Today, many thought leaders are having one of the most turbulent rides in their professional careers, beyond pandemic and economic crises.

I am having more conversations with leaders worldwide, and one question keeps coming up too frequently to be ignored: "What makes a great leader in this new economy?"  

Many aspects of the organizational dysfunction that came to light during the current crisis could have been prevented but were not taken seriously or as a high priority, creating numerous urgent, very valid concerns. 

How can we do the much-needed work of closing the gap between a deficiency in the current leadership's skill set, outdated mindsets and too many blind spots with an unclear path forward?

Lack of alignment and collaboration in strategic executions and all-time-high tensions among leadership teams are just some of the many concerns that companies face. 

Sadly, I could go on, as many global leaders are out of touch with what it takes to win, lead or be forward-thinking future leaders. The irony is that they are still in charge of strategic decisions; who gets hired, fired or promoted; and nurturing a destructive group-think mentality. Hopefully not for too long. 

We can't allow this chaos to stop us from creating a path forward for future leaders who will save the day on such a large scale. Why?

We have so much on the line! We owe stability and success through future leadership to our people and our global communities, beyond our companies and traditional stakeholders. 

More than ever, we have an opportunity to empower leaders to change their ways of working to succeed in a new digital global economy.

Here's how:

1. Reshape leadership into much-needed "future leaders" whose competencies can address the changing nature of work, talent needs, competition demands, customer expectations and influence while redesigning leadership's future.

2. Build an effective, diverse working environment for leaders to thrive in the digital economy that embraces new ways of working and leading, fostering trust, transparency, authenticity, collaboration and empathy.

3. Increase team and organizational transformation digital readiness to effectively lead in the new economy while tapping into their innovative, creative and proactive solutions without neglecting corporate values built on honesty, inspiration, inclusion and integrity. 

4. Eliminate leadership, cultural and human-capital blind spots that are hindering strategic technological and talent enablement. One of the biggest hindrances that I see for most organizations is outdated talent policies and practices. Adaptation of working from home and virtually is essential for organizational success beyond the current pandemic.

5. Assess and addresses personal blind spots. Future leadership must be consistent with a must-have skill set, accurate perspective and necessary agility for a successful path forward. We are operating in hyper speed, and the decision-making process needs to be sound yet expedited. 

But all of these changes are a conscious, proactive decision that we need to take seriously, especially if we want to be relevant, useful and competent future leaders. 

If I continue to be a trusted advisor or coach to a leadership team, I need to be on top of my game! I need to anticipate the needs as well as the demands of future leadership. The same goes for leaders facing so many dilemmas daily, ranging from where they make investments to the purpose and outcome of their efforts.

Failure to confront these dilemmas can keep organizations stuck in a debilitating sense of failure, mistrust and internal conflict.

But it must be the other way, right? 

What I learned from my leadership advisory and coaching practice is that great leaders, especially today, face these complexities head-on by asking for help. And that is a sign of strength, not a weakness, champions! 

They are leveraging their team's expertise as well as internal and external advisors while working on practical solutions in their organizations through engaging and supporting behavior, expressed with humility, transparency and authenticity.

How? By building trust and great teams.

You will be amazed at how fast you will arrive at a much-needed solution by fostering safe and effective collaboration to get things done.

But that is not enough, especially for future leaders capable of strengthening emerging and enduring leadership traits.

These leaders know that top-down leading and dysfunctional behaviors not only erode and damage their reputation but their organization, a nightmare from the past no longer tolerated. They also know that they have a short runway with new technologies and digitalization to step up and lead or step down and move out of the way.

Why? We live in an era of high demand for future leadership competencies and behaviors. 

As a result, we may see more new emerging critical behaviors, such as artificial intelligence, analytics and data management, as well as enduring ones, such as talent and customer expectation management, to survive future leadership demands. 

In conclusion, it is exciting to see new emerging trailblazers who demonstrate the power of purpose, authenticity, inspiration and trusting relationships within their diverse teams by cultivating collective leadership.

 Game On, Champions!

NOTE: This article was originally written for and published in Forbes and you can find it here .

Live, lead, and leave your legacy today and every day! ~ Izabela Lundberg, M.S.

Izabela Lundberg, The People Champion , is an Author ,  Forbes  Contributor, TEDx & Keynote Speaker,  Humanitarian ,  Producer ,  Podcaster  & Global Business Leader.

Izabela, Legacy Leaders Institute Founder is a trusted senior global advisor and results-driven transformational strategies to today's and tomorrow's $B visionrly organizations.

She creates a champion culture, thriving high-performing talent, teams, and legacy organizations.

To discover more about how Izabela and her team can assist you and your organization, schedule a Consultation HERE . 

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