Leadership 2025: Right here. Right now.
- Catherine May
- May 27
- 6 min read
Insights delivered to a client at the beginning of the year prove to be even more valid as macro conditions become ever more challenging. How can leaders respond?
The context – what’s the world we work in like right now?
Working in developed western markets at the beginning of 2025, we are leading our people in a time of great challenge. With interest rates remaining stubbornly high in most markets and political environments pressured and febrile, businesses will find it hard to invest for growth, and will be under great pressure to offer value to customers. The core of the business challenge will be to deliver growth while managing the cost base – investors will be watching out for this. Margins and costs will be under pressure, and as leaders we will be expected to focus on keeping costs down and managing productivity.
In the markets, capital will flow fastest to businesses that can show they are well run. Track record will count for a lot, and performance will be under great scrutiny.
Looking at political landscapes, we had general elections in more than 50 countries in 2024, including many key western democracies. The implications of those elections are only just beginning to settle. Europe and the US are very unsettled politically and will continue to be for some time.
Turning to the social, health and wellbeing of each state we operate in, we will also have to contend with an epidemic of mental health issues which will impact on the capability of both our colleagues and customers. This is becoming a defining characteristic of our era.
As leaders we will need to balance all of these pressures and plan carefully to manage our own competency and capability. I recommend building in thinking time to regular weekly routine, time to gather insight, think strategically, and plan. If we have to deal with a crisis, this time can be freed for us to gear up our direct engagement with the work in hand so we can scale up to respond to the demands of a volatile environment.
The single most important job we can do as leaders right now is to inject energy into those around us.
We can help ourselves most by managing our workload well – looking at what we shouldn’t be doing, getting rid of it, and thereby freeing up more time to put to effective use in thinking strategically, scoping out the competition, finding inspiration and ideas for best practice, and strengthening our networks.
As leaders in our business what can we do to build culture, and a sense of belonging and engagement?
Data captured by a KPMG-sponsored project last year found strong correlations between high productivity and engagement and a sense of belonging. The project measured this by evaluating the alignment between individuals personal values and the values of their workplace (as they perceived them).
Unsurprisingly, CEOs and senior leaders recorded personal values that were closest to the values of their organisations. Data collected from deeper within businesses showed much more of a delta between the two – and less of a sense of belonging, and of a commitment to the workplace.
As leaders, we need to be culture carriers, showing our colleagues how our workplace culture aligns with characteristics and beliefs they value.
Harvard Business Review recently reported:
“The evidence is clear. Engaged employees perform better, experience less burnout, and stay in organizations longer.”
From a leadership point of view, the behaviours and actions that drive engagement can be summarised as falling under three headings:
1. Helping colleagues connect what they do with what they care about
2. Making work less stressful and more enjoyable
3. Rewarding employees with more agency, flexibility and time out in additional to financial incentives
Employees are more likely to feel they fit at an organisation that stands for social change. (Studies show that people are even willing to give up financial benefits to work for an organization that practices corporate social and environmental responsibility.)
Help your people see how their work is related to the organisation’s mission and purpose. Create communities of colleagues that have similar backgrounds or interests – employee resource groups. Consider the use of “job crafting” – allowing individuals to re-shape what they do. Offer opportunities to develop new skills or try new work tasks.
Grant employees more autonomy.
Autonomy is critical to fostering intrinsic motivation.
Focus on helping people to feel more confident. We tend to avoid tasks we don’t feel confident in – it is important to look out for this, and work with team members to develop the confidence to tackle and deliver tasks they might have been avoiding. Would some kind of mentoring arrangement be a good option for your group?
Be flexible around day to day routine. This gives agency to individuals, helps them feel more valued, less of a cog in the corporate machine. Working hours for professionals have been increasing for the last 30 years, representing a long-term decline in feelings of time affluence. Thus, rewarding employees with time (e.g., extra time off, paid vacations) on top of money (e.g., cash bonuses, equity) represents a direct route to increasing feelings of time affluence.
Leadership – what do we think it really is?
Ideals of leadership are rooted in our notion of famous heroic figures: Boudicca, Shakespeare’s Henry V, Abraham Lincoln, and in more recent times leaders bringing huge positive change such as Nelson Mandela or Lech Walesa. Huge figures that embody highly charismatic behaviours, individuals that put the greater good before their own, that inspire and create trust.
Students of leadership have been trying to analyse what it means to be a great leader for thousands of years. Much of the thinking around modern day leadership is still rooted in the work of the Italian Renaissance writer Machiavelli, and the thoughts he laid out in “The Prince”, his treatise on how to be a successful leader. “The Prince” was one of the first pieces of work to examine great leadership outside the military context, and gained great notoriety and influence very soon after its publication in the early 16th century. In it, Machiavelli identifies some key themes that we still see in the style and strategy adopted by successful leaders today including:
A talent for changing approach and style to reflect the change in mood of the people being led, and for winning the support and trust of the crowd.
A brave and confident approach to embracing risk
A deep, ingrained personal passion to succeed
Discontent with the status quo
An eye for talent: successful leaders surround themselves with strong, charismatic individuals
Machiavelli also had great respect for the insights that come with age and experience, believing that seasoned leaders learned from their experiences, which helped them to see successful paths forward from challenging situations.
Modern political and business leaders, and academics studying in this field still credit many of the key themes flagged in “The Prince” and note that they are at the core of excellent leadership today. Books and articles adapting learnings from this core approach are still being published by individuals who command respect for their insight into strong leadership, including the UK diplomat and politician Jonathan Powell and, the academic Erica Benner and the commentator Robert Greene. All of these have written books explaining how important the Machiavellian principles are for those seeking success leadership and power today.
For most of us, the business leaders we admire are those who exhibit confidence married with charisma. The most admired leaders are usually those who we feel care about the people around them and are working towards some higher purpose as well as creating economic growth. Looking at our own working worlds, most people report that they want to work for empathetic bosses, who are focused and strong, and from whom we can learn.
Stepping up to leadership in today’s working world means making careful judgements and choices about how we use our time, and challenging ourselves to think strategically about what activities we really should be doing to justify the responsibilities we have been given. Balancing that with a requirement to be champions of our business culture and values, and ensure that our people work as effectively as possible will be very challenging in 2025. The potential upside, however, is enormous. Good businesses will recognise the leaders that adapt and perform in these difficult times, and they will win respect and authority in their organisations, along with licence to continue to deliver, and to grow their remit. Professional respect, recognition for the right work done well, and the support and encouragement of our colleagues are great rewards for the leaders who get it right.
Catherine May is a leadership coach, board chair and non-executive director. Contact her here