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Let’s start with what’s broken. The old model of leadership was built for stability, not disruption. But we’re no longer leading in a world of predictable growth and static org charts. We’re leading through volatility, shifting power dynamics, and a growing presence of AI in our day-to-day decision-making. What used to be “nice-to-haves,” such as empathy, adaptability, and team cohesion, are now critical for survival.
That’s why I brought together three forward-thinking experts in our latest podcast episode to explore what future-ready leadership actually looks like: Rich Diviney, former Navy SEAL and leadership coach; Keith Ferrazzi, bestselling author and CEO of Ferrazzi Greenlight; and Dan Priest, Chief AI Officer at PwC US.
The leadership landscape has changed. But the playbooks on most desks haven’t. Stability is rare, teams are more fragmented than ever, trust is getting harder to earn, and AI is transforming how we work faster than most leaders can keep up. You’ll fall behind if you’re still relying on old mindsets and muscle memory. That’s like leading yesterday’s team into tomorrow’s chaos.
This episode delivers a full system upgrade for the future of leadership in three parts.
Listen to the episode here on Apple Podcast & leave a review!
The Mindset Shift: From Skills to Attributes
We tend to overvalue skills. They’re easy to measure, easy to list, and easy to teach. But Rich Diviney argues that in high-stakes environments, it’s not your skills that carry you…it’s your attributes. Skills can be taught in controlled environments. But in moments of chaos, it’s your attributes that determine how you lead.
Drawing from his SEAL training and years of leadership coaching, he explains that attributes — like resilience, drive, adaptability, and mental acuity — are what truly determine how people show up in high-stakes situations.
Why does that matter for today’s leaders? Because disruption is the new normal. You need teams built not just for performance, but for pressure. That starts with understanding what attributes your people actually bring to the table.
And for leaders, it means taking a hard look in the mirror: Are you developing the qualities that help you stay grounded and lead effectively when the pressure’s on?
This episode is sponsored by Workhuman:
These days, it feels like there isn’t much good to go around in the world of work. But Workhuman knows when we celebrate the good in each of us, we bring out the best in all of us. It’s why they created the world’s # 1 employee recognition platform — and they didn’t stop there, combining rich recognition data with AI to create Human Intelligence, so you can get uniquely good insights into performance, skills, engagement and more.
To learn more about how you can join their force for good, go to Workhuman.com, or check out their own podcast, “How We Work,” which explores the trends, issues, relationships, and experiences that shape our workplaces.
The Model Shift: From Heroic Leadership to Teamship
Keith Ferrazzi points out that we’re stuck in the era of the “hero leader,” the person who gives the orders, solves the problems, and drives the team forward. But today, that model is breaking down fast and we need a new model for the modern demands of the future of work.
Keith introduces the concept of “teamship” — a leadership model where accountability, feedback, and energy management are shared across the team. Instead of a leader being the sole motivator or decision-maker, he shows how high-performing teams can (and should) hold each other accountable, offer peer feedback through open 360s, and solve problems collectively through practices like stress testing.
Keith suggests trying these high-return practices:
- Replace one-way performance reviews with Open 360s — where team members give each other feedback in real-time, transparently.
- Turn report-outs into Stress Tests, collaborative problem-solving sprints where everyone contributes ideas, challenges, and offers help.
- Don’t just ask for updates — do regular Energy Checks to keep your team emotionally aligned and resilient.
Teamship is how leaders can promote psychological safety, drive speed in progress, and make teams future-ready. It’s not about consensus or groupthink, but bold leadership that unleashes the full intelligence of the team. You might think this is softening leadership, but truly, it’s about distributing it.
Listen to the episode here on Apple Podcast & leave a review!
The Method Shift: Human-First AI Leadership
If there’s one thing that’s keeping leaders up at night, it’s AI — and rightly so. Dan Priest believes AI is one of the most polarizing forces in business today, and as Chief AI Officer at PwC, he is steeped in the promise and the pitfalls of AI adoption. He says the best thing leaders can do now is guiding people through AI-induced anxiety.
People don’t fear AI because of what it can do. They fear it because they don’t see where they still fit. Dan urges leaders to do more than adopt tools. More than anything, they must help their people adapt. Leaders must answer that fear head-on. According to Priest, it starts with three steps:
- Show them their future role — Paint a clear picture of how human skills like creativity, empathy, and decision-making still matter.
- Ring-fence their value — Make it clear what won’t be replaced — and why they’re still essential.
- Unleash their creativity — Once people feel secure, they stop resisting change and start contributing to it.
AI won’t replace you. But someone who knows how to lead with it might. That’s why Dan also warns against outsourcing critical thinking to AI. The leader’s job isn’t to automate judgment, it’s to augment it.
Final Thoughts
If you’re still clinging to top-down authority, hesitant to challenge norms, or waiting for AI to become “less scary,” you’re not future-ready. But if you can lead with attributes, foster teamship, and navigate AI with confidence and clarity, then you’re building the leadership toolkit for 2025 and beyond.
Leadership in 2025 isn’t about being the smartest person in the room. It’s about bringing out the smartest version of everyone in the room, including yourself. That means building teams that thrive under pressure, reengineering collaboration, and learning how to lead with AI, not against it.
The good news is, the toolkit is here! The mindset, the model, and the method are all laid out in this powerful episode.
Let’s stop waiting for the future of leadership. Let’s start building it.
Tune into this episode to go deeper into each of these ideas and hear real examples of what works, and what doesn’t.