Trust Plummets. Stress Rises.
When I set out to write “Be REMARKABLE! The New Leadership Mindset: Learn to Unlearn.” I did so in the firm belief that we have a leadership crisis. There are too many leaders are stuck in past modes of operation that are no longer suited to a world in constant flux, with unforeseen challenges shaping the landscape of business and society. Traditional leadership skills are no longer the sole reason for success. Today, leadership must be as much about mindset as skill sets. A leader must have a mindset that embraces constant change and can adapt.
Leadership 2025
The recent Global Leadership Forecast 2025 report from DDI supports my thinking.
The first three paragraphs of the report’s introduction sum it up nicely.
“In a world reshaped by extraordinary change, leadership has never been more critical and complex. The convergence of global disruptions, from the pandemic to artificial intelligence, exposes vulnerabilities while fundamentally redefining workplace expectations, testing the resilience of organizations and humans.
Today's business landscape demands more from leaders. While traditional metrics like profitability remain important, an organization’s health increasingly depends on its leadership. Employees‘ trust and loyalty must now be earned by creating environments where people feel respected, valued, and able to grow. Otherwise, talent walks out the door. Leaders must be agile—able to navigate rapid change, pivot strategies, and guide their teams through it, plus foster growth, drive innovation, and build genuine human connection. And they must do this while delivering business results.
Leaders shoulder all this responsibility: they must transform their organizations into more human-centered workplaces while building adaptable, resilient teams that can thrive amid uncertainty. The stakes are high. Organizations that fail to support and develop their leaders risk losing not just talent, but organizational resilience itself.”
The stakes are certainly high.
Be REMARKABLE!
This newsletter explores a few of the findings of the research that spans more than 50 countries and 24 major industry sectors. The Global Leadership Forecast series is the longest-running global study of leadership aimed at understanding current and future leadership best practices. This year’s study is the DDI’s eleventh forecast since the research started more than 24 years ago.
It also highlights how “Be REMARKABLE!” provides insights to transform not only yourself as a leader but to also transform your leadership strategy and strengthen organisational resilience.
“Be REMARKABLE!” Is an acronym for ten critical mindsets today’s leader must have as shown in this image from the book.
Trust
Trust is the currency of organisational success yet according to the report, it is in freefall. There is a widening trust gap between leaders and employees.
DDI’s research states that leaders can strategically rebuild trust by consistently practising four key behaviours.
1. Listen and respond with genuine empathy.
2. Encourage others to speak up without fear of reprisal.
3. Share thoughts and rationale for decision making.
4. Encourage others to challenge old ways of doing things.
The Empathetic and Listening mindset addresses the first two behaviours. You cannot be empathetic if you do not actively listen to what the other person is saying. To actively listen, you must be fully present in the moment, focus on what you are hearing, avoid all distractions, refrain from interruption, and seek clarification on what you have heard. You should remain impartial and non-judgmental.
You must create an environment where people feel safe expressing their feelings. Your employees must trust you if they are going to confide in you. They must feel secure that you will not judge, reprimand, or think less of them. There are two factors at play here. One is that you must create an environment of psychological safety.
The Adaptive mindset addresses the third and fourth behaviours. Adaptive leadership is about leading people through change. It is about leading teams in new and innovative ways, which requires the leader to build and maintain trust with their team. A way in which to build trust is through transparency. Transparent leaders are open and honest with their people. They involve their team in decision-making and share information widely, ensuring everyone is informed and involved regardless of location.
The Adaptive leader has the courage and skill to challenge the status quo and encourage others to do the same. They deploy themselves with agility and mobilise others to step into the unknown.
Stress and burnout
The report highlights that stress among leaders is surging, with 71% reporting a significant increase in their stress levels since stepping into their current role.
The research found that leaders are navigating an increasingly complex professional landscape, and their approach to stress management revealed profound insights into their leadership philosophy. Their top three stress management strategies are:
· Self-reflection (74%)
· Open discussion (71%)
· Engaging with learning resources (46%)
“Be REMARKABLE!” describes the mindful leader as one who has a Mindful mindset, enabling them to be present, in the moment, calm, self-aware, compassionate, and accepting without judgment.
Self-reflection
Self-reflection is a transformative practice that goes beyond stress reduction. In the book I use the term self-awareness and position it as a mindfulness practice. Mindfulness can reduce anxiety and stress, increase focus and attention, improve relationships, and elevate creativity. It does this by helping you to be self-aware, to self-regulate, and to practice emotional control.
Self-awareness is how you experience and understand your character, feelings, motives, and desires. You know your strengths, weakness, and leadership styles. There are two types of self-awareness. Internal self-awareness is how we see ourselves and external self-awareness is knowing how others view you. As a leader, you must work on internal and external self-awareness. You must work on seeing yourself clearly and getting feedback to understand how others see you.
Open discussion
The prevalence of open discussion reveals leaders’ understanding that leadership is fundamentally anchored on effective collaboration and communication. I capture this when discussing the mindset quality of “Known” and the characteristic of transparency.
Fostering trust means there is transparency in what you say and do. You must share information. You need to be open and honest. When you do this, it tells employees you trust them with the truth. People often intuitively know when you keep information from them, which implies you don’t trust them. With transparency comes trust and respect. Being transparent is perhaps one of the most challenging areas for many leaders. When leaders learn to be transparent, it means they must trust their employees with the truth. For many, this can be a giant leap of faith.
Transparency also means you share your own mistakes and challenges with your employees. It is when you dare to be vulnerable and admit that you messed up or got it wrong. It is when you say, “I don’t know the answer to that right now.” When you are transparent, others will be the same. They will share shortcomings, mistakes, and setbacks. It is far more powerful than hiding them.
Engage with learning resources.
Leaders who engage with learning resources possess a growth mindset, which is discussed as a trait within the Adaptive Leader mindset. Adaptive leaders have a growth and continuous learning mindset. Here is what continuous learning looks like within an organisation:
· People who make mistakes or experiment with new ways of doing things are not marginalized. They are recognised.
· When making strategic decisions, the company considers the perspective of many employees, especially those closest to the customer, consumer, or constituent.
· Planning and review sessions are regularly scheduled and include people from all levels of the organization.
· When something goes awry, it is acknowledged, assessed, and celebrated for its learning opportunity.
· Everyone is encouraged to take time out to refresh and gain new perspectives.
· Formal or informal boundaries do not hinder cross-functional communication, interaction, and collaboration.
· Reflection is encouraged on an individual and team level.
· Coaching and mentoring, as well as learning and development, are available to all employees.
· Everyone knows that plans reflect a point in time and will change as new information becomes available.
I also discuss knowledge as a competence within the trust model. Knowledge is your learning, insight, and awareness. Just like skills, you must continually work to increase your knowledge. You must have a growth mindset. With this mindset, you see opportunities instead of obstacles and are prepared to step outside your comfort zone to grow and develop.
A leader’s knowledge must be contemporary. Knowledge, like food, has a shelf life. What was relevant five years ago may no longer be relevant today. And expired knowledge, like expired food, is dangerous. The wrong knowledge can lead to you making the wrong decisions, bad judgments, and big mistakes.
Summary
The DDI report clearly highlights the risk of not addressing declining trust and increasing stress within the organisation.
Low trust levels point to a growing leadership credibility crisis. If it is not addressed, the erosion of trust will harm employee retention and the talent pipeline. Trust must be reestablished. It is achievable with commitment and courage.
The stress levels reported have left 40% of leaders considering getting out of a leadership role entirely. It is widely reported that a high percentage of young talent is avoiding taking on leadership roles due to the high stress situation. A structural breakdown of the leadership pipeline is happening.
The leadership mindset described in “Be REMARKABLE!” carefully outlines the mental shifts required to overcome these challenges and more that face leaders in 2025 and beyond.
CTA
I have built a Leadership Mindset Maturity Diagnostic for corporate consumption based on the “Be REMARKABLE! The New Leadership Mindset: Learn to Unlearn” publication. The diagnostic explores six dimensions:
· Unlearning and relearning
· Psychological safety and listening
· Empowerment and decision making
· Resilience and adaptability
· Recognition and development
· Value and behavioural integrity
It will provide personalised feedback to leaders and inform leadership development programs within your organisation.
If you are interested in finding out more, without any obligation, please get in touch – karen@karenferris.com