The 24% leadership advantage no one talks about

In this piece, Otto Sonnenholzner, former Vice-President of Ecuador, and Eva McLellan, Country President and General Manager at Roche Slovenia, reflect on their leadership experiences during moments of national and organizational turbulence. Drawing on these lessons, they outline what they call "integrated leadership on the edge" – a framework for navigating complexity and division. Combining two contrasting styles of leadership can achieve what they have identified as a 24% increase in effectiveness.

What kind of leadership keeps the lights on when energy blackouts seem inevitable, maintains social cohesion amid profound political fragmentation, and protects lives during a pandemic with limited resources? Reflecting on his time in Ecuador, Sonnenholzner learned that legitimacy, not popularity, was the true currency of leadership. People would forgive mistakes, but not leaders who stopped listening or acted without transparency.

From her perspective leading Roche in Slovenia, McLellan found a parallel truth. By listening deeply and aligning leadership around a strong external focus on societal impact, she led the company back to double-digit growth and 89% employee engagement and building multi-sector partnerships that strengthened healthcare resilience beyond Roche itself. She came to see that leadership must deliver performance, while creating value that endures by improving the systems that sustain society.

Balancing these two forces may seem paradoxical, but it is a learnable leadership practice, and it proves to be highly effective. Research by Unlocking Eve, in collaboration with the Leadership Circle, spanning 20,000 leaders across 69 countries, reveals that those who integrate both autonomous strength and relational capacities demonstrate 24% higher leadership effectiveness.

That advantage is not abstract. It’s the difference between legitimacy and popularity. Between teams that perform and teams that transform. Between systems that work and systems that heal. The future of leadership is integrated leadership at the edge: the courage to hold opposing capacities together, and the power of humility to know we cannot face turbulent times alone.

The challenges of our time demand integrated leadership on the edge and the ability to navigate disruption, complexity and interconnected systems. That 24% effectiveness advantage? Here's what it looks like in practice:

These practices do not operate in isolation; they connect and work together. Sonnenholzner’s Ecuador experiences showed that integration is not an abstraction but a survival skill. During times of deep uncertainty, he had to balance firmness in decision-making with openness to dialogue, and strategic clarity with empathy for the millions affected. Where he failed to integrate, polarization grew; where he succeeded, there was common ground and resilience. In fragile democracies, integration is not aspirational; it is the only way forward.

In Slovenia, McLellan faced market headwinds, resource constraints and pandemic aftershocks. But simply measuring profit and efficiency missed what truly sustains performance: shared purpose, trust, belonging and societal impact. She and her leadership team introduced an Integration Scorecard that placed these human drivers alongside financial metrics, tracking engagement, trust and ecosystem collaboration with the same discipline as revenue or market share. The results spoke for themselves: double-digit growth, resilient first-time partnerships across sectors, and a culture grounded in care and accountability.

Much of today's anxiety about AI comes from viewing technology as adversary. We see it differently: Machines compute, while humans create meaning. Technology scales tasks and leaders scale care. AI processes data; humans build trust.

The real disruption is not technological but human. For the first time, intelligence is being externalized forcing us to decide what must remain distinctly human. Command-and-control leadership can be replicated by algorithms. Integrated leadership rooted in empathy, context and connection cannot. Technology can amplify human-centred care and decision-making, but cannot replace it. As we enter the age of AI in healthcare and governance, the defining challenge is not keeping up with machines, but leading in ways that make them worthy of trust.

Ecuador taught us: Legitimacy beats popularity. Slovenia taught us: trust and sustainable business strategy beats efficiency. Together we learned: integration beats traditional “leadership pilates”; the kind that focuses on posture and self-preservation over societal progress. That 24% advantage compounds across organizations, communities and generations.

Meanwhile, the world continues to grow more fractured. Geopolitical conflicts are intensifying, as climate disruption accelerates. Technological transformation outpaces our ability to govern it. The erosion of civic institutions grows. These are not separate crises requiring separate leaders with distinct skill sets; they are interconnected challenges that demand integrated leadership. But the temptation for leaders is to take refuge in tired polarities: strength or care, autonomy or connection, innovation or responsibility.

As members of the Global Future Council on Leadership about to meet in Dubai, we face an urgent question: Will we continue swimming with currents pulling toward polarization and simplification? Or will we make the difficult personal commitment to leadership that integrates these choices into coherent action?

The true measure of tomorrow's leaders will be their ability to hold the centre in an age that constantly pulls us apart. This is not the work of heroic individuals; it requires a community willing to cross boundaries and reimagine progress together. The leaders people forgive aren't the ones who make mistakes. They're the ones who keep listening.

Yielding is not losing; every agreement, however small, is a beginning; the radical untempered by the rational becomes destruction; the rational without courage becomes paralysis. These are not slogans but lessons lived in the fire of crisis; principles that can guide leadership in an age of division.

Like rivers meeting at a confluence, integrated leadership at the edge is a new force capable of propelling shared prosperity forward. We invite leaders across sectors to join us in building this new paradigm, grounded in integration and trust. The polycrises we face are not theoretical. They are unfolding now, demanding leadership that can hold opposing capacities together. The future of prosperity and humanity depends on it.

Eva McLellan and Otto Sonnenholzner are members of the Global Future Council on Leadership, World Economic Forum.