How can leadership evolve in a volatile world?

As both personal observation and global surveys indicate, trust and optimism are in short supply. The speed of technological, economic, and geopolitical change leaves people feeling unsettled, leading to a sense that circumstances are stacked against them. Against this backdrop, there is a failure of leadership, which has not been able to keep up with the pace of change, let alone shape it to the benefit of people and the planet.

To do better, the foundation must be strong. The essential building blocks of leadership are a sense of service, ethics, and rigour. Aristotle noted almost 2,400 years ago that "we do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly… We are what we repeatedly do."

The members of the Forum's Young Global Leaders (YGL) Community understand this, too. In a recent survey, they ranked having a moral compass as the single most important leadership skill; empathy was second.

Traditional leadership models — built on linear planning, centralization, and top-down command— are not sufficient. The challenge is not to prepare leaders to navigate uncertainty but to thrive in it. That is why the most forward-looking organizations are working toward a new model of leadership, based on a different set of premises.

The world has become more complex and it is simply not possible to control, or even see, every variable. Modern leaders forge a shared sense of purpose, trusting others to do the things they know best.

There will always be moments when one person in authority must make difficult decisions. But getting to that point is best done through collaboration. Great leadership doesn’t come, or at least not sustainably, from the brilliance of one but from bringing together the best efforts and creativity of the whole. The goal for organizations is to become leadership factories, cultivating not only skilled executives but workforces empowered to create solutions.

Leadership can be lonely, but leaders never have to walk alone. Moreover, they shouldn’t want to. The longtime CEO of ASML, Peter Wennick, told the authors of A CEO for All Seasons: "Nobody on the team is more important than what we’re trying to do together. Nobody, not even the CEO."

Co-creation implies the decentralization of leadership. For that to work, there must also be shared responsibility. To make this work, one critical component is the ability to listen and engage in dialogue, at every level. Leadership then becomes about convening, delegating agency, mobilizing collective intelligence, and being open to new perspectives, including the next generation.

At the beginning of the pandemic, then-president and CEO of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, Michael Fisher, had a daily "to-be" list—qualities he wanted to emphasize on that day. That helped to centre his leadership as the hospital managed the Covid crisis while creating a sense of shared purpose across the entire organization and with other community institutions to chart the next steps.

Experience, expertise, and a sense of perspective matter, which is why the top of the organizational ladder is typically occupied by people with decades in the field. As Chevron CEO Michael Wirth notes, without institutional knowledge, "you miss out on some of that continuity and history that can be so helpful."

But these attributes are not everything. In new leadership models, other qualities gain greater weight, widening the leadership pipeline to different kinds of profiles and people, including younger ones. "Part of being successful," notes Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman, "is imagining what will happen before it happens." That can be particularly important in industries where change is accelerating, and where the young generation often has a surer touch. Including the next generation can jump-start a process of constant renewal that is essential to resiliency in an ever-changing world.

Many of the rewards of leadership, such as money and status, are the product of a given moment—a great earnings report, for example, or a decisive election. It is no wonder, then, that people fall into the trap of temporal myopia, focusing on immediate success rather than on unlocking enduring outcomes. But ultimately, short-term thinking can undermine trust, resilience, and long-term positive outcomes.

To avoid this trap, leaders can ask themselves: "What if I'm wrong? What should we keep or let go for future generations? What kind of leader does my organization need?" The qualities inherent in these questions, including humility, open-mindedness, and patience, are those that promote a sense that the next quarter is not the priority. Netflix cofounder Reed Hastings makes it a habit to question assumptions, asking his team to imagine what failure could look like: "It's ten years out, and Netflix is a failed firm. What are the different causes?" It takes nerve to lead this way, but by challenging complacency, leaders build resilience.

Business leaders believe that change is accelerating and models of leadership are not evolving fast enough to meet the challenge. The World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on Leadership is creating a laboratory to test and then speed up this evolution. Only then can we shape the future we want.

One premise of this work is that tomorrow’s leaders need to know how to listen deeply, learn continuously and then act collectively – enabling the strategic shifts in leadership outlined above. Another is that leaders’ success should be measured not only in terms of conventional metrics, but in the trust they inspire, the resilience they foster, and the legacy they leave.

As Plato, Aristotle's teacher, put it, "Leadership is not the power to command, but the power to serve." By evolving in these three ways, leaders can serve their constituencies better—and succeed on their own terms, too.

With thanks to the World Economic Forum GFC on Leadership, the Forum of Young Global Leaders, and Marie Sophie Muller, Insights Lead, The Future of Leadership.