Research: Leadership Rewired

On 27-28 April 2026, CRF convened over 70 senior HR professionals for our annual leadership event at IMD Business School, Lausanne to explore the topic of ‘Leadership Rewired – Developing Leaders for a Changing World’.

This report, sponsored by IMD and Personality Guidance AG contains our latest research together with summary notes from the event.

Our research found:

• The expectations of leaders are being reshaped by a convergence of external pressures, increasing the complexity and pace of decision-making and placing sustained strain on leaders’ effectiveness.
• Three dimensions of leadership effectiveness are coming to the fore: creating focused clarity through complexity and change; driving execution with impact; and leading both human and AI systems.
• In this context, approaches to leadership development need to balance three tensions: individual vs. team-based development; content-based vs. experiential learning; and human vs. AI delivery.
• This requires ongoing rewiring of how leaders think, decide, relate and act in order to respond effectively to the challenges faced by their organisations.
  

Access the Research here.

Please see below links to the presentation slides and HBR resources:  

• CRF Leadership Rewired Research Opening Slides 
• Leading in the Digital Age slides – Prof. Jennifer Jordan  
• Article: 7 Tensions of Leading – Prof. Jennifer Jordan  
• Geopolitics & Global Leadership slides – Prof. David Bach 
• How to stay relevant for those who pay your lunch – Customer Centric Leadership slides – Dr Katharina Lange  
• Brain Based Resilience: Implications for Leadership Development slides – Dr. Estie Alessandrini
• HBR Article – Finding the Right Balance – and Flexibility – in Your Creative Leadership Style 
• HBR Article – What it Takes to Lead Through Digital Disruption