By John Henderson
As we have entered the year 2025, it is time to focus in on what our people leaders need to be successful this year.
Let’s begin by defining “competency” – it is “Knowledge, skills, abilities and behaviors that contribute to individual and organizational performance.”
In looking back to 2014, the top competencies published in the Harvard Business Review were:
- Inspiring and motivating others
- Displaying high integrity and honesty
- Solves problems and analyses issues
Interesting to see that Leading Change was ranked as 4th from the bottom and in 2025 it is listed as one of the top competencies.
According to Forbes, here are the top 5 competencies people leaders should hone in on:
- Artificial Intelligence Fluency: The New Digital Literacy
- Leading Change
- Perpetual Learning Agility
- Strategic-Foresight and Complex Problem-Solving
- Emotional Intelligence: The Human Edge
Why AI?
By using AI to lead, supervisors can save time, make better decisions, and focus on being more innovative and create a positive work culture. Leaders can use AI to train employees, interpret data in a rapid fashion, manage projects more effectively and much more.
Leading Change
“Change cannot be put on people. The best way to instill change is to do it with them. Create it with them.” Lisa Bodell, CEO of futurethink
In EANE’s Leading Change program, vision for change clarifies the direction of change. Urgency comes next and we ask – “we will change because/if we don’t change this…” In this step it is critical to be honest and transparent and clear/Impact – ask yourself who will be impacted, how will they be impacted and how do I communicate to them to understand the need for change. Change can result in employees becoming fearful so people leaders must be clear and describe what change is and is not. Finally, we employ a force field analysis – what is driving the change and what could be a resistance to change. A great people leader understands the importance of leading change effectively.
Learning Agility
People leaders will not only need to continue their learning and development but they must focus on what their employees need to grow. According to ORACLE 85% of employees are not satisfied with the support they get for their careers – they want additional development in order not to feel “stuck” in their position. A great leader recognizes that and delivers by providing professional development training opportunities, on-the-job training or some sort of coaching either formal or informal.
Strategic-Foresight and Complex Problem-Solving
A good leader has the ability to anticipate the future (short-term & long-term), plan out different scenarios to accomplish goals and use problem-solving to achieve the best outcomes. Leaders must employ their critical thinking skills to understand and address situations based on all available facts and information. Typically, using critical thinking at work involves processing and organizing facts, data and other information to define a problem and develop effective solutions. There are many factors included in critical thinking such as: Reasoning, Evaluating, Problem-solving, Decision-making and analysis.
Emotional Intelligence: The Human Edge
Emotional Intelligence looks at 4 skills:
- Self-awareness
- Self-management
- Social awareness
- Relationship management
According to Forbes, emotional intelligence will be the foundational competency for effective leadership and an organization’s success in 2025. Emotional intelligence is defined as our capacity to be aware of, to control and to express emotions by Daniel Goleman. People leaders who understand their own emotional intelligence can effectively lead when there is change and uncertainty, conflict, effort and burnout, achievement and failure.
There have definitely been changes in what competencies our people leaders need over the years. However, the one competency that remains constant is that people leaders need to understand each member of their team for their unique self.