1. Why Is the Increasing Complexity of Leadership Roles Being Questioned Now?
Leadership roles have become far more complex than ever before.
This is due to the emergence of what is called the VUCA era — characterized by Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity.
Society, economy, technology, and values are all fluid and unpredictable.
Strategies that worked a year ago may no longer be effective the next. This is the world we live in.
In this context, the traditional leadership model — where a leader with past experience and definite answers leads the organization — has reached its limits.
Leaders are now required to make decisions in areas they have never encountered before.
This does not mean leaders can avoid decisions because there are no clear answers.
Rather, it means leaders must continually bear the responsibility to decide.
Moreover, relying solely on personal charisma or intuition is no longer sufficient.
Leaders must gather diverse perspectives, analyze situations multidimensionally, form hypotheses, and make the best possible decisions.
This intellectual strategic behavior is what modern leadership demands.
The final decisions and accountability rest on the leader.
The balance of "responsibility to decide" and "intelligence to leverage diversity" is what has dramatically raised the bar for leadership roles.
2. Evolving into Leaders Who Leverage the Individual
Today’s leaders are expected not only to unite organizations but also to understand, leverage, and translate individuals' strengths into organizational success.
Leaders must directly address the question: "What strengths does this team member have, and in what situations can they excel?"
Strengths are not just "what someone is good at."
They are natural, sustainable traits that provide internal fulfillment. Strengths mean abilities that surpass others.
Yet because strengths feel natural to the person, they are often unrecognized by themselves.
Discovering strengths requires combining feedback, behavioral observation, and scientific aptitude diagnostics.
The 5D Profile Assessment visualizes personality, emotional, thinking, work value, and behavioral traits from five perspectives.
For example, an employee high in extraversion but low in cooperativeness may be outspoken but prone to unilateral decisions.
One with high cooperativeness and high negative emotions may be considerate but less assertive.
Understanding these multidimensional "true selves" allows leaders to strategically leverage individual strengths.
Discovered strengths should be applied to team strategy and task allocation.
Instead of just correcting weaknesses, intentionally designing situations to maximize strengths is key.
This is the foundation of a strong organization.
Leaders are not just understanding individuals—they must become designers who leverage individuals.
3. From Debate to Exchange of Opinions: Communication in the Age of Diversity
As diversity grows in organizations, communication quality determines organizational strength.
However, the traditional debate-focused style no longer works.
Debate aims to "win" by logically defeating the opponent.
In the U.S., debate culture historically dominated education and business, emphasizing logic and eloquence to overpower others.
But since the late 1990s, with diversity initiatives gaining ground, the limitations of debate-style communication became clear in the U.S.
Debate is a tool to "beat" others with words.
Those defeated feel alienated.
This is counterproductive to leveraging diverse talent.
As a result, the U.S. has shifted toward an "exchange of opinions" style.
This means dialogue to broaden perspectives rather than to change others.
Leaders must design and facilitate such exchanges.
The goal is to foster an organizational culture that respects differences and collaboratively builds a better future.
This is the communication style needed in teams going forward.
4. Leaders Must Bridge Strategy and People
The complexity of leadership roles is not just about responding to environmental changes.
Leaders have a new mission to enable sustainable growth of their organizations toward the future.
Recently, sustainability has become key in corporate management.
But sustainability alone is not enough.
Companies need strategies that are sustainable yet achieve economic growth.
To meet these dual demands, leaders must not only manage operations but become
connectors of business strategy and talent development.
Understanding strategy and merely implementing it on the ground is insufficient.
Leaders need the ability to connect individual strengths and aspirations to organizational goals through thoughtful design.
Identifying individual strengths and linking them to organizational success.
Leaders who can execute this are the leaders needed in today’s world.
They must evolve from strategy translators to designers who integrate strategy and individuals to create the future.
5. What Is Talent Management? Why Is It Essential Now?
Talent management is an indispensable concept in this evolution of leadership.
It is not just about retaining high performers.
It means strategic utilization of human resources by visualizing the strengths, growth potential, and motivations of all employees and aligning them with organizational strategy.
The 5D Profile Assessment is a critical tool for practicing talent management.
It assesses individuals across:
- Personality traits (conscientiousness, cooperativeness, emotional stability, etc.)
- Emotional traits (positive and negative emotions)
- Thinking traits (positive thinking, logical thinking, creative thinking, etc.)
- Work values (achievement orientation, contribution orientation, etc.)
- Behavioral traits (71 specific behavior tendencies)
These five dimensions provide a multi-faceted understanding of individuals.
This clarity reveals:
- Environments that maximize strengths
- Interactions that boost motivation
- Situations where performance tends to decline
Based on this data, leaders can perform scientifically grounded human resource management, rather than relying on intuition or experience alone.
Talent management is not solely the responsibility of HR departments.
Each leader is required to practice it daily within their teams.
Strategic actions that leverage individuals and drive organizational growth.
This is the true essence of talent management.
6. Conclusion: Leaders Are the Fusion of "Decision-Making Responsibility" and "Individual-Leveraging Design Ability"
In the VUCA era, leaders are not mere managers.
They hypothesize, gather information, exchange opinions, and ultimately make decisions despite uncertainty.
Throughout this process, they understand individual strengths,
place people in the right roles, and design environments where they can thrive.
Leaders bear responsibility for their organization's future.
They integrate strategy and talent to guide teams and promote organizational evolution.
Leadership roles have unquestionably become more complex.
Yet this is not a burden.
It means leaders have evolved into creative forces that unlock the full potential of people and organizations,
forging the path to the future.