In an era marked by intensifying disruption, geopolitical instability, and complex global challenges, the question of leadership isn’t just timely — it’s urgent. What does it take to lead effectively when systems are strained, assumptions are upended, and the pace of change regularly outpaces response?
Through our ongoing partnership with the International Leadership Association (ILA), CCL has been engaging deeply with these questions — bringing together C-suite leaders, senior government officials, and scholars from around the world. One thing is clear: Leadership as we’ve known it is being stretched. Traditional models are proving insufficient in the face of cascading crises, and organizations are searching for more adaptive, collaborative, and purpose-driven ways forward.
At the heart of this global dialogue is a new imperative — to move beyond static capabilities and develop the kinds of mindsets and methods that help leaders not only survive disruption but adapt and transform through it. As we heard in our Future of Global Leadership Summit in Singapore, today’s most effective leaders are those willing to reframe disruption as opportunity, challenge legacy assumptions, and lean into complexity with humility, confidence, and curiosity.
The future of leadership isn’t about knowing all the answers; it’s about asking better questions, fostering shared understanding, and creating space for others to contribute. Here, we explore 4 vital knowledge terrains that can help leaders build resilience, enable foresight, and shape meaningful change in an age of complexity and polycrisis.
Investing in Knowledge: Defining 4 Leadership Terrains
How can leaders become stronger in uncertainty, better at mitigating risk, and more capable of adapting? A starting point is shifting how and where we invest in knowledge. Four key domains can help leaders focus their energy and develop the agility required to thrive in complexity.
1. Knowing Your Challenges
We may not be able to forecast every crisis, but we must be clear about the challenges we face. Leaders who can distinguish between critical and less-critical challenges make better decisions and allocate resources more effectively.
“When we became involved in distributing COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic, we helped our leaders manage the downsides while looking for opportunities in the upsides,” John Graham, CEO, Zuellig Pharma, said at our global summit. “The key is finding those opportunities and using them to benefit our people and our organization.”
A practical way to sharpen this clarity is to conduct “challenge mapping” exercises within leadership teams — prioritizing issues not by urgency alone, but by their potential impact and complexity. Scenario planning is another powerful tool that helps teams consider a range of possibilities without being paralyzed by uncertainty. Getting the right balance of positive and negative scenarios is increasingly important.
2. Knowing What Is Possible
Rather than focusing only on what is desirable, leaders need to invest in understanding what is possible. This realism can ground strategy and build credibility with stakeholders. At the same time, leaders need to continuously inspire teams to move beyond limiting beliefs and stretch outside their comfort zone. Really understanding what’s possible, and inspiring others to reach beyond that, requires energy and resilience.
“Leadership is about what’s possible? I thought it was about what’s impossible. Leaders should lead people into what’s impossible,” said Aris Roumpos, Managing Director, Maran Ship Supplies.
Leaders who excel in disruption tend to reframe crises as springboards rather than setbacks. Possibility thinking means using constraints creatively — seeing roadblocks as redirections and adapting strategy accordingly. Possibility thinking creates a bridge between crisis response and meaningful transformation.
In practice, this means experimenting with pilot programs or innovation labs that allow ideas to be tested and refined quickly. Reframing risk as strategic learning — making small bets, measuring results, and scaling only when value and feasibility are proven.
3. Knowing Your Networks
Leadership in a polycrisis context isn’t a solo endeavor. It requires strong teams, diverse partnerships, and including and inclusive engagement.
“Leadership has become more of a team sport,” one executive shared at our Singapore summit. “Finding those opportunities to make a difference.”
Others echoed the need for openness: How many leadership teams are truly open and not closed? How many are curious and not overconfident?
Amidst chaos and uncertainty, many leaders tend to withdraw and concentrate on their teams and themselves. Paradoxically, these are the times when having the right connections in the network is most crucial. Leaders with more of the right connections are proving to be more influential and effective.
Reverse mentoring, multigenerational teams, and cross-cultural coalitions are more than organizational trends — they are necessities for navigating complexity. Building ecosystems of trust — inside and outside of organizations — enables faster, coordinated action.
4. Knowing Your Competence
Finally, leaders need clarity about their own competence and that of their organizations. What skills and capabilities exist? What needs to be developed? Matching strengths to challenges is key to agility.
“As leaders, we need to balance when to make fast decisions and stay true to ourselves. Most importantly, how to keep relationships and trust,” said Dimitris Raptis, former VP of Harley Davidson APAC.
Kevin McDonald, CEO APAC of Credera, added: “Effective leaders are authentic, humble, great coordinators.”
Competency and capabilities in this age are less about technical mastery and more about adaptive capacity and mindsets. Practical strategies include conducting regular leadership capability reviews that look at mindsets in addition to skillsets, and offering heat experiences, which are stretch assignments that encourage learning in unfamiliar and challenging conditions.
Moving Beyond the Unknown
Over centuries, an often-cited obstacle to change is the unknown. Acknowledging the unknown and restating its impact on the effectiveness of leaders has become draining. Instead, leaders should focus on framing uncertainty in actionable ways: asking better questions, investing in systems thinking, and prioritizing clarity of goals and learning.
“Times of crisis are like a game of Mahjong — how do you find order in chaos? We need to peel back what’s truly important, share a common purpose, and focus on promoting unity,” one leader shared. “The key is to bring people together around shared goals and hope.”
In the age of polycrisis, the what and how of leadership are changing. The most effective leaders will be those who embrace adaptation, practice humility, and lead with purpose. In such times leaders feel it appropriate to set clear targets and destinations, but the most effective leaders acknowledge that destinations are rarely stable enough to be achieved — and focus more on being adaptive within a direction of travel towards a destination.
Be Part of What’s Next
As CCL and ILA continue to explore the Future of Global Leadership, you can look forward to an upcoming podcast and regional report series. Add your perspective, share your voice on our upcoming podcast, take part in a research interview, and connect with a global community of leadership thinkers and changemakers. Register now to be part of what’s next and get early access to new roundtable publications.
