Leading the Way: Strategies for Improving Leadership Comms in 2025

As we navigate through an era of unprecedented change and complexity, effective leadership communication has never been more critical.

Looking ahead to what should be priorities for leaders in 2025, MIT Sloan Management Review suggested communication and culture should top the list.

These two strengths are inseparable: An organization can't have a strong culture without communication skills, and vice versa."

- MIT Sloan Management Review

So, with that in mind, we commissioned leading communications and business alignment strategist Zora Artis to explore what's shaping leadership comms in 2025 and highlight four strategies that will enable leaders to future-proof their communications for the year ahead.
Read on to learn to hear the key takeaways from the webinar.

Where are leadership comms at today?

Leadership communication is deeply influenced by the current cultural and environmental landscape, which is fraught with challenges. To future-proof leadership communications, we need to address four major themes head-on: uncertainty and complexity, the leadership confidence gap, cultural expectation gaps, and evolving trust and experience trends.

1. Uncertainty and Complexity

Today’s pace of change is relentless, with complexity at an all-time high. Over the past four years, the pace of change has increased by 183%, driven by factors such as geopolitical shifts, economic growth, the rise of AI, and the ongoing debate between flexibility and mandated back-to-office policies. While leaders are navigating more challenges than ever before, effective communication can provide clarity amidst chaos, helping leaders connect the dots and ensure employees feel informed, supported, and engaged.

2. Cultural Expectations and Reality Gap

Employees and stakeholders now expect more from leaders, including purpose, accountability, and action. However, there is often a disconnect between what leaders think they are delivering and what employees and stakeholders perceive. Communication is crucial in bridging this gap, aligning leaders' actions with their words, and making culture tangible. Recent research from The Culture Institute of Australia highlights that healthy cultures result in 3x better performance, yet 75% of employees report experiencing toxic cultures in the past five years, primarily attributed to senior leadership.

3. Leadership Confidence Gap

There is a notable misalignment in leadership confidence within organizations. CEOs and boards often express greater confidence in the executive team, focusing on strategy and long-term goals. In contrast, leaders in the executive team and the next two tiers down, who are closer to operational challenges, often feel unsupported and unclear about how to deliver, undermining trust, collaboration, performance, and culture.

4. Evolving Trust and Experience Trends

Trust is declining significantly, both internally and externally, with trust in leaders declining 62% over the last 3 years. Increasing employee and customer skepticism driven by misinformation, disinformation, and polarization has a large impact on employee experience outcomes such as engagement, inclusion, and well-being. However, communication professionals can play a vital role in improving employee trust by helping leaders demonstrate empathy, acknowledge challenges, and celebrate wins in ways that resonate with employees.

Four Strategies for Future-Proofing Leadership Comms

Here are four strategies that communicators can use to improve leadership communications in 2025:

Strategy 1: Building Trust and Psychological Safety with Human-Centered Leadership

In a world where uncertainty and complexity are at an all-time high, building trust and fostering psychological safety are foundational to resilience and growth. Human-centered leadership is not just about being nice; it’s about creating environments where people feel safe to contribute, innovate, and grow.

During the webinar, Zora emphasized the need for dynamic listening at both organizational and team levels. Structured feedback loops, active listening campaigns, and employee input channels are essential for demonstrating that leaders are genuinely hearing their teams. Additionally, creating psychological safety involves coaching leaders on how to model commitment through behavior, actions, and transparent messaging.

Strategy 2: Balancing AI Integration with Ethical Considerations

AI is transforming the way we work, but with great power comes great responsibility. Leaders need to balance the potential of AI with ethical responsibilities and human connection. Zora highlighted the importance of responsible AI use and adoption, emphasizing that AI should enhance productivity while maintaining ethical standards and employee well-being.

Communication professionals play a crucial role in framing AI adoption as a positive step. By demonstrating positive use cases and showcasing the impact of AI on ways of working through data and stories, leaders can help employees see AI as a tool to enhance their contributions, not replace them. It’s about co-intelligence, not just artificial intelligence.

Strategy 3: Engaging Diverse Voices with Inclusive Leadership

Inclusive leadership is essential for innovation and alignment. It drives better decision-making, engagement, and fosters a sense of belonging. Zora discussed the importance of engaging diverse voices and ensuring that every voice matters. Communication professionals can help leaders tell stories that resonate across diverse teams and foster psychological safety.

Strategies for inclusive leadership include co-creating rituals that promote everyday respect, facilitating dialogic conversations that turn dialogue into action, and training leaders to develop communication capabilities like listening, emotional intelligence, and storytelling. The SCARF model, which addresses status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness, and fairness, can guide inclusive and effective dialogue:

• Status: Recognize achievements respecting diversity and elevating diverse voices.
• Certainty: Consistently communicate to reduce ambiguity and clarify roles and goals.
• Autonomy: Provide flexibility to approaching tasks and empower employees to shape initiatives.
• Relatedness: Create safe spaces for sharing perspectives respectfully and encouraging mentoring and peer support.
• Fairness: Share the why behind decisions and initiatives, and embed policies for fairness and addressing biases.

Strategy 4: Sustainability-Driven Leadership

Sustainability-driven leadership goes beyond ESG (environmental, social, and governance) targets. It’s about embedding long-term value and responsible impact into an organization’s core strategy. Zora emphasized that sustainability-driven leadership aligns actions with purpose, resonating across generations and building resilience and trust.
Communication professionals can help leaders craft narratives that connect organizational goals with employee and stakeholder values. This involves articulating the why behind actions, engaging diverse stakeholders in sustainability initiatives, and transparently showcasing the impact. It’s about making people feel like they are part of something meaningful and lasting.

Practical Tips for Future-Proof Leadership Communications

To future-proof leadership communications, Zora shared several practical tips:

1. Dynamic Listening: Implement structured feedback loops and active listening campaigns to ensure leaders are genuinely hearing their teams.
2. Psychological Safety: Coach leaders on creating safe spaces for open communication and modeling commitment through behavior and transparent messaging.
3. Responsible AI Use: Frame AI adoption as a positive step, balancing productivity with ethical considerations and human connection.
4. Inclusive Practices: Engage diverse voices through co-created rituals, dialogic conversations, and training leaders in communication capabilities.
5. Sustainability Narratives: Craft narratives that connect organizational goals with employee and stakeholder values, showcasing impact transparently.

Leadership communication has the power to shape trust, drive alignment, and connect people to purpose. As we move into 2025, the trends and strategies discussed in this article provide a roadmap for leaders to navigate the complexities of the modern world. By cultivating human-centered communication, balancing AI with empathy, developing inclusive practices, and embedding sustainability into their strategies, leaders can future-proof their organizations and drive meaningful, lasting impact.