Most leadership programmes begin with a simple question:
What competencies do people need to succeed in this leadership role?
For decades, that was the right question to ask. Leadership development followed a familiar formula: Identify high-potential talent. Develop leadership competencies. Prepare them for increasingly senior roles. But today's workplace looks very different. AI is reshaping roles faster than organisations can redesign them, career paths are becoming less predictable, and there is constant transformation in the workplace. In this environment, preparing leaders for a fixed role is setting them up for failure.
Drawing on their experience developing talent across a global organisation, McKenna Tatro, Executive Director of Global Learning & Talent Development, and Jenn Mancino, Associate Director of Global Learning & Talent Development at Havas, are asking a different question:
What capabilities do our leaders need to develop to make leadership possible, no matter what comes next?
That’s because the organisations building stronger leadership pipelines aren't simply preparing people to perform today's role. They're developing self-awareness in leaders to continue learning, adapting, and making good decisions when tomorrow looks very different from today.
“It's no longer about how do we prepare someone for this job, but how do we help them continue to grow as the role continues to evolve” - McKenna Tatro
The biggest shift Jenn and McKenna suggest is changing where leadership development begins. Rather than starting with the skills a role requires, they start with helping people understand themselves and how they adapt the way they lead in different contexts.
Reflecting on the success of Havas' Femmes Forward programme designed to accelerate the development of high-potential women into senior leadership roles, Jenn and McKenna continuously returned to the human-centred capabilities that sit beneath effective leadership: authenticity, vulnerability, empathy, trust and psychological safety. Not because these have replaced leadership competencies, but because they're what enable leaders to keep applying those competencies when the workplace becomes less predictable.
Leadership doesn't become more effective because someone learns another coaching model or communication framework. It becomes more effective when people understand what drives their behaviour, how they respond under pressure, and how they're experienced by others.
McKenna explains that this adaptability is an essential capability that organisations should be intentionally developing in their people. It's no longer a personality trait that some leaders naturally possess. It's a skill that can be developed to help leaders build the behaviours that enable them to stay effective during challenges, keep learning when the workplace around them is constantly changing, and motivate people to get on board with change initiatives. Though the future is difficult to predict, they both agree that adaptability is what allows leaders to succeed anyway.
Adaptability alone doesn't make someone an effective leader. When people are navigating uncertainty, they don't simply need direction. They need leaders who create clarity without pretending to have all the answers, who build trust through authenticity and who create environments where people feel safe enough to contribute ideas, challenge thinking and learn from mistakes.
Jenn shares that trust isn't built by always having the right answer. It's built by consistently aligning your behaviour with the values and messages you communicate.
"As an employee, you can feel if a leader is giving you one message and living another. That dissonance between the two things is not empowering. It's not engaging. Having that authentic leadership makes you more likely to follow someone's mission." - Jenn Mancino
In uncertain environments, people don't expect leaders to be perfect. They expect them to consistently show up in a way that aligns with what they ask of others. That’s what creates trust and psychological safety. As Jenn explains, psychological safety isn't about agreeing with every idea. It's about creating an environment where people feel heard, respected and confident enough to contribute, even if their ideas aren't ultimately adopted.
When leaders create that environment, teams become more willing to speak up, challenge thinking, learn from mistakes and adapt together. Those behaviours are what make organisational adaptability possible.
Organisations can't prepare leaders for every future scenario. But they can develop leaders with the self-awareness, adaptability and authenticity to respond effectively, no matter what the future holds.
If you're thinking about how to future-proof your leaders, Jenn and McKenna share more practical lessons with Dr Stewart Desson and Jonathan Cannon on The Out of Office Podcast. With examples and reflections from Havas' Femmes Forward and Next Gen programmes, they share how organisations can strengthen their leadership pipelines for an unpredictable future and develop leaders who can thrive through change.
Listen to the full conversation now.