March 12, 2026
“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who can not read or write. The illiterate of the 21st century will be those who can not learn, unlearn, and relearn.”
Alvin Toffler, Future Shock
Leadership growth and development are topics generating many articles today. It makes a lot of sense, as today’s leaders frequently report feeling unprepared for many challenges, from the economy to geopolitics to a record number of generations who are vastly different across all sectors of work to rapidly changing technology driven by AI disruption. The term developed by the US Army for a rapidly changing, unstable environment developed in the 1990″ s was VUCA, a V.olitaile U.ncertain C.omplex .A.mbigouous or VUCA environment. We can see this in the number of articles discussing the top skills needed to succeed in 2026. These articles provide excellent snapshots of the skills leaders must have to bring their best selves to show up for their people and teams. Leaders in this changing time must balance two seemingly disparate sets of skills, also coined by the IU.S. Dr James Whitmore as, hard skills technology and the machines of their industry that are complex and soft skills or people skills which are complicated The Harvard Business School’s 2025 Worldwide Leadership Development study reports that the pace of change, especially with AI, requires fast-paced learning that is scalable, outcomes-focused, and considers human factors.McKinsey notes that, even in an age of rapidly changing technology, sustainable success depends on developing human-centric leadership. An April 9, 2024, article by Diane Belcher in the Harvard Business Review, entitled “Leadership Fitness: Four Capacities Leaders Must Develop,” outlines four capacities of leadership needed to be fit in a human-centric leadership world. She noted research which “identified four capacities leaders must develop, what we call the four dimensions of Leadership Fitness: Balance, Strength, Flexibility, and Endurance.” She also noted they used the word capacity because of the vertical expansion of skills based on the demands of the times or the context. Belcher also wrote, “The other thing to note is that there could very well be other underlying capacities beyond these four that leaders may need to develop.” This subtle but critical element is shifting from thinking of skills to an expanded consideration of capacities for development rather than a finite set of skills. Leadership is an inside-out learning journey of continual development. Effective leaders know this is a never-ending journey, as Simon Sinek notes in The Infinite Game. Learning one’s leadership practice is an infinite game. These considerations call for a shift in leaders’ equipping and development from finite skills to capacities that are ever-changing and expanding. Capacities are infinite and yet aligned with a leader’s core values in the context of the time.
This Thursday, Leadership Insight is the first in a series of articles on leadership capacities for effective leaders. This article will provide a rationale for moving from skill equipping and development to a capacity-building approach to equip and develop leaders for an infinite game. There will be an overview of four leadership capacities. This article will also highlight the need to align core capacities to lead in this context.
Leadership evolves within the context of the times, requiring an emphasis on capacities over fixed skills. These expand as leaders adapt to new challenges, much like communication tools progressed from Lincoln’s extensive use of the telegraph during the Civil War to Roosevelt’s use of the radio for fireside chats during the Great Depression and WWII, and today’s use of digital media by our current leaders.
Why Capacities, Not Skills?
Leaders have always communicated. Abraham Lincoln mastered the telegraph for crisis coordination, while modern presidents like Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush leveraged TV, and now, social media tools are changing. All were communicated, yet it was an expanding capacity; the capacity to communicate endures and expands. Traditional “leadership skills” imply static abilities, but real leadership demands growth amid changing contexts. Capacities better describe adaptive strengths that develop over a leader’s tenure, incorporating IQ, EQ, and situational demands.
This Leadership Insight will consider an overview of four broad and essential leadership capacities.
Four Essential Capacities
Research from McKinsey, Gallup, and DDI highlights four human-centric leadership capacities vital for today’s workplaces.
1. Learnability Capacity (IQ and EQ)
This capacity involves continuous learning, embracing the concept of learning how to learn and apply learning, including IQ, cognitive skills for complex issues, and EQ, as Dr. Travis Bradberry writes, in the New Emotional Intelligence, personal competence of self-awareness, and Social Competence, including self-management and relationship management, to navigate complicated people puzzles. DDI notes EQ accounts for 85% of leadership success, blending cognitive agility with empathy.
2. Communication Capacity
Effective leaders articulate vision and use the four pillars of communication: present listening, powerful curious questions, Pause and respond, and practice to foster enhanced connection and engagement. Adam Grant emphasizes humble communication: leaders who speak last encourage diverse input, boosting psychological safety and conversation, which helps people “connect the dots.”
3. Coaching Capacity
Leaders who learn to apply and practice coaching build others through feedback, empathy, and development. Gallup emphasizes using strengths to drive engagement, while DDI promotes continuous learning cultures.
4. Collective Inclusive Capacity
This capacity will focus on Ryan Leary’s “How to Work with Complicated People” to create cultures for “winning with complicated people,” multigenerational teams, and collaboration. Patrick Lencioni states, “Not finance. Not a strategy. Not technology. It is teamwork that remains the ultimate competitive advantage.” Tim Elmore, in A New Kind of Diversity and The Future Begins with Z, writes that leaders must bridge generational gaps through reverse mentoring and other strategies to build bridges and leverage the talents of the entire organization.
Bringing Your Best Self to Your Leadership Practice
Leaders who will intentional develop their capacities and equip others by aligning core values, purpose, motivation, and mindset with these capacities in their time and place, their context John Maxwell notes one’s leadership practice develops “from the inside out,” turning “soft skills” coined by John Whitmore in US Army research into essentials for sustained success aas well as learning to learn technical “hard skills.”The result will be a human-centric, intentional leadership development framework where these capacities are aligned with core values, which will produce fulfilling, safe, and effective results for any organization
John Maxwell reminds us, “Leaders become great, not because of their power, but because of their ability to empower others.” Tim Elmore and many others echo that in a human-centric leadership framework, your true legacy is the leaders you leave behind.
The Leadership Question for you then is
1. Are you willing to choose to review these capacities to enhance your leadership practice?