Why integrated and regenerative leadership is vital for the future of global value chains

Leadership today means more than managing organizations: it means navigating complexity and confronting a rising tide of uncertainty. Disruptions of many kinds can no longer be seen as isolated events; they reveal how deeply interconnected and fragile our systems have become.

Take, for example, the unexpected blackout that impacted millions across Spain and Portugal in April – with initial suspicions ranging from cyberattacks to solar flares, with the cause now confirmed as technical and planning errors – or the US decision to exempt critical electronics like smartphones and computers from new tariffs, revealing the strategic weight of global value chains. Each of these moments underscores the same truth: the futures we must prepare for are increasingly volatile, ambiguous and interdependent.

This new reality demands more than technological foresight or operational resilience. It calls for leadership capable of navigating ambiguity, holding multiple truths at once and acting decisively under pressure.

As protectionism, geopolitical tension, climate change and rapid technological shifts reshape the foundations of global production, these pressures simultaneously expose both the vulnerabilities and the latent strengths of value chains. This duality invites deeper questioning: what is the true value of value chains? And what kind of leadership will sustain them?

Throughout history, the personal worldviews and value systems of global leaders have shaped geopolitical and geoeconomic dynamics. But in recent years, their influence has become especially pronounced, as real-time communication, digital interdependence and global supply networks amplify the speed and scope of decisions – with immediate consequences for the stability of value chains.

Similarly, industrial leaders, when guided by a purpose aligned with long-term human and planetary well-being, can drive more inclusive and human-centred transformation.

In response to the need for more adaptive, values-based leadership in an age of complexity and disruption, frameworks like the Inner Development Goals (IDGs) have gained global recognition, offering language and structure for cultivating human qualities that traditional models often overlook – qualities such as empathy, collaboration and ethical courage.

The IDGs has a framework based on five dimensions to act as a foundation for leaders facing complexity: being, thinking, relating, collaborating and acting. These can help us better communicate the inner skills needed for sustainable development.

Building on this approach, initiatives such as InEx – Inner Development for Global Sustainability, led by the Brazilian impact startup Neoliderança and backed by the Research and Innovation Support Foundation of Santa Catarina State (FAPESC), are working to bring inner development into practice.

InEx uses artificial intelligence (AI) to support reflective and regenerative leadership through a GPT-based digital mentor that encourages self-inquiry, strategic foresight and ecosystemic thinking – especially in industrial contexts. It embodies the IDGs as a compass for inner transformation and aligns with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

At the same time, Integrated Leadership, developed by the Unlocking Eve Foundation, offers a practice-based approach focusing on behavioural, relational and systems aspects of leadership. Informed by real-world challenges – particularly in life sciences and healthcare – it helps codify how inner awareness can be translated into courageous adaptive action when the stakes are high and clarity is scarce.

These frameworks are complementary in many ways. Both recognize that in today’s unpredictable world, leadership must be as much about internal resilience as external strategy. When inner development is combined with integrated, real-world practice, leadership becomes not only more coherent – but more human and more prepared for what’s next.

While the IDGs offer a vital conceptual foundation, initiatives worldwide are working to translate inner development into tangible practice. InEx blends AI, strategic foresight, human development and systems thinking to foster regenerative leadership. It centres on a digital mirror that helps leaders cultivate self-awareness, ethical imagination and ecosystemic vision — not by prescribing answers, but by nurturing inquiry.

This early-stage work reflects the spirit of integration – within, between, and beyond – that our futures require. Other initiatives, such as the Presencing Institute’s U.Lab from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also explore how inner work and collective sensing can trigger systems change. What enables this journey is not only individual courage, but shared purpose and trust.

At the heart of these transformations lies a powerful insight: courage does not only live in the individual – it emerges in the space between people. The Integrated Leadership: Power of Two framework builds on this truth, recognizing that the most effective transformation happens through trusted dyads: between co-leaders, cross-functional partners or public-private collaborators.

The Power of Two unlocks relational courage – the kind that allows for truth-telling, joint ownership and shared accountability. It expands leadership from personal mastery to co-steering, where no one person can answer “what’s next” alone.

Redefining leadership for the 21st century means moving beyond the myth of the lone genius or purely technical optimization. The true competitive edge lies in our ability to navigate complexity through integrated, human-centred leadership.

Whether in manufacturing, climate resilience or global health, the capacity to adapt, align and act across silos is no longer optional. Leaders who can manage paradox and embody courage, individually and relationally, will be the ones who sustain both value chains and the values they represent.

In this light, investing in leadership is not an HR initiative. It is strategic infrastructure that underpins resilience and relevance in a disrupted world.

As Bishop Mariann Budde writes in How We Learn to Be Brave, courage is not a one-time act but a discipline – a daily practice of choosing integrity over ease, truth over comfort and purpose over expedience.

This is the courage we need now. Not louder voices or bolder headlines; we’ve had enough of those. What the future demands is wiser, braver and more integrated leaders. Because when leadership evolves, so too can the systems we depend on and the futures we co-create.

“What life asks of us is courage,” wrote Brazilian poet Guimarães Rosa. To that we add: courage, when held alone, can be heavy. But when shared, it overflows – and becomes a force that transforms.

Integrated and regenerative leadership does not stand alone — it is built within us, and between us. And it is through this shared discipline that we unlock not only what’s possible, but what’s necessary.

Alexandra Augusta Pereira-Klen is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Advanced Manufacturing and Value Chains, while Eva McLellan is a member of the Global Future Council on Leadership.