Leading through uncertainty: Women's leadership skills are no longer 'soft' - they're essential

In 2025, no one knows what will happen next. Every headline reminds us; every conversation touches upon it. The structures we've relied on - economic, political, and social - are cracking, and shards of what we once believed unquestioningly are scattered on the ground. The boundaries between problems blur. A climate crisis is also a social crisis. A technological shift is also a workforce disruption. A global conflict affects local businesses. The interconnectedness of these challenges means that solutions cannot be linear. Every moment reminds us that control is an illusion.

In Aotearoa, New Zealand, we feel this deeply. One of us (Jennifer) came here as an adult, raising children and studying leadership in a new land and culture. The other (Naomi) arrived as a child and grew up in the waves and dunes of Paekākāriki. Our island nation sits at the front line of environmental change, our communities are deeply interconnected, and our leadership models - steeped in (relationships) and manaakitanga (care) - have always been about navigating complexity together rather than standing alone at the top.

Women, in particular, have been practising leadership in complexity for generations. We had no choice but to balance competing responsibilities, adapt to shifting expectations, and build networks of influence when formal authority wasn't available to us. 

Growing up, Jennifer was fed the usual stories about leadership: that it was something you stepped into when you had the skills, knowledge, and expertise. Leadership felt external, something granted by others when they decided you were "qualified." Only the study of leaders in complexity over the last decades and the experience of being led by some extraordinary women leaders in that complexity could convince her that leadership needed to be redefined, reconsidered, and re-learned. 

Naomi grew up in a home where both parents were leadership consultants. With a mother who co-founded and led Cultivating Leadership, she began her life with a different vision of leadership. She understood early that leadership wasn't about waiting to be chosen. It was about stepping forward into uncertainty, about creating the future through attentive listening and experimentation. It was about learning out loud, adapting in real-time, and shaping the future through relationships rather than rigid strategies.

Women have been leading in this way for a long time. The challenge is that leadership frameworks have often ignored or undervalued these ways of leading. Our ability to hold competing truths, to lead through relationships rather than authority, to listen and adapt rather than dictate - these are not just soft skills. These are the leadership survival skills of our time.

For women, these natural inclinations have often been belittled. Many of us have been raised to believe that we need to be extra prepared, extra competent, and extra confident before stepping into leadership. But in complexity, no one has the perfect answer. The best leaders aren't the ones who believe (or act like) they know everything; they are the ones who create environments where it's safe to experiment, fail, and learn. 

This means seeing leadership as an act of sense-making rather than problem-solving. It means valuing the skills that women have long cultivated - collaboration, intuition, and the ability to hold multiple perspectives at once.

Women are already leading in complexity. We just don't always call it leadership.

When we navigate ambiguity with grace, we are leading.

When we make sense of conflicting pressures and limited information and experiment our way forward, we are leading.

When we challenge old ways of thinking and invite new ideas into the conversation, we are leading.

When we motivate others through love rather than through fear, we are leading.

As a mother and daughter, we arrive at this conversation from different places.

One of us has spent decades coaching leaders through complexity; the other is still early in her leadership journey. But we both know this: complexity is not something to be feared. It is not something we should try to control. It is a force to be engaged with, shaped, and even embraced. When we do that, our differences don't drive us apart; they make us stronger.

In Aotearoa, we have a unique opportunity to model a different kind of leadership rooted in relationships, adaptability, and collective wisdom. Māori leadership principles have long recognised that leadership is not about individual power but the strength of the group, the connections between people, and the ability to navigate an ever-changing world together.

Women have always done this work. Now, it's time to name it, claim it, and step fully into it. For organisations looking to thrive in uncertainty, recognising and valuing these essential leadership capabilities isn't only about equity; it's about survival and success in our increasingly complex world.