African business leaders are currently navigating intense geopolitical and global economic shocks, while feeling the pressures of deploying emerging technologies, all amidst growing demands for a different kind of corporate leadership. Change has always been a constant, not an event or an episode. While the processes, protocols, and tactics of change management still apply, they have become insufficient as the organisation’s sole response to disruptive times.
According to Dr. Dots Ndletyana, Faculty Lead for the GIBS MPhil in Change Leadership, experienced middle and senior managers need to develop and evolve. She says, “We must recognise that there is no sustainable strategy without humane leadership, no performance without people, and no organisational change without personal change. Leaders must be capable of anticipating change, not merely reacting to it. Furthermore, leaders must understand key organisational development principles to understand what is required to make organisations effective and sustainable. To meet the moment in times of complexity, uncertainty, and turbulence, leadership needs to be inclusive, adaptive, and ethical.”
African organisations that will succeed in disruptive environments are not those that seek to control change, but those who can humanise it with leaders who can integrate self-awareness with business acumen, complexity and systems thinking, and empathy with execution. What we can expect is that disruption will continue to intensify. The question is not whether organisations will change, but how they will change and at what cost? Current models have proven ineffective, especially for employees. The answer lies in a new approach to leadership.
Why developing the self is foundational to developing others
To grow as managers who can anticipate, navigate, and lead complex change across individual, team, organisational, and societal levels, today’s leaders need new and expanded ways of thinking about and seeing the world. This demands enhanced emotional intelligence, authenticity, a coaching style of leadership, and human-centred leadership skills.
“It’s about becoming the kind of leader who can hold complexity, honour humanity and mobilise meaningful transformation in a disrupted world,” says Dr Ndletyana. “You lead transformation by working deeply with self, compassionately with others, and intelligently with systems and complexity. This kind of profound engagement with what shapes you as a leader shifts your understanding of leadership from being invested in your position or authority to it being rooted in your authentic identity.”
Why human‑centred leadership works in tumultuous times
At the core of human-centred leadership is recognition that organisations are social systems before they are economic ones, and that performance cannot be separated from human experience. Building this capability positions African businesses to navigate complexity and disruption more effectively. An organisational culture of trust and psychological safety is not merely ‘nice to have it actually strengthens organisational resilience and enables faster adaptation to change.
Leaders who coach rather than tell create the conditions for proactive problem-solving, making organisations more responsive to fast-changing and complex challenges. Innovation and decision-making improve as people are empowered to contribute.
African leaders who are human-centred are also better equipped to meet the current challenges of integrating AI and emerging technologies in ways that augment, rather than replace, human capability. This is so because they start with a deep care for people, and because they understand it is not about the technology.
They know it is about the people
They invest in creating truly humane organisational cultures founded on psychological safety, collaboration, autonomy, experimentation, performance, accountability, shared leadership, and wellbeing. This aligns with a recognition that talent, which increasingly prioritises purpose and well-being, is more likely to be attracted to, and stay engaged with, organisations that put people first. This strengthens strategic execution and supports long-term strategic delivery.
This means that human-centred leadership is a strategic necessity that turns complex, unpredictable challenges into opportunities for growth, connection, competitiveness, and sustainability by leveraging the full potential of an engaged workforce. Ultimately, leading through disruption without losing one’s humanity is not about choosing between performance and people. It is about recognising that the two are intricately connected.
The MPhil in Leading in Change Leadership is part of GIBS’s suite of research-led and practically applied Masters degrees designed for senior managers and executives in corporate, government, and non-governmental organisations that have no option but to succeed while navigating complex challenges. It enables leaders to understand their roles in business differently from conventional conceptions and practices of management and leadership.
Applications for the 2026 academic year are open now and close on the 16th of April 2026.
