7 min read

Leaders are Struggling.

Rob Cross

i4cp

As work becomes more distributed, the volume and velocity of demands on leaders is surging. And the nature of these demands is shifting seismically. Some leaders are successful in this new era of work, but most, to be blunt, are drowning both professionally and personally.

Through years of research and hundreds of interviews I've conducted on this topic, I have had the privilege of gaining a deep understanding of these challenges. Time and again, I hear stories—sometimes raw and unfiltered—of exceptionally talented and committed women and men who are struggling under the weight of the demands of leadership. What’s most troubling is that many see no way out. Conventional solutions such as delegation, hierarchical structures, refined processes, or deployment of new collaborative tools are not solving problems—and in many cases, they’re making things worse.

How has this happened?

Drawing on data the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) collected in Q1 of 2025 from a global survey of over 800 respondents, our latest research explores the complex demands placed on leadership as work becomes increasingly distributed. The majority of participants (86%) reported that work has become more distributed since the onset of the pandemic. This finding isn’t surprising, given the widespread adoption of hybrid and remote work and greater geographic dispersion of teams in the post-COVID era.

What’s not as obvious—but equally important—is that the rise in distributed work goes far beyond physical distance. More than half of survey respondents identified other contributing dimensions: work is more distributed across functions, expertise, time zones, flexible schedules, and values shaped by diverse cultural and socio-economic backgrounds. These layers of distribution add new complexity to how leaders must navigate collaboration, communication, and performance.

This is a more significant challenge than many realize. Over half (58%) of those we surveyed rated their leaders are only “somewhat effective” at managing distributed work. In contrast, high-performance organizations distinguish themselves by developing leadership that truly enables distributed work to thrive. This leadership effectiveness drives meaningful outcomes, including stronger employee engagement and healthier organizational cultures. In fact, respondents from high-performance organizations were 6x more likely than those from lower-performing organizations to report that their leaders are “very effective” at managing in distributed environments.

The fracturing of work across multiple dimensions has created a range of complex challenges that today’s leaders cannot solve through new technologies or leadership frameworks alone. Too often, these solutions—whether in the form of a fresh leadership model, a collaborative platform, or a top-down initiative such as a return-to-office mandate—reflect current tools more than the root of the problem. As a result, while such measures may alleviate some issues, they might also exacerbate others, and leave many leadership challenges unresolved.

Our new research highlights six capabilities—culture, structure, talent, well-being, boundary management, and technology—that top-performing leaders use to help employees thrive in this environment. Each capability is supported by a series of practices that leaders can immediately deploy.

Importantly, leadership success doesn’t hinge on mastering at once. Rather, success comes from intentionally leaning into the specific practices that have the greatest impact given the leader’s unique context:

For one leader, this might mean prioritizing culture and well-being practices to reenergize a team that has been driven hard toward performance objectives but is starting to show signs of disengagement.
For another, it might involve adapting structure and talent practices to foster scalability and efficiency in the face of cost-cutting efforts.
And for yet another, it may mean cultivating external networks—or enabling others to do so—to counteract growing insularity that is stifling innovation.

At first blush, some of these capabilities seem like concepts that have always been important. But in today’s distributed work context, their form and focus have shifted:

Culture—Previous i4cp research revealed that trust is a core determinant of culture health. While trust in leadership has always mattered, the type of trust that matters most has shifted from benevolence (e.g., psychological safety) to dependability-based trust. This shift has major implications for how leaders intentionally build trusty. And it’s not just trust in the leader that matters—top-performing leaders build trust and foster trust among team members, which is a critical factor in driving both innovation and execution.
Structure—While structure has long been a cornerstone of organizational design, its form has evolved in today’s distributed work environment. Instead of emphasizing roles, processes, and hierarchy, structure now centers on project and program-based models with dynamic prioritization. Leaders who excel at coordinating and allocating support and resources across multiple workstreams and collaborations consistently
Talent Practices—Prioritizing employees has long been a trait of effective leadership, but today’s high-performing leaders in distributed work environments go further by tailoring talent practices to the needs of their teams. This enables more scalable and dynamic collaboration. Rather than solely focusing on optimizing individual staffing matrices, they often use joint staffing approaches that support both engagement and skills transfer. For example, top leaders conduct one-on-ones that emphasize growth aspirations, then use those insights to assign people to projects aligned with their developmental goals. Equally important is onboarding new members in ways that quickly build relationships and network connections essential for their success.
Well-being—Concern about employee well-being gained prominence during and after the COVID-19 pandemic and remains a critical concern amid widespread worker burnout. While flexible work policies and actions such as rolling out well-being apps play a role, our research shows that the most effective leaders foster a team culture that enables individuals to grow holistically better through their work experience. When done well, this approach supports both professional development and accountability for performance goals. Top leaders achieve this by designing ways of working that reduce stress and create a sense of purpose.
Boundary Management—i4cp’s research shows that successful teams are more likely to engage with and collaborate with key stakeholders—both internal and external—including clients, formal leaders, and informal influencers. Beyond focusing solely on coordination, these teams shape incoming work to drive engagement, secure or share resources, and build support for their outcomes. Notably, effective leaders don’t take on all these activities themselves. Instead, they assign clear accountabilities across the team, enabling members to manage strategic interactions and maximize the benefits of being part of a large organization.
Technology—Technology plays a critical role in enabling distributed work. While many organizations invest in collaborative tools and AI to help lead across distributed work and boost productivity, success depends less on the sophistication of the technologies and more on how consistently it’s used. Our research found that establishing group-wide norms on how and when to use synchronous and asynchronous collaboration tools is a next practice. Specifically, three next practices stood out individually and collectively:
- Establishing clear group wide norms for when and how to use asynchronous collaboration tools (e.g., collaborative workspaces, email).
- Defining team norms for shifting from asynchronous to synchronous collaboration (e.g., early-stage ideation, project pivots, emerging conflict).
- Promoting group-wide norms encouraging efficiency in how both synchronous and asynchronous collaboration tools are used.

The top practices specific to each capability are highlighted in the figure below. These are the practices that respondents from high-performance organizations strongly agreed are characteristics of top-performing leaders. Practices that are in bold text represent the Top 10 overall with the highest individual correlations to leadership effectiveness.

Figure 1

Culture Practices

Expect team members to:

Come through on commitments to build trust in team members’ dependability.
Collaborate in ways that create a sense of energy and purpose in work.
Encourage diverse opinions.
Expect authenticity and transparency in peer-to-peer collaborations to build trust.

Structure Practices

Ensure effective collaboration by clarifying responsibilities and empowering decision-making at appropriate levels.
Effectively communicate priorities to align efforts and collaborative interdependencies.
Employ team metrics to monitor productivity and create accountability in distributed work.
Ensure coordination and workload management across all workstreams.

Talent Practices

Employ systematic one-on-ones that include discussion to define growth opportunities and shape meaningful work.
Establish mechanisms for employees to recognize and celebrate peer contributions.
Employ onboarding practices that embed new talent into the networks/collaborations they need to do their work.
Employ performance and development processes focused on network development, collaboration effectiveness, and contribution.

Well-being Practices

Use work and talent processes such as coaching and one-on-ones to promote employee development and growth.
Use team meetings and one-on-ones to foster discussions about work activities and collaborations that create a sense of purpose in the work.
Encourage work schedules and practices that allow employees to balance work and life effectively.
Model and enforce meeting practices that reduce unnecessary time consumption.

Boundary Management Practices

Proactively engage stakeholders in shaping work products to meet stakeholder needs and align with team members’ skills and aspirations.
Routinely seek and share feedback from stakeholders to clarify their team’s value-added activities and adjust work efforts accordingly.
Manage task prioritization from external stakeholders to keep workload sustainable for team.
Assign team members external-facing duties (e.g., liaising with external partners, industry experts or similar roles) to gather insights and best practices.

Technology Practices

Establish group norms regarding:

Use of synchronous collaboration tools (e.g., instant messaging, telephone / videoconference).
Use of asynchronous collaboration tools (e.g., collaborative workspaces, email).
When to move from asynchronous to synchronous collaboration.
Establish group norms that encourage efficiency in use of synchronous and asynchronous collaboration tools.

*The i4cp study is based on data collected in Q1 of 2025 from a global survey of 801 respondents from 53 countries. The data referenced refers to responses from participants whose organizations employ >1,000 people (approximately 66%). Respondents were primarily (51%) senior executives or above, 32% were mid-level leaders, 3% were frontline leaders, 11% were individual contributors, and 3% “other.”

Jul 16, 2025