By AMA Staff
Leadership used to be easier to define. A leader had formal authority, clear reporting lines, and a relatively stable operating model. That world is disappearing.
The latest AMA Quarterly journal examines how leadership expectations are changing as organizations become more complex and less dependent on hierarchy.
Today’s leaders are expected to create clarity in ambiguity, influence people they may not directly manage, build capability across teams, and keep strategic priorities moving, even while absorbing more operational work than their roles were designed to hold.
According to AMA’s annual Leadership Survey of 1,249 respondents, 71% of leaders reported performing work outside their formal role. Even more concerning, 59% said that work limits their ability to focus on strategic priorities. At the same time, only 44% of leaders said they feel fully prepared to meet future role expectations.
The issue explores leadership through three lenses: how the role of the leader is evolving, how organizations can strengthen alignment and performance, and how AI is changing what it takes to create competitive advantage.
Leadership Development Is Being Rewritten in Real Time
One of the clearest messages in the issue is that leadership requires an identity shift.
Many leaders were promoted because they are high performers. They solve problems, move quickly, hold high standards, and produce visible results. But once someone becomes a leader, success is measured by the performance and accountability of others.
That shift can be difficult because the habits that made someone successful as an individual contributor can become leadership liabilities. A new manager may step in too quickly, over-function for the team, confuse clarity with control, or interpret disagreement as incompetence. The result is often unintentional friction: People self-edit, initiative narrows, and feedback disappears.
The Quarterly argues that self-awareness is not a “nice to have” for leaders. It is a core discipline for leadership development. Leaders who understand how they show up under pressure are better able to respond rather than react, delegate rather than control, and create environments where others can contribute fully.
Leadership in an Increasingly Complex Workplace
The issue also makes clear that leaders are not simply dealing with more change. They are leading in systems where cause and effect are harder to predict.
Supply chain volatility, hybrid work, AI disruption, workforce expectations, and economic uncertainty have created an environment where leaders cannot rely only on fixed plans or top-down directives. They need to understand context, adapt incrementally, build trust, and help teams stay resilient when conditions shift.
That requires a different kind of leadership muscle. In complex environments, leaders must be able to stabilize teams, communicate what matters, make decisions with incomplete information, and adjust as new feedback emerges. Emotional intelligence becomes more than a personal strength. It becomes a practical tool for helping teams move through uncertainty without losing focus.
AI, Innovation, and Competitive Advantage: Leadership Still Determines Impact
AI remains a major force in the leadership conversation, but the Leadership Quarterly frames it through a broader lens: AI accelerates execution. Leadership accelerates clarity.
The AMA Research article notes that leaders are not required to master the underlying technology. Their true mandate is to guide people through the technology’s impact on roles and decision making. Without clear intent and defined decision boundaries, technology-driven speed can produce misalignment just as quickly as it produces efficiency.
In other words, AI may change the tools of leadership, but it does not replace the human work of leadership.
Closing the Leadership Preparedness Gap
The Leadership Quarterly’s central message is that leadership evolution is structural. The demands placed on leaders have expanded faster than the systems designed to support them. Organizations cannot solve this simply by asking leaders to work harder or be more resilient.
AMA’s research points to five strategic imperatives: strengthen employee-centric clarity, establish shared leadership standards, build influence without authority, redefine delegation as development, and enable leadership through organizational design.
That last point may be the most important. Leadership effectiveness depends on organizational enablement as much as individual skill. When companies reward team development and build systems that support delegation, leaders can focus on strategic direction instead of compensating for structural gaps.
Download the full AMA Quarterly Business Journal and the latest AMA Leadership Research Paper to learn more.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is modern leadership?
Modern leadership is the ability to create clarity, alignment, and momentum in complex environments where formal authority is no longer enough. It requires influence, adaptability, emotional intelligence, communication, and the ability to guide people through uncertainty.
Why is leadership becoming more complex?
Leadership is more complex because work is more cross-functional, technology is changing faster, employees expect more transparency, and many leaders are taking on responsibilities outside their formal roles. AMA’s research found that 71% of leaders are performing work outside their formal role, and 59% say that limits their ability to focus on strategic priorities.
Why is influence more important than authority?
Authority can assign tasks, but influence creates trust and commitment. In complex organizations, leaders often need to move work forward through people who do not report to them. That makes credibility and stakeholder alignment essential leadership skills.
What is role spillover?
Role spillover happens when leaders take on work outside their formal responsibilities, often because of staffing shortages or unclear ownership. AMA’s Leadership Survey found that 71% of leaders reported performing work outside their formal role, and 59% said that this limits their ability to focus on strategic priorities.
What skills matter most for the future of leadership?
The most important leadership skills include strategic thinking, communication, decision making, emotional intelligence, adaptability, delegation, coaching, stakeholder alignment, and leading without authority. As AI handles more execution, human leadership becomes more valuable in creating clarity.
How is AI changing leadership expectations?
AI is accelerating execution and communication, but it also raises the stakes for leadership clarity. Leaders must guide people through changes to roles and workflows, and ensure that technology supports business outcomes rather than creating more misalignment. AI can help leaders communicate, but it cannot replace judgment or trust.