The 6 Attributes Leaders Must Have in 2025

What will it take to lead in 2025? The answer isn’t power or pedigree – its six distinct attributes that redefine leadership for a new era.

In the latest episode of We Are Human Leaders, Alexis and Sally explore the key learnings of the entire 2024 seasons, focusing on what it will take to thrive as human leaders in 2025. 

Our conversations made it super clear: what were once considered ‘soft skills’ are now core competencies. And these six attributes are fundamental to navigating the volatile waters of tomorrow’s workplace.

It's our first episode without a guest: just pure insight derived from an entire year of We are Human Leaders wisdom. We dive deep into what each attribute means, the key insights from our conversations that stood out for each key skill – and our bold predictions for Human Leadership in 2025 and beyond.

1. Humility

A baseline to the other attributes, humility is fundamentally acknowledging your own limitations and embracing them as an opportunity rather than threat. In 2025, a leader's job is not to have all the answers. A great leader knows that to succeed they need to get the best from everyone around them, including ideas, experiences, solutions and effort. To do that requires humility.

2. Self-Awareness

Research overwhelmingly correlates high leadership self-awareness to a heightened ability to influence and lead effectively. However, despite the plethora of books, research papers and self-help courses on the topic, it remains the Achilles heel for many leaders. For leaders in 2025, self-awareness will need to be grounded in your everyday rituals, including practices like meditation, journaling and engaging a coach or mentor. And by closing their intention-impact gap with quality feedback.

3. Adaptability

One thing is for certain right now: the challenges we face today won’t be the challenges of tomorrow – adaptability is not a nice-to-have, it’s essential to relevance, impact and even survival. As our conversations uncovered, adaptability is foremost rooted in leadership mindset. It’s the acceptance that flux is a guarantee in business, and to meet the continually changing global conditions we need to be ready and willing to change with them – a conscious choice.

4. Vulnerability

While the term has arguably become hackneyed in the context of leadership in recent years, vulnerability has never been more relevant. In 2025, vulnerability is the key to creating workplace cultures of high-trust and high-performance. So, what does vulnerability look like in practice? It means expressing emotions, admitting mistakes, seeking help, sharing insecurities, and showing empathy as part of your everyday leadership.

5. Empathy

In 2025, empathy will form a central pillar of successful leadership. And with good reason: research shows that empathy and its partner, compassion, are key to driving great outcomes and fostering a healthy workplace culture. As Jodi Wellman shared during our conversation, “Empathy is a leader’s greatest tool.”

6. Coachability

Last on the list, but certainly not the least: to be a great leader in 2025, you have to be highly coachable. In our conversation with Scott Osman and Jacquelyn Lane , co-authors of ‘Becoming Coachable: Unleashing the Power of Executive Coaching to Transform Your Leadership and Life’ together with Marshall Goldsmith , they told us becoming coachable means a deep, visceral, radical willingness to listen, learn and change.

This fast-paced and personal conversation gives you all the insight and inspiration you need to uplevel your leadership for 2025 and beyond. 

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, or right here.