The hidden imbalance when preparing for future shifts
Across industries, leaders are pouring time and money into building new capabilities like strategic foresight, digital fluency, and adaptive decision-making.
Capabilities designed to help organisations face the future.
The 2025 Korn Ferry CEO and Board Survey, which captured the views of senior leaders from global and Fortune 500 organisations, shows where that focus is heading. Nearly 70 percent named AI and technology proficiency as their top leadership priority for the next three years, with agility and crisis management close behind. Yet only 38 percent ranked emotional intelligence, and driving engagement fell to 20 percent.
It’s a revealing imbalance. One that’s showing up in every transformation program I see. The more we invest in technical capability, the more fragile our human capability becomes. We’re training people to compete with AI, not to lead transformation alongside it.
While walking, listening to Brené Brown’s new book Strong Ground, I was struck by how this plays out in practice. She talks about how organisations invest heavily in new capabilities yet rarely pause to examine the dysfunctions that will stop those capabilities from taking hold.
Paying attention to what’s happening
We keep upgrading the toolkit but not the operator. We invest in systems, frameworks, and digital fluency, but neglect the self-awareness, judgement, and relational skill that enable those tools to work under pressure.
You don’t build a house on a weak foundation if you want sustained performance, especially if that foundation is one where yesterday’s habits and unspoken dynamics are still running the show.
When you centre in the calm eye of the storm, you create space to notice what’s happening around you.
However, you also need to pay attention to what’s happening for you. How you react, decide, and relate determines how effectively any new capability is applied.
Brené Brown also refers to a myth that a human-centred approach undermines performance. Her research, and that of many others, shows the opposite. Performance drops when people feel de-humanised or unsafe to challenge, think, or decide.
Leaders stay steady when they see themselves clearly
Senior leaders can design the best strategy or operating model in the world, but if the environment isn’t primed, if people are bracing and reacting instead of thinking and responding, delivery will falter.
In my work, I describe these reactive patterns as our inner Zac and Zoe — the shadow saboteurs that surface under pressure. Zac and Zoe chase control because it feels safe, move fast without questioning direction, and hide vulnerability to avoid being seen as weak.
When those reactive patterns take over, new capabilities don’t stick. Transformation slows. The board asks why momentum has stalled. Again!
To ward off those types of board questions, remember that capability without self-awareness burns cash and credibility.
The leaders who hold steady are the ones who see themselves as clearly as they see the system.
They build teams that can withstand the next storm because they remember: awareness and insight always come before outcomes.
