What skills got you into your leadership role?
As a leader, you earned your position by knowing your field, running a well-oiled operation, solving problems, and looking after your people. Those skills still matter, but they aren’t enough for the next ten years.
The 2026 Intergenerational Report describes “accelerating and intensifying” change throughout Australia. AI, ageing, geopolitical fragmentation, the energy transition, and industrial change are all happening at once, and trust in institutions has declined. Australian ranks highly on consumer use of AI among G20 countries, and two-thirds of Australian businesses use AI in some form (but fewer than 10% describe their use as significant). A productivity boost relies on turning that into better ways of working.
And that’s a leadership job.
If you – and the leaders in your team – can’t do that job, that costs you. AI tools sit unused, experienced people leave, plans collapse at the first surprise, and staff stop believing you. Your people are living through these changes too, and they – rightly – expect their leaders to help them make sense of it.
Five capabilities stand out:
- AI literacy, so leaders can ask good questions and redesign work
- Leading age-diverse teams, as more older Australians and women stay in the workforce
- Comfort with uncertainty, so leaders can decide without knowing the outcome
- Systems thinking, so leaders see how one change sets off another
- Rebuilding trust, by being open about what they know and what they don’t
Here are three examples of organisations building these skills:
- In Singapore, DBS Bank trained all 40,000 of its employees in foundational AI skills.
- At German insurer ERGO, Gen Z employees mentor senior executives, and the program became permanent after a successful pilot.
- Singapore’s Centre for Strategic Futures teaches public servants scenario planning, so they can prepare for several possible futures.
None of them waited for these skills to become urgent. Instead, they built this leadership capability deliberately, at every level.
You don’t need a leadership academy or an expensive consultant, but you can make a start:
- Choose the one capability where your leadership team is weakest.
- Ask every leader to use AI on a real task this month and share what they learned.
- Pair a senior leader with a younger colleague for reverse mentoring.
- Test your next plan against two or three different futures.
Which of these skills are you building for yourself and the other leaders in your team?
