Leaders must be prepared for rapid changes in 2025 

Technological advancements continue to soar throughout the Australian workplace, creating the predicament of having to keep up with them.

Looking ahead to 2025, one of the key challenges to organisational leaders and HR leaders is the constant technological changes entering the workplace. It will be a juggling act that will affect a large number of Australian organisations over the upcoming year.

Speaking on how organisations can adapt to keep up with said changes, DifferenThinking founder and chief executive Dr Zivit Inbar was featured on a recent HR Leader podcast offering strategies for leaders.

Inbar began by breaking down some of the crucial challenges that leaders may face in 2025.

“It’s the rapid changes, the AI transformation, transforming everything from decision making to society. Leaders must change their leadership style and acknowledge that we have shifting economic and geopolitical conditions, as well as all sorts of acceleration of the changing business environment,” Inbar said.

“Technology and AI is one of them. AI and cyber go very well together. But there are four categories of skills that every leader will have to have that [are] related to AI. It’s understanding AI and really knowing how to implement it [and] how to cultivate ethical innovation culture.”

“There are some soft skills that we really need to start sharpening better, and strategic thinking and upskilling.”

Ethical decision making in terms of AI implementation and progress in the workplace is crucial, according to Inbar.

“Ethical leadership and ethical decision making is a must. We can’t continue ignoring the ethical question. The pace of technology is changing so fast that we have to have the biggest picture to put strategy and governance in place on using this technology resilience,” Inbar said.

Inbar believes that to achieve these changes, leaders must partake in self-reflection and begin mapping out what kind of leader they want to be heading into 2025.

“I think every leader needs to reflect. They can take the time to reflect on what leadership is going to look like, where they’re at currently, and what they need to improve on. And that is not just for leaders, but also HR leaders as well, because these technological advancements put major challenges and huge opportunities on HR to show leadership and take a seat at the table,” Inbar said.

As leaders and HR teams face this critical junction, self-reflection and planning are imperative heading into 2025 if they want to hit their business targets and maintain or improve productivity.