Everybody has been talking about VUCA and BANI and how rapid change is such a large part of business today. Agility is a prized quality in organizations. But how prepared do leaders really feel to deal with change?
DDI’s Global Leadership Forecast, based on more than 100,000 leaders, is quite sobering. According to this report:
- Only 18% of leaders say they feel “very prepared” to deal with change.
- The number of leaders who feel “prepared” has declined over the past five years from 25% to 13%.
- Across levels, only 8% of executives demonstrate strong change leadership as per this report, while the numbers improve a little down the line.
- Just 1% are strong at visibly rewarding behaviours that support change.
- Only 11% of executives are strong at addressing resistance.
Only 8% of executives demonstrate strong change leadership. And the proportion of leaders who feel prepared to manage change has fallen from 25% to 13% over the past five years.
~ DDI, 2026
So, who is equipped to deal with change? As per this report:
- Gen z – 1.5X more likely to feel prepared to anticipate and respond to rapid change.
- Small businesses – 2X more likely to have leaders who are prepared to manage change.
- Women – 1.3X higher confidence in their effectiveness at managing change.
Forbes, reporting on DDI’s Global Leadership Forecast, describes this as a broader challenge. Leaders are operating through near-continuous disruption, with greater expectations, fewer certainties and less time to adjust. They also draw an important distinction between managing change and leading through change. The former can provide the structure, timelines and processes needed to implement a transformation. The latter is about how people experience the disruption and whether leaders can build trust, engagement and momentum through it. They quote research by Gartner to suggest that employee trust in organizational change is at a historic low (79% of those surveyed report low trust).
This suggests that being ready for change is not simply about having a plan for what happens next. It is also about how leaders respond when the situation becomes uncertain, uncomfortable or different from what was expected.
The Leader Is Part of the Change
This becomes particularly interesting when we look at transformational leadership.
Transformational leadership is often associated with creating a compelling vision, inspiring others and encouraging people to move beyond the status quo. But a 2026 study published in the European Management Journal suggests that their effectiveness in managing change is moderated by their own attitude towards the change effort. In simple words, transformational leaders may have the very tools necessary to inspire change, but may not apply them if they do not believe in it.
The finding is important because it shifts the focus from what leaders do during change to how they are experiencing it themselves. The leader is not outside the change, directing it from a distance. They are part of it.
So, the key question for a leader is not about what they can do to manage change. Instead try asking, “How am I responding to this change?”, or “What might my own reservations be communicating?”
Perhaps this is where leadership readiness really begins.