Scaling the 21st-century leadership factory

Leading is more difficult now than ever before. Every hour brings CEOs and their teams a flood of new information about tariffs, geopolitical instability, social unrest, the rise of gen AI and other technologies, shifting demographics and workforce expectations, the business impacts of climate change, and much more. CEOs should address these and other compounding business challenges and make decisions as quickly and as accurately as possible—despite any gaps in knowledge and under intense scrutiny of stakeholders, shareholders, and the 24/7 news cycle.

The highest-performing leaders understand that along with every obstacle there may be a business opportunity—if they can approach periods of disquiet with calm, clarity, confidence, and a focus on future needs as well as current emergencies.

In the wake of extreme uncertainty, CEOs should take a step back and reflect on the leadership traits and capabilities that will define their own and others’ success in the future and embed these traits and capabilities into their organizations. The authors’  previous research on the art of 21st-century leadership, as well as our more recent thinking and discussions with CEOs on the topic, point to six critical traits for leadership success: positive energy, personal balance, and inspiration; servant and selfless leadership; continuous learning and a humble mindset; grit and resilience; levity; and stewardship.

CEOs in some of the world’s best-performing companies are setting themselves apart by standing up a leadership factory to develop tomorrow’s leaders today.

Building a leadership factory, which involves taking a systematic approach to identifying, nurturing, and empowering future leaders, is a group activity. But its lessons are more likely to stick, and growth opportunities are more likely to emerge, when CEOs, working closely with their leadership teams, take an active, hands-on role in building the factory.

To begin creating a leadership factory, CEOs and their teams should focus on the following critical actions and support them with enabling technologies and detailed metrics to ensure that leadership development efforts are having the intended impact.  Take the pen and outline the traits and attributes you want future leaders to have.  Engage your high potentials and mavericks—and get them into the field quickly.  Champion new approaches to risk-taking and learning.  Shape and ‘own’ high-impact interventions for leadership development.  Simplify and rewire the organization for faster decision-making.  And measure the impact of a leadership factory.  

As we rethink the future of work in a world of traditional methods, gen AI, and agentic AI, the one role that we know won’t be disintermediated is that of the leader. But CEOs can’t simply build next-generation leadership through attrition, reputation, or the winds of chance. By systematically investing in the development of 21st-century leaders, CEOs and organizations can create deeply connected and committed teams, driven by a shared sense of purpose, open to innovation and debate, confident and composed, productive and prepared, and, most important, impervious to the disruptions that will inevitably emerge.

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