14 Coaches Share Leadership Challenges That Will Dominate 2025

As businesses continue to adapt to change and uncertainty, leaders are grappling with challenges that demand both resilience and adaptability. Professional coaches can play critical roles in helping leaders tackle these complex problems that can affect not just their careers and organizations, but also the broader business landscape.  14 Forbes Coaches Council members explore some of the key issues they anticipate focusing on in client coaching engagements in 2025. 

1. Targeted Networking.  Targeted networking is increasingly essential as remote work grows and industries evolve. Leaders need to build strategic, high-impact relationships—rather than broad, shallow connections—focusing on innovation, enhancing adaptability and providing critical insights across sectors.
2. The Human Aspect Of Using AI.  While AI holds the promise of doing more with less, the assumption is teams can apply it with intentionality, focus and care to alleviate errors and improve outcomes. Yet teams need strategic thinking time, iterative feedback and collaborative communication to do this effectively.
3. Understanding A Company’s Strategic Vision.  Having this understanding can sometimes lead to making decisions that may look like a short-term “loss” but, in fact, ultimately further the company’s long-term goals—it’s not always easily understood.
4. Self-Awareness.  A vital issue leaders face today is a lack of self-awareness, which will be a focus in 2025. Without trust and candid feedback from team members, leaders can lose sight of their strengths and develop blind spots, impacting team dynamics and outcomes. Self-aware leaders build confidence and foster growth, making it essential for people-first leadership in today’s complex workplace.
5. AI Transformation Anxiety.  Leading through AI transformation anxiety will dominate 2025’s coaching landscape. While C-suites push AI adoption, middle managers fear obsolescence, creating a dangerous implementation bottleneck. The critical challenge isn’t technical upskilling—it’s helping leaders transform fear into opportunity and guide teams through this seismic shift.
6. Modern Employee Expectations.  A key issue leaders face is adapting to the demands of the modern workforce, particularly the need for transparency, flexibility and purpose-driven leadership. This will be a major focus in 2025 because employee expectations are evolving rapidly, and leaders who fail to inspire trust and align with these values risk losing top talent and falling behind in innovation and engagement.
7. Talent Acquisition And Retention.  The competition for talent has grown more fierce, prompting organizations to revise their hiring strategies to attract a workforce that values flexibility and work-life balance. Leaders must communicate a compelling vision that not only draws in top talent, but also cultivates a workplace culture that supports long-term engagement.
8. Not Getting Behind And Feeling Overwhelmed.  A big challenge is not getting behind and feeling overwhelmed by the rapid speed at which things are happening in the world. Leaders must be proactive, plan for increasing consumer demand and disruptions, and ensure they have the right players on the team.
9. Shifting From A Profit- To A Purpose-Driven Mindset.  This is a critical topic because the innovation and talent of the business sector are too valuable to be focused on wealth generation alone. We need business leaders to step up to play on the bigger stage of purpose.

Learning To Delegate Problem-Solving, Constant Learning And Adaptability, Managing Teams Through Worker Shortages, Learning New Skills, and Aligning AI-Driven Innovation With Human-Centric Values.