🔍 Leadership isn’t static—neither are the skills leaders need
In 2025, the insight team at Mindtools (Anna Barnett PhD CPsychol, Anastasia Voronkova) will be kicking off a new research project that we’re super excited about!
Here’s the challenge we’ll be tackling:
👉 Leadership frameworks often focus on skills in isolation, and yet we know that skills and their application are deeply contextual. For instance, the way a leader applies “decision-making” skills in a rapid growth phase is completely different from how they apply it in a heavily regulated environment. Yet, this nuance is often overlooked, and frankly its criminal! Alright a bit of an over-reaction, but you get it, we’re just passionate about this.
So, we’re exploring (amongst other things):
⚫ What are the key situations leaders face today?
⚫ Which skills and capabilities matter most in those situations?
⚫ How can leaders adapt and flex these skills in context?
To answer these questions, we’re looking to:
🤝 Interview 20+ senior leaders to hear their stories—what key situations they’ve faced and remember, which skills made the difference, and how they adapted.
✅ Conduct a survey with 500+ leaders to understand patterns, validate assumptions, and uncover critical insights.
⚡ Build a diagnostic tool that connects situations → skills → practice, helping leaders understand not just what to do, but how to apply their skills in the moment.
What’s really exciting for us is decoding situations based on critical markers and the aim to treat leadership skills not as something generic, but as something dynamic and deeply tied to the context.
We’re looking forward to where this research takes us, to the stories we’ll hear, and to testing this with organisations ready to explore new ways of supporting their leaders.
If this sounds interesting to you, we’d love to hear your thoughts!
#leadership #situationalleadership #skills #research #impact #learning
