Bryan Robinson

As we near 2025, some outdated leadership strategies are on their last breath. If you were to write a "leadership obituary" for 2024, you would bury outdated leadership strategies that once dominated the workplace but are now ineffective and harmful.

Employees don’t leave organizations; they leave bad leadership. A terrible leader can overshadow an otherwise positive work experience. Statistics show that nearly 20% of employees are on the receiving end of toxic work conditions. A few examples of toxic leadership are failure to act on employee feedback, ignoring work-life balance and inconsistent or unfair treatment of employees. DDI’s Frontline Leader Project data shows that 57% of employees have left at least one job because of poor leadership.

Identifying Outdated Leadership Strategies

When I spoke with Dr. Tacy Byham, CEO of DDI, she identified five questions leaders can askbefore they reach the status of “career villain”:

1. Do you fail to see your employees as whole people?
2. Do you give vague or damaging feedback or no feedback at all?
3. Are you solving too many of your team’s problems?
4. Do you micromanage because you don’t trust your team?
5. Do you waste your team’s time on unproductive meetings?

Many HR personnel find it difficult to identify or eradicate a toxic work culture or identify its origins. It’s difficult to recognize leadership toxicity, especially if managers display strong and praised leadership that camouflages toxicity under the surface. But Christie Smith, human-centered leadership expert, unearths the outdated leadership strategies that need to be laid to rest and what needs to replace them in 2025.

She cites Gallup Research, showing that 77% of employees don't trust their leaders' ability to navigate today's challenges. Smith, co-author of ESSENTIAL: How Distributed Teams, Generative AI, and Global Shifts are Creating a New Human-Powered Leadership, pinpoints three outdated leadership strategies that should be buried for good.

1. The Hierarchical, Command-And-Control Model. “This top-down, ego-driven approach assumes that employees must be micromanaged and are unwilling to work without constant supervision,” Smith asserts. “Amazon, Starbucks, Apple and Google, once considered worker paradises, are now facing growing unionization efforts—employees demand more autonomy and representation.” She cites research by Gallup, showing that when companies promote a strong sense of purpose and connection, they reduce turnover by 8.1% and increase profitability by 4.4%, highlighting the tangible value of human-centered leadership over rigid control.
2. What's Good For Employees Isn't Good For Business. Smith says that leaders who cling to the idea that prioritizing people undermines profitability are not only wrong—they're harmful. “Human-centered leadership that prioritizes employee growth and well-being is critical to sustaining both innovation and business growth,” she explains. “Johnson & Johnson’s wellness programs, for instance, yielded a six-to-one ROI and saved $250 million over a decade in healthcare costs, demonstrating that employee well-being investments can significantly strengthen a company’s bottom line .”
3. The Idea That Presence Equals Productivity. Today’s workforce isn’t seeking work-life balance, according to Smith; they’re after work-life integration. “Employers who offer flexibility and agency over how, when and where people get the job done will benefit from a more engaged (and productive) employee base,” she emphasizes.

Why These Legacy Models Are Failing

Smith told me by email that legacy leadership models, especially hierarchical command-and-control, are out of touch with the requirements of today’s business environment, which requires adaptability, collaboration and meaningful employee engagement. “These outdated practices assume constant oversight is necessary for productivity, but research consistently shows the opposite: Gallup found that purpose-driven cultures achieve an 8.1% reduction in turnover and a 4.4% increase in profitability,” she points out.

“Companies like Microsoft, under Satya Nadella’s leadership, exemplified this shift by fostering a ‘learn-it-all’ mindset, prioritizing curiosity and collaboration, which has led to significant growth and employee satisfaction,” she adds. “Today’s workforce expects flexibility, work-life integration and leaders who actively live their values—demands that legacy models can’t meet in today’s world.”

What Can Replace These Defunct Practices

Smith believes that human-powered leadership is rapidly replacing outdated models, prioritizing flexibility, agency, connection and well-being. “Rather than micromanaging, today’s most effective leaders act as facilitators and bridge builders— empowering their teams to take ownership of their work while supporting their growth and deepening their connection to the organization’s purpose,” she explains. “This approach builds the trust and accountability that control-driven models often erode. Take Atlassian: its ‘Team Anywhere’ policy re-imagines not only where work gets done but also aligns work with employees’ needs. The results are striking: 92% of Atlassian employees report that flexibility helps them perform at their best, and 91% cite it as a key reason for staying with the company.”

How Leaders Can Adapt To Human-Powered Leadership

Leaders must practice emotional maturity by suspending self-interest, Smith suggests and becoming curious about their people, and focusing relentlessly on culture. “These shifts cultivate trust, resilience and psychological safety—qualities essential for high employee engagement and productivity in a complex and rapidly changing landscape,” she points out. “The impact is measurable: Upwork’s 2023 Work Innovators Study found that companies with a human-centered approach saw a 33% increase in revenue growth over 12 months, with 55% of leaders fully confident in their organization’s future. Human-powered leadership isn’t just good for culture - it’s a strategy for lasting growth.”

A Final Takeaway

You have the power to write a “leadership obituary” and lay to rest the negative emotions that outdated leadership strategies might be spreading to you and your coworkers. It’s not worth sacrificing your mental health and toiling under outdated leadership strategies when other job openings are now prioritizing employee mental and physical well-being. You are not weak or selfish if you bury the old and turn to the new, refusing to subject yourself to ineffective and potentially harmful leadership. You’re a normal person responding to a toxic workplace leadership, and it’s important to make your self-care a top priority.

Forbes