Who said leadership was easy? Well, no one will be in 2025. A hurricane of forces, from technology to government legislation, are increasing the complexity and costs of running and building a workforce, all of which will drive the following leadership trends…

Conscious intuition

As with the past few years Artificial Intelligence will continue to power the next industrial revolution. But it also means business leaders need second sight when it comes to deciding which candidates are using the technology to hoodwink employers and gain an unfair advantage in the recruitment process. This is particularly frustrating at a time when attracting and hiring the right people has never been more important.

As this problem intensifies in 2025, will leaders instruct HR to make the hiring process much more rigorous, through competency-based interviews, mind-blowingly accurate job descriptions and forcing candidates to do incredibly detailed presentations? Or will they simply go back to basics by meeting candidates face to face and trusting their instincts?

Imposing more rigour will help drill down into a candidate’s capabilities, but at the expense of getting to know the person hiding behind them. Meanwhile, solely trusting gut feeling will simply be going back down the road that led to the many diversity and inclusion issues prevalent today.

Of course, nothing’s simple in leadership and a big 2025 challenge is blending the two effectively to strike the right balance between intuition and science – heart and head – that overcomes the drawbacks of each and emphasises their benefits.

The aim is to correctly gauge a candidate’s character and personality to ensure they are the right fit for the values of the business, while being aware of potential biases in play. This means building in the right science and technology to ensure objectivity, while carefully gauging skills and key attributes. Call it practicing ‘conscious intuition’ to assess both the person and their capabilities as accurately as possible.

Empowering people to self-lead

The idea of self-management is gaining momentum, driven by the desire of the younger generation entering the workplace to take on more responsibility and gain from the sense of satisfaction and reputational rewards it can bring. So, to attract the best people, do leaders need to be better at delegation, collaboration and trust, over the traditional all-commanding role?

The answer is probably not just yet, because the dream of self-management is quite different to the reality. An increasing number of employees may want it, but few understand what this actually involves. Currently, it’s definitely the exception rather than the rule when people step up and self-manage successfully, in a way that delivers a great sense of fulfilment, develops their talents, and supports the business directly.

A key leadership challenge for 2025 is for leaders to learn how to help their people align these three factors more effectively. This will drive exceptional self-management and make every employee a leader in their own right, adding new drive and impetus to a business.

One thing’s certain. Leadership may be changing, but it will always be vital for business success when approached in the right way. Empowering people to lead themselves is the next piece in the leadership puzzle. This starts with investing in leadership programmes and career development to get the most from a workforce. This means thinking skills and character first, over job title and employee number to get to know your people better.

Consistent flexibility

If you’re starting to think that 2025 is the year of the leadership paradox, then you’re probably right. Over the next 12 months, businesses will need to put the necessary processes in place to ensure the new Employment Rights bill doesn’t starve them of the talent and human resources they need, despite the fact that it will be more expensive, complex and litigious to acquire than before. That’s, of course, thanks to the hike in employer national insurance contributions, flexible working from day one, and the zero-hour contract ban.

One strategy that will help is to develop the skills of the existing workforce, to reduce the need to hire. But new people will still need to be taken on, both in a permanent and temporary capacity. This means ensuring the HR and legal departments fully understand the new rules and develop policies and processes that can both protect the business and grow the workforce.

Building a pool of regular contingent workers that are experienced working in the business and understand its values and processes can help by creating a trusted flexible, yet consistent, talent source that can be called upon when needed. This may mean careful planning in advance for peak periods and even offering a retainer as an incentive. But it will drive more loyalty and productivity than taking on unknown quantities on last-minute zero-hour contracts.

Back to BAU

So, what does 2025 really mean for business leaders? Essentially, more complexity, more regulation and more cost, particularly in the hunt for talent!

Yet, two solutions are hiding in plain sight.

The first is cracking the AI and automation code to get the most from smart technologies and maximise insight from the growing data mountains. This will drive efficiency, free up your people for more productive work, and equip them with the ability to make faster, better decisions. And yes, reducing the need to hire and helping your existing employees self-manage.

The second is building a more balanced and flexible workforce by developing a strong contingent talent pool and hiring strategy. This involves not only leveraging contingent workers as last-minute gap fillers but embedding them as a strategic part of the workforce, contributing to long-term goals and innovation. With greater worker protection in place this burgeoning element of the workforce will continue to grow offering organisations a robust way to adapt to shifting demands while maintaining agility.

Ultimately, 2025 will bring a host of new challenges for leaders.

Business as usual then!