By Peter Fenley
This article argues that modern leadership goes far beyond authority and titles. It highlights five essential competencies—emotional intelligence, adaptability, strategic thinking, inclusive leadership, and decisiveness—as the skills that separate struggling organizations from resilient, high-performing ones. Through real-world examples and practical insights, the piece emphasizes that effective leaders must stay human, flexible, forward-thinking, and action-oriented in an unpredictable business environment.
Leadership today isn’t what it used to be. Gone are the days when you could just bark orders and expect results. The modern business world is messy, unpredictable, and frankly, kind of exciting if you know how to navigate it.
I’ve been watching leaders struggle (and some absolutely nail it) through everything from tech disruptions to global pandemics. What I’ve noticed is that the ones who thrive don’t just manage—they adapt, connect, and make tough calls when it matters most.
I’m diving into five leadership competencies that I think are absolutely crucial.
Emotional Intelligence: The Game Changer Nobody Talks About Enough
Let’s start with something that makes a lot of traditional executives uncomfortable—feelings. Yeah, I said it. Emotional intelligence isn’t some touchy-feely concept that belongs in HR training videos. It’s the difference between leaders who inspire loyalty and those who watch their best people walk out the door.
I remember working with a CEO who could read a room like nobody’s business. During a particularly brutal quarterly review, instead of just delivering bad news and moving on, he acknowledged how everyone was feeling. “I know this sucks,” he said. “We’re all frustrated, and that’s okay.” Then he shifted the conversation to solutions. That’s emotional intelligence in action.
The data backs this up, too. Companies with emotionally intelligent leaders see 20% better business results. But here’s what the studies don’t capture—the day-to-day moments that build trust. It’s the manager who notices when someone’s struggling and offers support. It’s knowing when to push and when to pull back.
Want to get better at this? Start small. Pay attention to the energy in meetings. Ask “How are you really doing?” and actually listen to the answer. Create space for people to be human at work. Trust me, your bottom line will thank you.
Adaptability: Rolling With the Punches (And Sometimes Throwing a Few)
If 2020 taught us anything, it’s that your five-year plan might become irrelevant overnight. I watched companies that had been around for decades either pivot brilliantly or completely fall apart. The difference? Leaders who could adapt without losing their minds.
Take restaurants during the pandemic. Some owners sat there complaining about lockdowns. Others transformed their entire business model in weeks. One local place I know went from fine dining to meal kits to virtual cooking classes. Their revenue actually increased. That’s not luck—that’s adaptability.
Being adaptable doesn’t mean being wishy-washy. You need core principles that don’t change, even when everything else does. Your values, your commitment to your people, your quality standards—these stay constant while your methods evolve.
The best leaders I know are constantly learning. They’re not afraid to say “I don’t know” or “Let’s try something different.” They encourage their teams to experiment, fail fast, and learn faster. When you’re implementing new HR solution approaches, for instance, adaptable leaders don’t just mandate change—they involve their people in figuring out what works.
Strategic Thinking: Playing Chess While Everyone Else Plays Checkers
Strategic thinking sounds fancy, but it’s really about connecting dots that others can’t see yet. It’s looking at today’s decisions through tomorrow’s lens. And honestly, most leaders are terrible at it because they’re too busy fighting fires to think about preventing them.
I know a tech startup founder who, back in 2018, started preparing for a recession that hadn’t happened yet. Everyone thought she was paranoid. When COVID hit and venture funding dried up, guess who was the only company in her space that didn’t have to lay people off? She’d built cash reserves, diversified revenue streams, and created flexible cost structures.
That’s strategic thinking. It’s not about predicting the future—it’s about being ready for multiple futures.
Schedule time for thinking. Block out hours each week just to think about where your industry is heading. Read stuff outside your field. Talk to customers about their long-term challenges, not just immediate needs. Ask yourself, “What would we do if our biggest competitor disappeared tomorrow?” or “What if our main revenue source became obsolete?”
The goal isn’t to have all the answers. It’s to ask better questions.
Inclusive Leadership: Beyond the Buzzwords
“Inclusive leadership” has become corporate speak that makes people’s eyes glaze over. But strip away the jargon, and you’re left with something powerful: getting the best ideas from everyone, not just the loudest voices in the room.
I’ve seen this play out in real time. A software company was struggling with user adoption among women. For months, the (mostly male) leadership team threw solutions at the problem. Nothing worked. Finally, someone suggested actually asking the women on their team what they thought. Turns out, the onboarding process had subtle barriers that the leadership team never noticed. Three small changes later, their female user base doubled.
That’s what inclusive leadership looks like in practice. It’s not about checking diversity boxes—it’s about recognising that different perspectives lead to better solutions. The research is clear: diverse teams outperform homogeneous ones by 35%. But the real magic happens when you create an environment where people feel safe to disagree with you.
How do you build this? Start by examining who gets heard in your meetings. Who gets interrupted? Whose ideas get credited? Then change the dynamics. Rotate who leads discussions. Use an anonymous idea submission. Most importantly, admit when you’re wrong and give credit where it’s due.
Decisiveness: The Art of Good-Enough Decisions
You’ll never have enough information to make perfect decisions. Ever. The leaders who succeed are the ones who can make good-enough decisions with incomplete data and adjust as they learn more.
I watched a manufacturing company’s leadership team spend six months analysing whether to expand into a new market. By the time they decided, two competitors had already established themselves there. Meanwhile, another company I know made the same decision in six weeks, entered the market, learned what worked, and adapted quickly. Guess who captured more market share?
But decisiveness isn’t about being reckless. It’s about setting decision deadlines, gathering the most important information, and then committing to a direction. You can always course-correct later, but you can’t get back time lost to indecision.
The trick is building systems that support quick decision-making. Define what information you actually need (not everything you want). Set clear criteria for decisions. And here’s the big one: create a culture where changing course isn’t seen as failure—it’s seen as learning.
The Reality Check
Developing these competencies isn’t a weekend workshop kind of thing. It takes time, practice, and probably some uncomfortable feedback along the way. You’ll mess up. I’ve seen brilliant leaders stumble because they thought they had it all figured out.
Great leaders keep working on themselves even when they don’t have to. They seek feedback, admit mistakes, and genuinely care about the people they lead.
So here’s my challenge to you: pick one of these areas and commit to getting better at it over the next 90 days. Not perfect—just better. Because in the end, leadership isn’t about being flawless. It’s about being human enough to connect with people and skilled enough to guide them toward something better.
The businesses that thrive in the coming years will be led by people who master these competencies. The question is: will that include you?
