LEADERSHIP UNDER PRESSURE
Insights from the LEAD WITH US Listening Tour, Q4 2025
"When facing chaos and uncertainty, and you cannot possibly predict what's coming around the corner, your best 'strategy' is to have a busload of people who can adapt and perform brilliantly no matter what comes next. Great vision without great people is irrelevant."
Jim Collins, researcher, speaker and best selling author of Good to Great, 2001
Executive Summary
Between September and December 2025, Lead With Us conducted 40 in depth interviews with senior leaders across media, advertising, tech platforms, financial services and professional services. They were all asked one question: “What business challenges are you facing today, and how is that impacting your people and teams on the ground?”
The same pressures came up consistently: a decrease in trust, ongoing change fatigue, rising AI anxiety and a widening middle management capability gap. These issues aren’t new, but the speed of AI adoption and the expectation to embrace it before its real impact is understood is, and is exacerbating these pressures.
What we learnt is this; organisations are heavily funding AI systems and tools at the expense of leaning into the human capabilities that determine whether any of it works. Core human skills like trust building, communication, judgment, empathy and confidence during uncertainty is no longer a “soft” investment, it is a hard commercial necessity.

Implication: The real challenge is not AI as a technical skillset, but the human capacity to lead through what it brings: uncertainty about roles, job security and what might change in the future. This is where trust, psychological safety and resilience are under the most strain.
These insights have been used to inform the design of LEAD YOURSELF, a leadership programme focused on strengthening leaders' ability to lead with empathy and confidence through continuous change in an AI era.
Framing the Context
Organisations are operating in a world shaped by dynamics largely outside their control: geopolitical instability, climate anxiety, distrust in authority and institutions, and the rapid acceleration of AI and technological change. These conditions are increasing uncertainty and pressure for leaders and teams across all sectors.
The Listening Tour highlights that many of the outcome's organisations are now experiencing are not simply a result of these external factors; they are also the consequence of how well (or poorly) they are optimising the levers within their control that would better support their people in today's environment. These include leadership capability, communication quality, trust‑building and emotional intelligence.
Where these levers are under‑developed or under‑invested, external pressure is amplified inside organisations. Where they are strengthened, teams are better able to navigate uncertainty, sustain performance and adapt with confidence.
The Opportunity
We believe our findings highlight a missed opportunity. Whilst organisations can't change the broader systemic context, they can strengthen the levers inside their organisation to shape better outcomes.

Global and Societal Context

Outcomes in Organisations

1. Geopolitical instability

2. Climate anxiety and existential threat

3. Distrust in authority and institutions

4. Accelerated AI and technological change

5. COVID 19 and remote / hybrid workforce

1. General distrust in leadership across levels

2. Insular behaviour, less challenging ideas

3. Change fatigue and disengagement

4. AI anxiety fuelling job insecurity

5. Greater fragility, less resilience

Key Levers Include:

Trust, psychological safety & team cohesion

Change management & resilience

AI adoption mindset vs technical skills

Middle Management & EQ skills

Figure: Systemic context shaping leadership and organisational experience. The world is unstable, but organisations are amplifying that instability by under‑using the levers in their control that drive better outcomes and business results.
We Uncovered Six Core Insights
1
Trust has become a core lever of performance
Leaders and people managers are struggling to navigate (and communicate) uncertainty with confidence, decreasing trust.
2
Change fatigue has become part of organisational culture
No longer linked to a single initiative or event, change is ongoing and shows up as disengagement and risk of burnout.
3
AI upskilling without the right mindset will underperform
Self‑awareness and core human skills including creativity, empathy, agility and judgement must come before technical training.
4
Middle leaders need EQ and communication, not just AI skills
Resilience coaching, courageous conversations and trust‑building are essential. EQ + AI = business impact.
5
Honesty is a leadership advantage
Transparent conversations about AI, uncertainty and capability gaps build more trust than official (and often, over-stated) narratives.
6
Innovation depends on psychological safety
Without trust and the confidence to challenge ideas and speak up, innovation "dies" and work becomes mediocre.
Trust and Psychological Safety is in Decline
What we heard repeatedly
Across interviews, leaders talked about a decrease in trust, particularly in organisations that have experienced repeated restructures, leadership changes and layoffs. Trust issues centred around a lack of effective communication (rather than disagreement), inconsistency and shifting priorities.
"Avoiding uncomfortable conversations actually creates more distrust than being honest."
"The messaging from the top is so simplistic it feels like people are being treated like children."
What this looks like day to day
Teams becoming more insular and protective, reduced willingness to speak up or ask for help, and less collaboration. Teams looking for reassurance rather than direction. Second‑guessing of decisions. Reduced willingness to challenge ideas or fully commit.
"It's a behavioural challenge; people are afraid to speak up when they don't know something."
"Don't be too loud, don't be too visible, just keep your head down."
Sector nuances
  • Media agencies: Trust undermined due to ineffective communication around restructures, layoffs and drives for cost efficiency.
  • Advertisers: A lack of clarity within matrixed organisations impacting confidence and progress.
  • Financial services: Low psychological safety impacting critical thinking and decision making.
Why this matters now
In a period of sustained uncertainty, trust is critical. Leaders are expected to communicate change in a way that instils trust in their teams despite not knowing everything. Investment in EQ, coaching and leadership capability is being diverted into AI upskilling. Commonly cited gaps included leading with empathy under pressure and holding difficult, honest conversations about uncertainty.
"It doesn't matter how much AI training you do if people don't trust their leaders."

Implication: Without trust, leaders and their teams become disconnected, undermining performance and the success of transformation initiatives.
Change Fatigue Has Become Cultural
What we heard repeatedly
Change is no longer experienced as a single event; it has become part of organisational culture. More than half of interviewees described multiple, overlapping change programmes including AI integration, digital transformation, restructures, M&A activity and operating model shifts (for example, from decentralised to centralized models).
"People need to accept that change is the norm."
Leaders also spoke about a lack of effective communication when sharing news about change: it was either inconsistent, over‑simplified or avoided altogether.
What this looks like day to day
Disengaged teams, head‑down behaviour, slower decision‑making and emotional withdrawal rather than active pushback. Many leaders cited resilience as a growing concern and burnout as a real risk.
"Everyone is focused on protecting their corner rather than working together."
"Resilience is a key area of concern."
Sector nuances
  • Media agencies: Normalisation of change leading to head down mentality and insular behaviour.
  • Advertisers: Layered transformation programmes increasing pressure and causing overwhelm.
  • Financial services: The threat of widespread digital integration and job displacement causing stress and burnout.
Why this matters now
Change is now a constant backdrop to everyday work. As organisations try to implement multiple transformations without clear, consistent communication, people respond by disengaging and keeping their heads down. This is where the terms resilience and fragility come into play. People continue to deliver, but with declining morale and growing disconnection to others.

Implication: More concerted efforts are required around communication and psychological safety to avoid change fatigue becoming embedded in culture, impacting connection, growth and innovation.
AI is Causing Anxiety and Confusion
What we heard repeatedly
While organisational enthusiasm for AI is high, individual confidence is uneven. Leaders spoke openly about overstatement of AI maturity and a lack of transparency around actual capability.
"AI is not as mature as everyone is saying it is.”
"No one really knows where this is going, even the most senior people.”
Despite many organisations prioritising AI training, concerns focused less on learning skills and more on relevance, job security and future implications.
"What’s the impact of AI in the future? What skills do we actually need and how quickly?”
What this looks like day to day
Strategic excitement on one side with personal uncertainty on the other. Leaders projecting confidence they do not yet feel. AI positioned as an efficiency lever before it is proven, with uneven adoption across teams and heightened anxiety across all levels.
"AI is happening in varying degrees, often with seniors less comfortable than juniors when it comes to adoption, but not admitting it."
Sector nuances
  • Media agencies: Acute concern about AI adoption and potential role displacement.
  • Advertisers: Mixed optimism with varying degrees of capability.
  • Media Owners & Tech Platforms: Pressure to adopt and deliver at pace, often without sufficient support.
Why this matters now
The pressure to adopt AI is accelerating faster than organisations’ ability to engage people in honest conversations about what it means. Without transparency and leadership capability to hold uncertainty, anxiety increases and scepticism rises.
"We’re running so fast to keep up (with the latest AI-enabled product) that we’re not sure what success even looks like anymore."

Implication: AI upskilling without psychological readiness risks low adoption and reduced return on investment. AI isn't the differentiator, human judgement, empathy and communication is. Organisations cannot change faster than their people.
Middle Management Capability Gap
What we heard repeatedly
One of the most consistent themes raised across interviews was the capability gap in middle management. This cohort is expected to translate strategy into action, manage stretched teams and keep things moving, often without any formal training or leadership development.
"The bigger the company gets, the more the vast majority sit in the middle, and that’s where the problem is.”
Many leaders linked this gap to the disruption of COVID, which reduced on‑the‑job learning during extended periods of remote and hybrid working. Managers who would traditionally learn through proximity missed out on observing senior leaders in action, receiving informal coaching and developing confidence through in‑the‑moment feedback.
"New people managers missed out on the foundational development we had before COVID."
"You don’t get the walk‑out‑of‑the‑meeting conversations anymore."
The “middle” is carrying a disproportionate load, with a lack of resilience being cited as a key challenge, impacting the ability to have difficult conversations, reinforce boundaries and delegate to direct reports.
What this looks like day to day
Avoidance of difficult conversations, reduced confidence in decision‑making and limited ability to manage team stress.
"There is a level of fragility – they just don’t have the same resilience that we used to have…"
Sector nuances
  • Media agencies: High client pressure and expectations to move at a faster pace exposing fundamental capability gaps.
  • Advertisers: Complexity of matrix environments amplifying the need for stronger relationship management and communication skills.
  • Financial Services: Risk aversion and lack of trust impacting collaboration and productivity.
Why this matters now
Middle managers are the lynchpin between strategy and execution. Without the communication and EQ skills to lead through uncertainty, performance, engagement and ROI on transformation initiatives falls short.
"Younger people leaders want the promotion and recognition, but don't know how to emotionally manage themselves or their teams."
"We’re throwing them out to swim without a life raft and not developing leaders."

Implication: Under‑developed mid level leadership amplifies pressure throughout the organisation, impacting the ability to deliver results and create a positive and thriving workplace culture.
What Leaders Say Would Help Most Now
Leaders were consistent in what they asked for: practical support that strengthens day‑to‑day leadership behaviour, improves team cohesion and addresses the impact of "change fatigue".
Manager development: communication, EQ and difficult conversations
  • "EQ and communication skills."
  • "Having difficult conversations, active listening, giving feedback and managing a team."
Team cohesion and clarity: vision, chartering and ways of working
  • "Team cohesion workshops and vision‑setting sessions."
  • "Unified team vision and ways of working."
  • "Team collaboration, confidence and listening."
Coaching, especially for the 'squeezed middle'
  • "Coaching for managers and new team leaders."
  • "To learn how to manage themselves so they can take responsibility for leading others."
  • "To be bolder and more audacious."
Support to lead through change: resilience, growth mindset and practical tools
  • "Resilience training and how to adapt."
  • "Active listening, EQ and confidence. How to have more strategic sales conversations."
  • "Equip leaders with how to talk about change in the right way despite not knowing."
AI readiness that focuses on mindset and behaviour
  • "The fundamental issues are behavioural and mindset related. You need the right mindset to be able to learn how to use AI effectively."
  • "AI skills training will be obsolete in a month. Human skills are durable and will become more important."
Next Steps for Organisations
1
Use diagnostics to assess psychological safety and trust
This sits at the core of company culture and creates the foundation for teams to speak up, challenge ideas, innovate and manage through change. The Listening Tour suggests that many organisations are already seeing early warning signals of company cultures at risk.
2
Treat the middle‑management layer as a strategic priority
The middle of the organisation is carrying a disproportionate load, both emotional and in terms of delivery. Strengthening this layer is one of the highest‑leverage opportunities available.
3
Address AI anxiety explicitly, not implicitly
Senior leaders have a critical role to play in normalising uncertainty, clarifying expectations and supporting people leaders to hold honest conversations about AI, skills and future roles.
4
Rebalance people investment toward leadership development
Investment in systems, tools and technical AI skills should be matched by investment in leadership development to create the behaviours that determine whether those systems are adopted or not.
5
Shift from one‑off to continuous leadership development
Short, one‑off interventions fall short in a context of continuous change. Leaders need ongoing support to build self‑awareness, communication and resiliency over time.
What We Are Doing at LEAD WITH US
The Listening Tour surfaced a consistent capability gap: leaders at all levels are being asked to absorb uncertainty, regulate emotion and support others without being equipped to do so confidently. This is most visible in the middle‑management layer, where day‑to‑day leadership determines whether communication lands, trust is established and change becomes behaviour.
LEAD YOURSELF was designed in direct response to these insights. It strengthens the core human capabilities leaders need to lead themselves and their teams effectively in today's AI world.
What is LEAD YOURSELF?
A research‑informed leadership programme that helps leaders build the capacity to lead themselves first so they can lead others with greater clarity, credibility and resilience.
Who it's for
  • Senior leaders and executives
  • People managers operating in high‑change environments
  • Mid‑level leaders and "squeezed middle" managers responsible for day to day project and people delivery
About LEAD YOURSELF
1) Lead with Empathy
Purpose: Build trust, credibility and psychological safety without compromising performance.
Leaders will learn to:
  • Communicate with clarity and consistency during uncertainty
  • Hold honest, human conversations when stakes are high
  • Recognise and respond to emotional signals in themselves and others
  • Strengthen trust through behaviour, not just intent
Outcomes: Stronger team relationships, improved engagement and collaboration, greater accountability and trust, better results and performance.
2) Lead Through Change
Purpose: Equip leaders to navigate continuous change while sustaining energy, focus and resilience.
Leaders will learn to:
  • Regulate themselves under sustained pressure
  • Lead teams through ambiguity and transition
  • Have more candid conversations
  • Reduce change fatigue and cognitive overload
  • Maintain momentum without burnout
Outcomes: Greater confidence through change, increased comfort with not having all the answers, courage to experiment and fail, improved adaptability and reduced disengagement. Greater success embedding change initiatives.
Research Approach
The Listening Tour comprised confidential conversations across a broad mix of industries and organisational structures.
Interview profile (40 total):
  • Media agencies (15)
  • Advertisers / Brand organisations (5)
  • Media owners & Tech platforms (8)
  • Financial services (4)
  • Other sectors including Professional Services (6), VC and PE (2)
Participants included Chairs, CEOs, C‑suite leaders, People Directors, Heads of Talent and senior functional leaders.
The interview opened with one simple question: "What business challenges are you facing today, and how is that impacting your people and teams on the ground?"
Insights were analysed thematically and reviewed across sectors to identify both common patterns and meaningful nuances.