challenges ahead but to shape a future defined by trust, adaptability, and human-centered progress.

Ethical Foresight

Ethical foresight is the ability to anticipate and navigate potential ethical implications before decisions and actions are taken. It involves proactively identifying risks, evaluating long-term consequences, and ensuring alignment with organisational values, societal expectations, and stakeholder priorities. Leaders with ethical foresight excel at making principled decisions in complex, ambiguous situations, maintaining integrity while balancing competing demands.

Why It Matters

As technology and global operations advance, ethical missteps carry severe reputational and financial risks. Leaders must proactively address ethical challenges to build trust, foster accountability, and ensure sustainability in their practices. Foresight is critical for creating a culture of integrity that adapts to emerging dilemmas.

Why It’s Becoming Crucial

AI and Globalisation Amplify Ethical Complexity: As AI adoption accelerates and operations span diverse cultural landscapes, the potential for ethical missteps grows. AI systems, built on data reflecting existing biases, can unintentionally perpetuate discrimination or exclusion. Leaders must have the foresight to identify and correct these blind spots before they escalate into larger issues.

Pressure to Innovate and Deliver Quickly: The race to market with innovative products or services often prioritises speed over scrutiny. Leaders face growing tension between achieving results quickly and ensuring decisions are ethical, sustainable, and inclusive. Ethical foresight helps navigate these pressures by embedding ethical considerations into the innovation process without compromising agility.

Interconnected Stakeholder Expectations: Global audiences—including employees, customers, and regulators—demand higher levels of transparency, accountability, and cultural sensitivity. Decisions made in one region can have ripple effects worldwide, requiring leaders to anticipate ethical implications across diverse contexts.

What Developing, Skilled, and Talented Leaders Look Like

The complexity and stakes demand a higher baseline of ethical competence for all leaders:

Developing: Struggles to foresee potential ethical issues; often reactive rather than proactive in addressing challenges.

Skilled: Anticipates common ethical risks, integrates ethical considerations into decision-making processes, and aligns actions with core values.

Talented: Demonstrates exceptional foresight by identifying complex, long-term ethical risks. Builds a culture of integrity, inspires others through transparent leadership, and designs systems that mitigate ethical challenges, setting new standards of integrity for their industry.

Example of a Talented Leader: When implementing an AI-driven hiring system, a talented leader ensures the algorithm is rigorously tested for bias, educates stakeholders on ethical safeguards, and establishes an oversight board to continually review fairness and accountability.

How to Develop Ethical Foresight

1. Deepen Understanding of Ethical Frameworks: Study models like utilitarianism, deontology, and stakeholder theory to guide principled decision-making.

2. Engage Stakeholders: Build systems for collecting feedback and fostering dialogue around ethical concerns from diverse perspectives.

3. Scenario Planning: Practice identifying potential ethical risks through simulations and case studies to refine anticipation skills.

4. Audit Decisions: Regularly review organisational choices to identify patterns in ethical blind spots or overlooked implications.

5. Collaborate with Ethics Experts: Work with ethicists or advisory boards to strengthen accountability and evaluate decisions critically.

Applications in Business

  • Establishing robust governance for AI and data privacy.
  • Developing transparent ESG reporting practices that pre-empt ethical risks.
  • Creating policies to manage supply chain ethics proactively.

Recommended Resources for Further Learning

  • Books:
    • “The Responsible Company: What We’ve Learned From Patagonia’s First 40 Years” by Yvon Chouinard and Vincent Stanley
    • “Moral Leadership for a Divided Age: Fourteen People Who Dared to Change Our World” by David P. Gushee and Colin Holtz
    • “Ethical Intelligence: Five Principles for Untangling Your Toughest Problems at Work and Beyond” by Bruce Weinstein
  • Courses:
  • Articles and Tools:

Agile Leadership

Agile leadership is the capacity to lead diverse, multi-skilled teams in fluid, dynamic environments by fostering adaptability, collaboration, and continuous improvement. It emphasises decentralising authority, empowering teams, and unifying them under a shared vision to achieve goals in a non-hierarchical, fast-paced world.

Why It Matters

While adaptability and continuous improvement have always been valuable, the context in which leaders operate has fundamentally shifted. Agile leadership is not just about individual flexibility—it’s about reshaping organisational structures and leadership styles to navigate a decentralised and interconnected work environment.

Why It’s a New Skill

Shift from Hierarchies to Networks: Organisations are moving away from rigid hierarchies toward more flexible, networked models. Traditional hierarchical models, which relied on top-down control, are increasingly being replaced by fluid, networked organisations. Agile leadership requires leaders to guide teams where decision-making is distributed and collaboration happens across boundaries.

Leading Diverse, Multi-Skilled Teams: Leaders must unite employees, gig workers, contractors, and remote teams with varying skill sets under a common purpose. Managing this diversity while maintaining alignment and productivity is a new challenge.

Evolving Collaboration Methods: Modern teams work asynchronously across time zones, use digital tools as primary collaboration methods, and often have competing priorities. Agile leaders need to adapt to these new realities, ensuring effective communication and cohesion without the physical proximity of traditional workplaces.

Changing Work Philosophies: There’s a greater emphasis on purpose-driven work, employee autonomy, and iterative processes. Agile leadership emphasises iterative problem-solving, where plans are flexible and adjusted based on feedback rather than rigid long-term strategies. This is a stark departure from traditional leadership focused on fixed objectives. Agile leaders foster an environment where these philosophies can thrive.

What Developing, Skilled, and Talented Leaders Look Like

Developing: Relies heavily on traditional management styles, struggles with delegating authority, and may resist new collaboration methods.

Skilled: Embraces some agile practices, empowers teams to make decisions within set boundaries, and adapts to new collaboration tools.

Talented: Fully integrates agile principles into leadership style, inspires teams through a shared vision, and leverages diverse skills to innovate and respond swiftly to change.

Example of a Talented Leader: In response to market disruption, a talented agile leader reorganises the team structure to be project-focused rather than department-focused. They implement collaborative tools like Slack and Trello, encourage open communication regardless of hierarchy, and create a culture where team members feel empowered to take initiative and experiment.

How to Develop Agile Leadership

1. Educate Yourself on Agile Principles:

    • Read Foundational Texts: Books like “The Agile Leader” by Simon Hayward and “Agile Leadership Toolkit” by Peter Koning offer insights into agile methodologies applied to leadership.
    • Explore Agile Frameworks: Understand Scrum, Kanban, and Lean principles to see how they can be adapted beyond IT and into general leadership practices.

2. Embrace Decentralisation:

    • Delegate Authority: Start giving teams more autonomy in decision-making to foster ownership and accountability.
    • Encourage Cross-Functional Collaboration: Break down silos by promoting projects that require input from various departments or expertise.

3. Adopt New Collaboration Tools:

    • Digital Platforms: Become proficient with tools like Microsoft Teams, Asana, or Jira to facilitate seamless communication and project management.
    • Asynchronous Communication: Learn to manage and lead teams that may not be online at the same time due to different time zones or flexible working hours.

4. Develop Cultural Intelligence:

    • Training: Participate in workshops or courses that enhance your understanding of cultural differences and how they impact teamwork and communication.
    • Inclusive Practices: Implement strategies that ensure all team members, regardless of background, feel valued and included.

5. Foster a Growth Mindset:

    • Promote Learning and Experimentation: Encourage teams to try new approaches without fear of failure.
    • Reflect and Adapt: Regularly review outcomes and be willing to adjust strategies based on feedback and results.

Applications in Business

  • Innovation Acceleration: Agile leaders create environments where ideas can be quickly tested and iterated upon, speeding up the innovation cycle.
  • Resilience Building: By fostering adaptability, organisations become better equipped to handle unexpected challenges.
  • Employee Engagement: Empowered teams often have higher morale and engagement, leading to better retention and performance.

Recommended Resources for Further Learning

Books:

    • “The Agile Leader: How to Create an Agile Business in the Digital Age” by Simon Hayward
    • “Agile Leadership Toolkit: Learning to Thrive with Self-Managing Teams” by Peter Koning
    • “Leadership Agility: Five Levels of Mastery for Anticipating and Initiating Change” by Bill Joiner and Stephen Josephs

Online Courses:

Articles and Websites:

    • Agile Alliance: “What is Agile Leadership?” – A comprehensive overview of agile leadership concepts.
    • Harvard Business Review: “Agile Leadership for Organisational Transformation” – Articles discussing the impact of agile practices on modern leadership.
    • Scrum.org: Resources on implementing Scrum and agile methodologies beyond software development.

Deep Work and Focus: A Counterbalance to Distraction

Deep Work is the ability to focus intensely on high-value, cognitively demanding tasks for extended periods without distractions. Developing this skill involves cultivating mental discipline, strengthening focus stamina, and rewiring habits to overcome the lure of multitasking and shallow work.

Why It Matters

Leaders face unprecedented levels of distraction, from constant notifications to ever-increasing demands for attention. Deep work allows leaders to tackle complexity with clarity, make high-impact decisions, and lead by example in fostering a culture of meaningful productivity.

Why It’s a New Skill

Cognitive Overload: The volume of information leaders navigate today is unparalleled, demanding sharper focus to filter, synthesise, and act effectively.

Decline in Attention Spans: The digital age has conditioned us for short bursts of attention. Deep work is an antidote to this, requiring deliberate effort to rebuild focus stamina.

Strategic Thinking Demand: Modern challenges necessitate sustained, high-level thinking—something only achievable through the disciplined practice of deep work.

What Developing, Skilled, and Talented Leaders Look Like

Developing: Finds it difficult to sustain focus for long periods; often reacts to distractions and struggles to prioritise deep over shallow work.

Skilled: Maintains consistent focus on high-value tasks, effectively manages distractions, and balances deep and routine work.

Talented: Demonstrates exceptional cognitive endurance, regularly engaging in extended periods of intense focus to tackle complex challenges and drive innovation.

Example of a Talented Leader: During a critical strategy overhaul, a talented leader carves out three-hour blocks over several weeks to deeply analyse market trends, synthesise input from key stakeholders, and craft a transformative long-term plan. Their discipline not only results in superior outcomes but inspires the team to embrace focused work.

How to Develop the Ability of Deep Work:

1. Strengthen Cognitive Stamina:

    • Begin with focused sessions of 20–30 minutes and gradually increase over weeks or months.
    • Use activities like reading complex material or solving challenging problems to train sustained attention.

2. Rewire Habits for Focus:

    • Practice mindfulness techniques to build awareness of distractions and improve mental discipline.
    • Set daily intentions to prioritise cognitively demanding tasks.

3. Train Attention Management:

    • Regularly challenge your ability to resist distractions by turning off notifications and practicing single-tasking.
    • Use techniques like “attention fasting” (deliberate periods without digital interruptions) to recalibrate your focus.

4. Develop Resilience to Boredom:

    • Engage in tasks that require extended effort without immediate rewards to build endurance (e.g., writing, detailed analysis).
    • Gradually reduce dependence on quick dopamine hits from social media or multitasking.

5. Adopt Reflective Practices:

    • Keep a focus journal to evaluate the quality of your attention during deep work and identify patterns in distractions or breakthroughs.
    • Reflect on outcomes to connect the value of deep work to personal and professional growth.

Applications in Business:

  • Strategic Planning: Deep work equips leaders to synthesise complex information and make decisions with clarity.
  • Problem Solving: Extended focus enables innovative, well-thought-out solutions to systemic challenges.
  • Modelling Focus for Teams: Leaders who excel at deep work inspire teams to value meaningful productivity over busyness.

Recommended Resources for Further Learning:

Books:

    • “Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World” by Cal Newport
    • “The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains” by Nicholas Carr

Courses:

Articles and Tools:

    • Focus Journal: Downloadable templates for tracking and reflecting on deep work sessions.
    • Harvard Business Review: “Train Your Brain to Focus Better” – Techniques for leaders to enhance cognitive discipline.

Deep Work and Focus: A Counterbalance to Distraction

Deep Work is the ability to focus intensely on high-value, cognitively demanding tasks for extended periods without distractions. It’s not simply a practice—it’s a fundamental leadership skill that requires mental discipline, the capacity to resist multitasking, and the ability to consistently prioritise what truly matters. Developing this skill involves cultivating mental discipline, strengthening focus stamina, and rewiring habits to overcome the lure of multitasking and shallow work.

Why It Matters

 Modern leaders face unprecedented cognitive challenges. The societal glorification of multitasking has conditioned us to value busyness over depth, fragmenting attention and undermining decision-making. Leaders who master deep work gain a competitive advantage, producing better results, modelling focus for their teams, and fostering organisational wellbeing. Leaders face unprecedented levels of distraction, from constant notifications to ever-increasing demands for attention. Deep work allows leaders to tackle complexity with clarity, make high-impact decisions, and lead by example in fostering a culture of meaningful productivity.

Why It’s a New Skill

The Myth of Multitasking: The digital age has perpetuated the idea that multitasking equals productivity. In truth, multitasking reduces efficiency, increases errors, and diminishes the quality of work. Leaders must unlearn this myth and embrace focus as a core competency.

Information Overload: The sheer volume of data and demands for attention today require leaders to cultivate the discipline to filter, synthesise, and act with clarity. Without deep work, critical insights are often missed or misapplied.

Strategic Thinking and Wellbeing: Deep work enables leaders to engage deeply with complex challenges, make thoughtful decisions, and reduce the cognitive fatigue and burnout that arise from shallow, reactive work.

What Developing, Skilled, and Talented Leaders Look Like

Developing: Finds it difficult to sustain focus for long periods; often reacts to distractions and struggles to prioritise deep over shallow work.

Skilled: Maintains consistent focus on high-value tasks, effectively manages distractions, and balances deep and routine work.

Talented: Demonstrates exceptional cognitive endurance, regularly engaging in extended periods of intense focus to tackle complex challenges and drive innovation. Fully integrates deep work into their leadership approach, modelling sustained focus to their teams and creating a culture that values meaningful work over busyness. Talented leaders use deep work to drive strategic innovation and impactful decision-making.

Example of a Talented Leader: A talented leader reimagines their team’s workflow to include protected time for deep focus on critical projects. By modelling this themselves—dedicating uninterrupted hours to complex strategic planning—they inspire their team to prioritise depth and achieve transformative outcomes on an organisational level.

How to Develop the Ability of Deep Work

1. Train Cognitive Stamina:

    • Begin with focused sessions of 20–30 minutes and gradually increase over weeks or months.
    • Use activities like reading complex material or solving challenging problems to train sustained attention.

2. Break the Multitasking Habit:

    • Reframe productivity as the ability to complete high-value work rather than juggling tasks. Practice single-tasking to build mental discipline.
    • Set daily intentions to prioritise cognitively demanding tasks.

3. Train Attention Management:

    • Regularly challenge your ability to resist distractions by turning off notifications and practicing single-tasking.
    • Use techniques like “attention fasting” (deliberate periods without digital interruptions) to recalibrate your focus.

4. Develop Resilience to Boredom:

    • Engage in tasks that require extended effort without immediate rewards to build endurance (e.g., writing, detailed analysis).
    • Gradually reduce dependence on quick dopamine hits from social media or multitasking.

5. Create a Ritual for Focus:

    • Establish pre-work routines (e.g., reviewing priorities, setting intentions) that signal your brain to enter a state of deep focus.

6. Adopt Reflective Practices:

    • Keep a focus journal to evaluate the quality of your attention during deep work and identify patterns in distractions or breakthroughs.
    • Reflect on outcomes to connect the value of deep work to personal and professional growth.

Why It’s Transformative for Leaders

For Leaders Themselves: Deep work reduces decision fatigue and provides clarity, enabling leaders to make impactful, long-term decisions rather than reactive ones.

For Teams: By modelling and encouraging focus, leaders reduce workplace busyness, boost morale, and enable employees to produce meaningful work without burnout.

For Organisations: Deep work enhances innovation, fosters better stakeholder trust, and ensures decisions are informed, strategic, and sustainable.

Applications in Business

  • Strategic Planning: Leaders can use deep work to analyse trends, synthesise complex data, and develop long-term strategies with clarity and precision.
  • Problem Solving: Tackling complex challenges requires the type of sustained focus that deep work fosters.
  • Team Productivity: Leaders who embrace deep work create an environment where team members are empowered to focus, leading to higher-quality outcomes and greater engagement.

Recommended Resources for Further Learning:

Books:

    • “Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World” by Cal Newport
    • “The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains” by Nicholas Carr
    • “Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less” by Greg McKeown

Courses:

Articles and Tools:

    • Focus Journal Templates: Track and reflect on deep work sessions to refine your approach.
    • Harvard Business Review: “Train Your Brain to Focus Better” – Practical strategies for leaders to enhance cognitive discipline.

Empathy-Driven Innovation: Designing for Real Human Needs

Empathy-driven innovation is a leadership skill that combines the ability to deeply understand human needs with the creativity and foresight to design solutions that address them. Leaders with this skill cultivate emotional intelligence, curiosity, and the capacity to navigate ambiguity, enabling them to uncover unmet needs and inspire transformative solutions. To refine this skill, leaders can leverage methodologies like design thinking and ethnographic research as frameworks for practicing and applying empathy in action.

  • Design Thinking: By learning and applying this framework, leaders develop their ability to identify user pain points, ideate potential solutions, and test prototypes. It strengthens their capacity to approach challenges from multiple perspectives and focus on human-centered outcomes.
  • Ethnographic Research: Engaging in immersive, observational techniques sharpens leaders’ understanding of the contextual and emotional realities of users. It builds the ability to uncover unspoken needs, fostering a deeper sense of empathy.

Why It Matters

As AI takes over transactional tasks, empathy-driven innovation becomes a defining skill for leaders. It empowers them to address not only functional challenges but also the emotional and social dimensions of problems, resulting in solutions that are impactful and meaningful.

Why It’s a New Skill

AI and Automation: With AI handling routine processes, leaders must focus on higher-order thinking, creativity, and emotional insight to differentiate their offerings and address unmet needs.

The Pandemic’s Legacy: The pandemic highlighted the importance of empathy in leadership, as businesses grappled with employee wellbeing, mental health, and customer experiences during a time of heightened vulnerability.

Shift Toward Purpose-Driven Organisations: Consumers and employees increasingly demand that organisations not only deliver value but also act ethically, inclusively, and with genuine care for societal impact.

What Developing, Skilled, and Talented Leaders Look Like

Developing: Focuses on functional solutions but overlooks the emotional or contextual needs of stakeholders. Innovation is driven by internal assumptions rather than direct engagement with users.

Skilled: Actively listens to stakeholders, gathers diverse perspectives, and integrates empathy into the innovation process. Solutions address both functional and emotional needs effectively.

Talented: Embeds empathy as a cornerstone of their leadership style, fostering a culture of curiosity and human-centered design. Talented leaders consistently create transformative solutions that are deeply aligned with user needs and organisational goals.

Example of a Talented Leader: A talented leader spearheads a redesign of their organisation’s onboarding process, consulting new hires from diverse backgrounds to understand their challenges and needs. They integrate these insights to create a program that not only improves retention but also fosters a stronger sense of belonging from day one.

How to Develop Empathy-Driven Innovation

1. Cultivate Emotional Intelligence: Strengthen your ability to identify, understand, and respond to emotions—both your own and others’. Emotional intelligence forms the foundation for empathetic leadership.

2. Immerse Yourself in Others’ Perspectives: Practice observing and engaging with diverse groups to build awareness of different lived experiences.

3. Learn and Practice Tools That Enhance Empathy: Develop your design thinking and ethnographic research skills to better engage with and understand users. Use these as platforms to refine your ability to uncover unspoken needs and co-create solutions.

4. Challenge Your Assumptions: Regularly question preconceived notions about what users or stakeholders need. Use data, conversations, and observation to validate or challenge your assumptions.

5. Reflect on Feedback: Seek honest feedback from stakeholders about how well your solutions align with their needs. Reflect on this input to refine your empathetic approach.

6. Foster Curiosity: Make a habit of asking “why” at every stage of a challenge. The more curious you are, the better equipped you’ll be to discover meaningful insights.

Why It’s Transformative for Leaders

For Leaders Themselves: Strengthens their ability to think creatively and holistically about problems, making them better equipped to navigate complexity.

For Teams: Fosters trust and psychological safety, enabling diverse perspectives and inclusive innovation.

For Stakeholders: Aligns business goals with human-centered outcomes, enhancing trust, satisfaction, and long-term impact.

Case Study: Building Empathy Through Skill Development
A global healthcare company sought to improve medication adherence among patients. To develop their leaders’ empathy-driven innovation skills, the company introduced ethnographic research training, teaching managers how to observe patients in their homes and uncover the deeper causes of nonadherence. Participants built their skills by identifying emotional barriers such as confusion over schedules and lack of community support. Guided by design thinking principles, they collaborated with patients to ideate and test solutions, ultimately creating an app with personalised reminders and peer support. This process not only delivered a 30% increase in adherence rates but also equipped leaders with lasting capabilities in empathy-driven problem-solving.

Applications in Business

  • Product Development: Designing solutions that go beyond functionality to address emotional and experiential needs.
  • Workplace Culture: Creating environments that prioritise employee wellbeing, inclusion, and purpose.
  • Customer Engagement: Building lasting relationships through authentic understanding and care for customers’ challenges and aspirations.

Recommended Resources for Further Learning:

Books:

    • “Creative Confidence” by Tom Kelley and David Kelley
    • “Change by Design” by Tim Brown
    • “Empathy: Why It Matters, and How to Get It” by Roman Krznaric

Courses:

Articles and Tools:

Conclusion

The emerging skills of Ethical Foresight, Agile Leadership, Deep Work, and Empathy-Driven Innovation are not optional for the leaders of tomorrow—they are essential. As the workplace evolves, these competencies will determine how effectively leaders can respond to disruption, align diverse teams around shared goals, and design solutions that are both innovative and ethical.

Investing in these skills is more than professional development; it is a commitment to building organisations that thrive in complexity and contribute meaningfully to the world. The time to start is now. Leaders who embrace these emerging competencies will not only secure their own success but will inspire and empower others to rise to the challenges of the next decade.

Looking ahead to the final article in this series, we’ll turn our attention to the question: How can organisations cultivate these skills in future leaders? Building tomorrow’s leadership pipeline starts with deliberate, strategic action today.

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About the Author

Jodie Osborn Avatar
Jodie Osborn
Jodie Osborn, CEO of PickleWork, is a seasoned executive with an illustrious career spanning nearly three decades. With a relentless drive for success, Jodie has been instrumental in shaping the course of PickleWork. With over 25 years of distinguished leadership experience, Jodie has navigated diverse roles with unwavering acumen. From strategic planning to operational design and delivery, Jodie possesses a unique talent for translating visions into tangible outcomes. Jodie is also writing a science fiction novel and training a very intelligent chocolate labrador, Toby, to become an exceptional Assistance Dog for their teenager.
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