Flexibility, Empathy, Risk-taking, Conflict Resolution – Do Modern Leaders Need to Be Superheroes?

2/14/2025

Olga Dzene, Figure Baltic Advisory leadership development expert

Data from the international human resources consulting company “Mercer” last year shows that a significant number (52%) of organizational leaders view inflation, currency, and capital problems as the most critical factors influencing their organizations’ future plans over the next three years. Slightly fewer (46%) believe that the speed of digital development and artificial intelligence will have a major impact, while 42% highlight the spread of alternative flexible work models. These challenges are faced by organizational leaders both in Latvia and globally. The “Global Leadership Forecast” (2023 data), the most comprehensive leadership study worldwide, reveals that organizational leaders are most concerned about the fragile instability of the workforce. Fifty-nine percent of leaders have indicated that the biggest challenge is attracting and retaining top talent, 50% emphasized developing the next generation of leaders, and 45% highlighted maintaining workforce engagement. This study clearly shows that the main challenge for today’s leaders is their employees - their productivity, engagement, retention, and development. This indicates that leaders are acutely aware of the role teams play in combating macroeconomic challenges.

Various studies and experts emphasize that change has become a constant factor in the labour market, which continuously impacts organizational leaders. The future will continue to bring digital transformation, integration of artificial intelligence into work processes, and the development of new innovative products. Therefore, an essential aspect of leadership challenges is overcoming uncertainty.

When considering the challenges faced by organizational leaders, global workforce trends must also be taken into account. In 2021, during the pandemic, when the desire for a better work-life balance, higher pay, remote work opportunities, or dissatisfaction with current jobs became more pronounced, the Great Resignation movement was observed. The years 2022 and 2023 saw the rise of Quiet Quitting, where employees do only the minimum required in their jobs without going beyond their basic duties. Finally, last year saw the rise of the Great Detachment phenomenon, characterized by a decline in employees’ emotional engagement with their work. Employees felt detached from their jobs, organizations, or colleagues. Key reasons for this were rapid and intense changes that drained and disillusioned employees, as well as the challenges of hybrid work and remote work—loss of emotional connections, distancing from teams, and a lack of understanding of the meaning of their work.

Today's and future organizational leaders must also consider that employees increasingly care about whether their compensation is fair. The pressure of the cost of living and easier access to salary information encourages people to question whether their pay is fair. Employees feel truly valued only when there is transparent information about compensation that aligns with job duties and workload. Employees expect equal pay compared to their colleagues. Unfortunately, it must be noted that there is currently a crisis of trust between employers and employees—employee trust in leaders and organizations has significantly decreased over the last two years, which reduces their willingness to engage and do more than required.

However, there are also numerous factors that motivate employees to stay in their organizations, even when they receive other job offers, and leaders can leverage these factors to retain their employees and achieve organizational goals. Data from “Mercer” shows that employees choose to stay in their organizations when they can take pride in the work’s purpose, feel a sense of belonging, and see their contributions valued. An important factor is also a leader whom they can trust, who advocates for their employees, fosters joy and fun at the workplace, provides opportunities to learn new skills, and utilizes technologies that simplify (rather than complicate) work.

All these factors highlight the importance of leadership qualities, but data from the “Global Leadership Forecast” shows that only 40% of organizations believe they have highly skilled leaders. Moreover, burnout rates are rising rapidly among leaders - nearly 72% report experiencing signs of burnout. Concerns are also raised by the relatively small number of leaders who find meaning in their work - 63% at the board level, 55% at the senior level, 47% at the middle level, and 41% at the lower level. The lower the leader’s level, the harder it is to find meaning in their work, which raises the question - how can a leader who doesn’t see meaning in their work pass that vision on to employees and motivate them?

Furthermore, motivation is not the only thing employees expect from their leaders today. Trends show that employees want a human leader who enables them to do meaningful work, express themselves, shows empathy, demonstrates genuine respect and care for employee well-being, and exhibits flexibility, offering the necessary support for each team member's unique needs.

Given that change is the only constant in today’s workplace, adaptive leadership is becoming increasingly important. This approach focuses on the ability to adapt to change, solve complex problems, and lead organizations in uncertain conditions. It involves employee engagement, fairness, transparency, flexibility, and the search for new solutions to overcome challenges and foster growth. Finally, it’s important to consider which leadership approaches are no longer acceptable in the labour market and what modern leaders should avoid. Here, it’s worth noting that employees no longer want to be strictly controlled “from the top” and work in environments of micromanagement. Today’s employees seek not only a balance between work and personal life but also the integration of the two.

From this, we can infer the skills that future leaders will need - aligning employee needs with organizational goals, emotional and social intelligence, conflict management between team members, reducing employee stress and burnout, ensuring clarity and clear goals in uncertain conditions, risk-taking, empathy in communication, giving and receiving feedback, and the ability to utilize various technological solutions.

Leadership in today’s dynamic workplace requires a unique combination of skills and approaches that blend empathy, technological expertise, and flexibility. To overcome challenges like talent retention, burnout prevention, and managing uncertainty, leaders must develop both technological knowledge and emotional intelligence. Only leaders who can effectively connect employee needs with organizational goals and foster trust will be ready to guide their teams and organizations through a time of continuous change while creating an environment where employees can thrive and feel valued.