The future’s calling: why tomorrow’s leaders will make today’s CEOs obsolete

Many of today’s leaders are still using the same dog-eared playbook – chasing quarterly profits, hoarding power and treating collaboration as a branding exercise. That’s not just outdated; it’s dangerous. The world is shifting beneath our feet. Climate breakdown, the rapid evolution of AI and systemic inequality are tearing up the old rulebook and the leaders who cling to it will be relics before they know it.

So, what kind of leadership will actually matter in the coming decades? The answer isn’t just a new set of skills. It’s a whole new operating system.

Essential traits: humility, curiosity and courage

The best leaders of tomorrow won’t be the loudest in the room. They’ll be the ones asking the smartest questions. Good questions unlock new answers and we’ll need plenty of those.

But curiosity alone isn’t enough. They’ll need courage – the kind that lets them break from industry norms, admit when they’re wrong and take risks that don’t guarantee short-term payoffs. Right now, most executives are too scared to make bold moves. In the coming disruption, that attitude won’t cut it.

Collaboration that’s actually real

Corporate leaders love to talk about collaboration but, let’s be honest, it’s mostly PR. This is a generation trained in elbows-out competitive posturing. Partnerships with NGOs that don’t threaten profits. Token gestures of “inclusivity”. That’s not collaboration. It’s optics.

Tomorrow’s leaders will be forced into real collaboration – co-creating policies with governments, pooling resources with former competitors and sharing power with workers and communities. It won’t be a nice-to-have. It will be survival.

Education needs a hard reset

MBA programs are still cranking out leaders trained to maximise shareholder value above all else. That’s like preparing for the 2030s with a 1980s business textbook.

The education system needs a full reboot. Future leaders won’t be learning in lecture halls, they’ll be embedded on the frontline, in labs, on regenerative farms, in the places where real change is happening. They’ll be tested by real-world complexity, not case studies from an era that vanished with the glaciers.

Regulation: not the enemy, but the catalyst

Today’s leaders treat regulation like a punishment – something to fight, lobby against or find ways around. But the leaders of tomorrow will see it for what it really is: a launchpad.

Imagine a world where carbon taxes drive hyper-innovation in clean tech or where global sustainability benchmarks push entire industries forward. Regulation isn’t a constraint. It’s an accelerant that forces companies to evolve instead of dragging their feet.

The leaders of 2040 are already emerging – are you one of them?

By 2040, leadership will look nothing like it does today. AI-driven economies, decentralised power structures, climate upheaval – these forces will make the old-school CEO extinct.

So, the real question is: are today’s leaders ready to evolve? Most aren’t. They’ll resist change until they’re irrelevant. The ones who thrive will be those who can unlearn, adapt and build new systems from the ground up.

Leadership is about to undergo a seismic shift. You can fight it or you can be ahead of it. Which side will you be on?

Rejection letter from the future

22nd April 2030

Dear CEO candidate,

Thank you for your application for the role of CEO. After reviewing your submission, we have decided not to progress with you on this particular occasion. Ours is a search for a leader who can navigate the rapidly accelerating climate breakdown, not someone who thrives in the (rapidly warming) comfort of the status quo.

Your resumé clearly highlights your past glories. But future thinking appears to be lacking. Sustainability buzzwords are strewn around like single-use afterthoughts, rather than innovative, long-term strategies. Although it is heartening to hear that your company has been ‘reporting carbon since 2020’, it doesn’t quite add up to the sustainability expertise the world needs now.

We need visionary leaders who treat environmental and social responsibility not as a box-ticking exercise in compliance, but as a springboard for innovation. This mindset will help us create value for our business and for nature, as well as making us more resilient to the inevitable changes that are coming. We need people who dismantle competitive silos, rather than those who are architects of silo construction. Maintaining a laser focus on a cautious, short-term, conservative approach are excellent qualities – for a museum curator – but not for a CEO who now needs to spearhead transformative change.

This role demands more than just reporting carbon metrics and tossing anything difficult to your under-resourced head of sustainability; it requires a radical rethinking of how we do business – from the very top. It means powering and empowering change. On this, I am afraid your application comes across as more fossil than fuel.

Leadership today is about giving power away. The future requires less ego and more equity. It is about trying to take a holistic, bird’s eye view – true systems thinking. It will mean listening to new voices and inviting fresh thinking into the boardroom. This is the only way we’ll create a positive and compelling narrative of what the future could be; something exciting that we can run towards rather than a nightmare to hide from. Our leaders, the good ones, will be instrumental in telling this story.

We wish you the best in your future endeavours and updates to your leadership playbook.

Best,

Chair of the board of governors

Written with Seb Royce

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Take action on these three points now to future-proof your leadership

This isn’t some distant reality, these shifts are already happening. If you want to stay relevant, here’s where to start:

1. Get out of your bubble, fast

Stop relying on the same echo chamber of industry insiders and business school frameworks. Instead, embed yourself in the places where change is happening. Work alongside climate-tech innovators and regenerative business pioneers. Learn from the people already building the future, not just those profiting from the past.

2. Redefine risk. And take more of it

Right now, most leaders define risk as “doing something different”. The real risk? Sticking with the status quo. Start experimenting – pilot new governance models, test regenerative and circular business approaches, challenge outdated KPIs. The leaders of tomorrow will be those who had the guts to try, fail and iterate.

3. Rewire your success metrics

Still measuring leadership by quarterly growth and market dominance? That’s an express ticket to irrelevance. Start tracking impact – carbon reduction, water intensity, community wellbeing, regenerative supply chains and circular materials, as well as profit. The leaders who succeed in the future will be those who measure what actually matters.

Leo Rayman is CEO and founder of EdenLab, the green growth and sustainability innovation firm whose mission is to create and enable demand for cleaner, greener, profitable products and services.

Climate CrisisLeadershipC-SuiteOpinionRiskSustainability