01 Economic uncertainty dominates the leadership landscape

The challenge of global economic instability continues to loom large over organizational leaders, with 63% identifying uncertain economic growth as a top threat to organizational health in the next 12-18 months.

The level of concern has intensified in the past six months. With trade tensions building and policy changes on the horizon when we surveyed leaders in March 2025, it’s unsurprising that more leaders have considered economic uncertainty a top five concern.

Despite this growing threat, leadership preparedness to face this threat has decreased to 40%—the lowest level of preparedness for this threat since we began tracking the data in 2021.

Related economic concerns have also gained prominence, with policy uncertainty surging from ninth to fifth place in just six months (28% to 36%), while trade conflicts have entered the top ten threats for the first time. Regional variations are also notable, with leaders in the Americas expressing significantly higher concern over policy uncertainty (47%) compared to the global average.

The widening gap between economic uncertainty and the second-ranked factor, technological change, further underscores the escalating concern over economic fluctuations.

02 Geopolitical uncertainty surges to critical importance

Geopolitical uncertainty has experienced a dramatic rise in its threat to organizational health since we began tracking in 2021, nearly doubling from 24% to 45% of leaders identifying it as a top five threat. This surge reflects the increasingly complex and volatile global political landscape that organizations must navigate.

Regional perspectives reveal significant differences, with European leaders substantially more concerned (53%) about geopolitical uncertainty than their American counterparts (35%). This 18-percentage-point difference highlights how regional context shapes leadership priorities and risk assessments.

03 Technology change ascends organizational threat list with AI at the forefront

Technology change climbed from third to second position among top organizational threats over the past six months, with 52% of leaders now viewing tech disruption as a top five threat to organizational health. This rise in threat level underscores the accelerating pace of AI and its profound implications for business models and strategies.

While leadership preparedness to face tech change remains relatively low at 48%, leaders report higher confidence in addressing specific operational concerns like cybersecurity.

When asked about their views on AI in this same survey, 82% of leaders reported believing that a strong AI understanding will be mandatory for future C-suite executives. However, only 41% feel confident in their personal ability to implement AI within their organizations, revealing a critical leadership skills gap that must be addressed.

04 Talent concerns recede as leaders refocus priorities

Talent availability concerns have experienced a notable decline, dropping from second to third position among top threats and decreasing by nearly 10 percentage points in the past six months (57% to 48%)—reaching their lowest level since 2021. This represents a 23-percentage-point decrease from its peak of 71% two years ago.

This shift may indicate improving talent acquisition strategies, labor market adjustments, or simply leadership attention being diverted to more urgent challenges. Via conversations with leaders globally, we’ve heard that this drop isn’t due to a deprioritization—rather, it’s that there are so many other pressing issues that leaders need to apply more focus elsewhere. Regional variations persist, with Asia leaders expressing the highest concern about talent availability (56%) compared to leaders in the Americas (46%).

Leaders noted a similar decline in workforce transformation concerns, which fell four places in the rankings over six months (from 42% to 29%).

05 Top threat interconnectedness increases complexity

The volatility and complexity that organizations must contend with today means the value of good leadership is only going up. Yet leadership teams are, understandably, feeling continually less prepared to face the multi-layered issues in front of them.

These disruptive forces—be they geopolitical, economic, or technological—are driving a set of shifts beneath the surface that are fundamentally changing the nature of leadership (and often making leaders’ efforts feel futile).

_{Source: Russell Reynolds Associates 2025}

However, the current uncertain and tumultuous environment requires leaders to act—and act decisively. Through their actions, they set an example for everyone in the organization and stand as the difference between thriving in uncertainty or suffering irreparable damage.

Indeed, turbulent environments often increase the distance between winners and losers in competitive markets. Those that outpace the competition are often defined by the effectiveness of their leadership team. As the speed of change continues to accelerate, succeeding in the unknown future will require a resilient and adaptable enterprise leadership approach.