Dive Brief:

• Although company leaders are critical to organizational growth, only 17% said they “feel confident anticipating and reacting to change,” according to the Global Leadership Forecast 2027 from consulting firm DDI.
• That percentage has not changed much since 2025, DDI said in a statement, adding that leaders who didn’t feel confident “are a third as likely to stay productive during setbacks.” Additionally, 19% reported that they often felt “used up,” even though most elected to stay in their roles.
• The confidence problem can create real challenges for companies because organizations with “effective change leadership” were 2.4 times more likely “to meet or exceed their financial targets,” according to the research.

Dive Insight:

This is DDI’s 12th leadership forecast since 1999, and its data was drawn from more than 11,000 leader responses as well as responses from about 2,500 HR professionals. The company said that the results of its research indicated a hidden corporate performance risk.

“The pressures on leaders are compounding,” Rosey Rhyne, manager of DDI’s Center for Analytics and Behavioral Research, said in a statement. “Recurring restructuring is reshaping leaders’ roles, and AI is redefining how their work gets done. These shifts are rapid and deeply personal, and many leaders are struggling to maintain the trust and engagement they need to lead their teams through disruption. The cracks show up first at the front line, where these pressures reinforce each other.”

Artificial intelligence is also having an impact, with 81% of leaders touting AI productivity gains and 75% reporting improved work quality, but just 14% said they felt ready to “use emerging technologies successfully.” Only 18% of respondents said leaders check the quality of their AI output.

As technology adoption speeds up, 87% of leaders said they were worried that their existing skills were becoming obsolete. That can create a retention problem, as anxious leaders were 5.1 times more likely to “report a definite intention to leave their organization,” per the study.

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