Blog Posts

By Dr. Scott

As 2024 draws to a close, we’re looking ahead to 2025 to some of the leadership trends we can expect to see as regular topics of discussion.  Without a doubt, there is a great deal of uncertainty as we look forward into 2025, and that is as true for things like AI and AI adoption as it is for global politics and international trade.

As leaders, then, we need to prepare for this uncertainty and this edition of our Wednesday Leadership Blog Series takes a look at three topics in global leadership trends in 2025.

The AI Revolution Continues

As the wave of enthusiasm and rapid AI adoption finally breaks and recedes, leaders are now and will continue to be throughout 2025 and beyond, grappling with the positives and negatives of AI adoption.  Mass adoption of AI technologies has revolutionized the way we engage and use technology.  Supply chains and distribution channels have been streamlined.  Productivity levels have been increased.  Customer service has been enhanced.  Through advanced data analysis and pattern recognition, AI has helped answer age old questions in archeology and astronomy.  The applications of AI are endless and the benefits are equally endless. 

The question, therefore, is no longer “will” we adopt AI in our organizations, it is “when” and “how much or how little?”  Organizations that do not adopt AI technologies into their operations will inevitably lose market share to their competitors.  Whether it is through investing in AI marketing campaigns or automating process in production or customer service, organizations gain a competitive advantage through AI adoption.  However, despite the many potential gains and positives, AI adoption presents many challenges that leaders will have to navigate.

Get in the Know:  Leaders need to prepare themselves by learning as much as they can about AI and AI Adoption.  There are plenty of online certificates and teaching platforms through which to educate yourself on AI.  Better yet, spend some time with AI chat bots and start with prompts about AI applications in the workplace and AI adoption in your specific industry or market.

Understand the Risks: While AI adoption has increased productivity and led to advances in nearly every industry, there are downsides.  Leaders have identified AI bias and other mistakes.  But, the number one issues relating to AI is actually the users themselves and the need arises for training programs to educate employees to use AI ethically, critically, and effectively.  Reliance on AI decreases creativity and critical thinking and leaders should proceed with caution and ensure that employees have the proper training and confidence to use AI applications effectively.

Work-Life Balancing

As the hybrid work, work from home, and return to the office debate continues to rage, leaders will inevitably be required to engage stakeholders at some level of the debate.  Into 2025 and beyond, whether it is through managing a purely remote team or by leading your team through a return to the office directive, leaders will be tasked with continuing to manage this new reality.  Complicating the situation further are generational differences and perspectives, changed priorities in a post-pandemic world, and all those uncertainties we mentioned above.  To stay ahead of the curve, leaders will need to engage the process.  To better manage work-life balance priorities in 2025, leaders should:

Stay in Tune: Listen to your people and their preferences.  Pay attention to their work habits and stress levels.  You can also get in tune with your followers by leading through example and ensuring that your followers know wellbeing and health are important to you.  Encourage breaks and time-off and, if your organization or situation allows for it, offer work-life balance benefits like flexible work options and vacation time.  You can also stay in tune by identifying ways to leverage technology to minimize busy work and maximize employee productivity, autonomy, and job satisfaction.

Take a Balanced Approach:  Balance is a central concept here that deserves emphasizing.  To achieve an effective work-life balance with your team or in your organization, a balanced approach is required.  Evidence since the pandemic suggests that organizations that have fully returned to the office, and who did so effectively, did so through a balanced, multi-phased approach over several months.  Conversely, organizations who aggressively returned to the office often faced push-back, a decrease in productivity, and high turnover rates.  So, whether returning to the office full time or transitioning to a flexible work model, leaders should take a balanced, measured approach.

Continuing Education

With the rate of technological advancement continuing to accelerate, leaders face new challenges.  In 2025, many leaders will have to continue to grapple with the pros and cons of AI adoption we covered above.  As new skill gaps, brought about by AI adoption and application, are identified, reducing those skill gaps through professional development training and continuing education programs is critical.  Leaders should therefore:

Evaluate your skills gaps first: As leaders, we often think about improving our people, but in 2025 and beyond, it will become more and more critical for leaders to continually upskill themselves.  Getting to know and understand AI and IT applications is a must as more and more leadership roles involve leading teams using AI and other IT software applications.  As AI adoption continues, so too will academic and professional research in the area.  In business studies, researchers are and will continue to study best leadership practices relating to AI adoption and management.  So, staying up-to-date on the latest leadership theories and recommended best practices is another are that leaders should consider either through following leadership blogs like this one, by reading extensively, or by completing online certificates like those offered through the Madison School of Professional Development.

AI will make or break 2025:  As AI automates tasks and job descriptions increasingly include working with AI applications, leaders in 2025 and beyond will need to continually evaluate the skill gaps of their team members.  Adopting AI in daily tasks can make teams more productive, but as we have seen, working with AI can also impact creativity and critical thinking skills, making employees less adept at recognizing when AI goes afoul.  Identifying skill gaps and ensuring proper training in using AI effectively and ethically will be a must in 2025 to avoid some of those other downsides of AI we addressed above.  If leaders start by identifying their own skills gaps and working to reduce them, those leaders will be better equipped to help their team members identify their own weaknesses and find training programs that can help followers improve in those areas.

We know that AI is here and its here to stay.  We also that adopting AI gives organizations a competitive advantage.  However, we also know that change is difficult.  Like all forms of change, AI adoption will continue to require purposeful management to successful.  As leaders, we’ll be discussing AI adoption into 2025 and beyond. 

In this edition of our Wednesday Leadership Series, we looked at three of the “hot” topics in leadership that we see being discussed and researched throughout 2025.  We know that the AI revolution will continue into 2025 and that AI will take a more prominent role in our daily and professional lives.  AI and other technologies are disrupting the traditional work environment and into 2025 and probably beyond, the debate over remote work and return to the office will continue to be heard.  Finally, now, possibly more than ever, leaders need to understand the power of continuing education and educate both themselves and their followers to succeed in this new era of AI.

Dr. Scott Eidson is the Executive Vice President of the Madison School of Professional Development and holds doctoral degrees in both history and business.  Dr. Scott has been studying, teaching, writing, applying, and thinking about leadership and leading others for some time now.