Leadership for Modern Times

Given the uncertainty in the world of work, it's crucial to be creative, rethinking our assumptions, as well as to implement disruptive innovation, say Adam Grant, ATD's 2025 Talent Development Champion Award winner, and Whitney Johnson, this year's Thought Leader Award recipient.

During challenging times, employees often become hesitant to take risks. Leaders set the stage, notes Johnson. "When people want to hunker down during uncertainty, it's because they're experiencing what I call 'change saturation'—the proverbial pond is too flooded for new lily pads to take root. Recognizing this resistance isn't laziness but self-preservation; astute leaders create conditions where change becomes possible."

Before asking people to disrupt themselves, Johnson continues, leaders must establish stability through transparent communication about what's changing and why. Once they make the case for change, and employees feel safe enough to change, leaders should right-size challenges by breaking down large transitions into small, manageable steps.

"We need leaders and managers to support job crafting," adds Grant, "encouraging people to customize their tasks and interactions to better align with their interests, skills, and values." According to research Grant conducted with colleagues Amy Wrzesniewski and Justin Berg, when people have the opportunity to craft their jobs, they become happier.

Citing the Academy of Management Discoveries article "Can You Outsmart the Robot? An Unexpected Path to Work Meaningfulness," Grant recounts that employees who had autonomy took advantage of it in a positive way. "Instead of giving in to their fear, they took the initiative to figure out where robots were unreliable and then made their jobs more meaningful by focusing on the tasks where they outsmarted the robots." It's critical for leaders and managers to give people freedom to modify their roles.

Essential leadership skills

"We used to promote people based on ability, but now there's a growing premium on agility," Grant explains. "There's no area of competence that matters more than the capacity to advance and adapt to change. It's not enough to be committed to learning—leaders and managers need to be invested in unlearning. Whereas learning depends on the curiosity to seek new ideas, unlearning demands the courage to abandon old assumptions."

Johnson states that leaders must balance competing demands—providing stability while driving change and encouraging autonomy while maintaining accountability. Great leaders also display high growth intelligence, accurately recognizing where individuals and teams are on their S curve of learning. "Leaders today aren't just managing individuals—they're nurturing entire ecosystems," Johnson notes. That requires systems thinking to understand how various S curves interact and influence one another.

The future

Amid the angst, Johnson sees reasons for optimism about the future of work. She explains that the intersection of technology and leadership development can fundamentally alter how each person unlocks their potential. "Technology transforms growth conversations from annual events into ongoing dialogues," she points out. Data can reveal patterns in employee learning and development that would otherwise remain invisible, allowing for more precise and personalized growth strategies that benefit both individuals and organizations.