Leaders need different capabilities to face a world where systems of production, governance and management are being transformed.

The advent of a Fourth Industrial Revolution brings conditions of ‘radical uncertainty’, where leaders cannot describe accurately the characteristics of the situations they are in. Past approaches to problems may not be relevant and the consequences of their actions are not predictable.

In our research with heads from a cross-section of organisations, they told us that in such conditions, they can influence events better through a different set of capabilities. Our work suggests that a move is needed away from 'heroic' individualistic leadership (ego leadership) towards a leadership that recognises the organisation as a system nested in a broader ecosystem (eco-leadership).