Twenty years ago, when Hanken & SSE Executive Education started, the world looked different, as many surely remember. Nokia dominated the mobile phone market, Facebook was one year old, and the concept of "artificial intelligence" was mostly science fiction. Business leaders could plan in five-year intervals and expect the world to look roughly the same when the plan was complete.
Today we live in an era where AI is reshaping the labour market in months, not years. Geopolitical tensions shift overnight, and the world is polarising. Technologies that were groundbreaking five years ago are standard today. In this turbulence, it would be easy to believe that everything has changed – that the leadership we taught in 2005 is outdated and irrelevant.Yet here's the paradox: Just as the world becomes automated and digitalised, with algorithms increasingly making decisions and AI replacing routine work, the opposite is happening.
Human leadership and human connections become more critical than ever.
What is the foundational need for leadership?
Dr. Matthew Lieberman's groundbreaking research summarising over a thousand studies in Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect reveals something profound: humans are fundamentally social creatures.
We are created to be social, and our brains have even evolved to enable us to relate to and interact with each other effectively. When we experience social pain, rejection, or a harsh word, the same brain regions are activated as when we experience physical pain.
Evolution has treated social connection as a survival necessity, not a convenience. This also explains why many young people who have grown up in a highly digital world have become alienated from society.
Leadership's role in this is deeply rooted in our evolution. Humans have developed specific cognitive mechanisms for leadership and followership over the course of millions of years.
We are not just social – we are hierarchically social. Our ancestors who succeeded in organising hunting parties, distributing resources, and protecting the group survived. Those who failed did not. The result is that our brains today contain dedicated systems for navigating leader-follower relationships.
Today, hierarchies are both experience-oriented and knowledge-oriented, and research shows that more diversified organisations help us see things in new ways. Regardless of content, the organisational glue – structure and culture – plays a major role in competition.
I have seen this truth repeated again and again: When people meet face-to-face, something unique happens. It's not just information exchange – it's a deeper connection that makes teams function better. Research confirms what we intuitively understand: Our brains are constructed for human presence. This is why so many organisations have struggled with remote leadership – technology can transfer information, but not the human connection.
Leadership's transformation: What changes and what endures
If the need for leadership is constant, then the conditions have changed fundamentally. During my 30 years in working life, I have seen how these shifts have shaped new demands, while certain core capabilities endure:
Speed meets psychological safety. In 2005, CEOs could make strategic decisions based on analyses that were months old. Today, market conditions may have changed while the PowerPoint presentation is being finalised. But precisely in this speed, the ability to create psychological safety becomes crucial – that people dare to think aloud, question, and fail without being punished. Researchers call it "social reward" – and our brains respond to it as strongly as to physical rewards.
No algorithm can replace the feeling of being seen and respected when everything around is collapsing.
Complexity requires empathy and systems thinking. When I meet Finnish business leaders today, I see how they must understand geopolitics, cybersecurity, sustainability, AI ethics, and global supply chains simultaneously. Expert knowledge is not enough – it requires systems thinking and the ability to see connections where others see silos. Our strongly product-focused companies must make the journey to becoming knowledge companies. But in this complexity, the ability to help others grow becomes central. Mirror neurons in our brains make us literally feel others' emotions. Great leaders use this biological gift deliberately – they see potential, challenge, and support. AI can recommend courses, but it cannot see that an employee is just ready for the next step.
Transparency demands authenticity. Leaders in 2005 could have private conversations behind closed doors. Today, every decision, every statement, every Slack message lives with the risk of becoming public. Authenticity is no longer a choice – it's a requirement. And it is precisely here that leadership's deepest dimension emerges: the ability to create meaning. According to evolutionary psychology, humans are driven by three motives: cooperation (getting along), competition (getting ahead), and meaning-making (finding meaning). The latter cannot be automated by any system. When a leader explains why we do what we do, when they connect our work to something larger, the brain's reward system is activated in ways that no KPIs can achieve.
Automation highlights the human. Routine decisions, data analysis, and strategic recommendations can today be generated by AI. The question is no longer "what does the leader know" but "how does the leader help us navigate what we don't know." And the answer lies in relationship building, moral navigation, creativity and adaptability – everything that is uniquely human.
In 20 Years: Leadership 2045
If we extrapolate today's trends, automation in twenty years will no longer be a transition but a reality. AI will have taken over most cognitive routine tasks. But the leader herself will be more human than ever, or she will fail.
In a world of avatars and AI agents, leaders who can create genuine human connections will be worth their weight in gold. When AI can optimise for almost any goal, the question becomes not "what can we do" but "what should we do." Leaders in 2045 must navigate ethical dilemmas we can barely imagine today. Truly innovative thinking – what emerges when someone sees a connection no one else has seen – remains uniquely human. And most importantly: We are not designed to be lonely, efficient machines. We are social beings who thrive on meaningful relationships.
Developing your leadership
After 20 years of developing leaders, one truth has endured:
People need other people. We need someone who sees us, who challenges us, who believes in us when we don't believe in ourselves.
Technology can make us more efficient, AI can make us smarter, and automation can free us from the monotonous. But the true nature of leadership is not about having the answers – it's about helping others find them.
Here is my challenge to you: Find out how you are perceived in your leadership or as a colleague. Ask your team and request honest feedback on how you can better support them in their work. For example, you can ask concretely how you can give them better feedback.
When we celebrate our 40th anniversary in twenty years, tools and methods will have changed completely. But the core will indeed be the same: people helping other people become better versions of themselves. Leadership is not just a profession. It is a human necessity.
Read more about how we can support you in your leadership journey