New Leadership for a New Age at The #Phocuswright Conference
Summary
This interactive workshop session at the Phocuswright Conference, titled 'New Leadership for a New Age,' was facilitated by Melissa Maher (CEO and Founder, Pinnacle Enterprises Group) and hosted by Kimberly Newbury (VP, Sales, Phocuswright). The session combined a brief research-backed framing by Maher followed by structured small-group roundtable discussions across four topic areas — leadership and culture, technology and transformation, teams and inclusion, and innovation and agility — before reconvening for group debriefs.
Maher opened with a sharp provocation: 'The biggest risk in leadership today isn't AI. The biggest risk is leading the same way we've led during this big era of transformation.' She anchored the session with several statistics: only 19% of employees who work in an office actually want to be there; employees connected to a purpose are four times more engaged and two times more likely to stay; 82% of executives say AI will redefine leadership roles within three years, but only 34% feel prepared; and companies in travel face 70–80% employee turnover. She framed the core leadership challenge as 'leading with clarity in chaos' while building cultures that energize rather than exhaust teams.
The leadership and culture table surfaced a key debate around remote work norms — whether to mandate camera use on Zoom, require in-office presence, or allow full flexibility — concluding that organizations must define and stand behind their culture authentically, even if that means some employees self-select out.
The technology and transformation group identified a fear spectrum around AI adoption and argued that leaders must acknowledge employees who are anxious rather than bulldozing toward adoption. They emphasized the need to slow down so people aren't left behind, positioning AI as assistance rather than replacement, and protecting space for human creativity and cognitive recovery.
A second technology table, featuring participants from Sabre and NYU students, introduced the concept of the shift from 'decision maker' to 'decision orchestrator' — synthesizing inputs from people and AI to determine which processes should be human-led versus AI-enabled. They stressed that all companies will have access to the same technology, so competitive advantage lies in speed of adaptation and asking better questions. The phrase 'AI elevates work, but leaders elevate people' was highlighted as a key takeaway.
The teams and inclusion table discussed how operating at speed requires trust, which is built through acts of appreciation and cultural buy-in. It also explored how transparency and involving teams in co-creating strategy — not just executing top-down decisions — drives innovation and reduces fear-driven resistance.
The innovation and agility table explored the balance between stability and bold experimentation, arguing that context matters (company size, customer type, business stage) when deciding when to introduce disruption versus reinforce stability. They emphasized co-creating vision rather than imposing it, and building courage into culture by celebrating well-executed failures, not just successes.
The session closed with each table sharing two words defining new leadership: 'humanly honest,' 'step up/game on/have courage,' 'adapt and human,' 'decision orchestration,' and 'purposeful and agile.'
Key Takeaways
- •The primary leadership risk today is not AI itself but continuing to lead with pre-transformation habits — leaders must actively evolve their approach to match the pace of change.
- •Only 19% of office employees want to be in the office, yet culture mandates must be defined and enforced clearly; ambiguity harms both the organization and employees.
- •Purpose is a hard retention metric, not a soft cultural aspiration: employees connected to purpose are 4x more engaged and 2x more likely to stay.
- •82% of executives believe AI will redefine leadership within three years, but only 34% feel prepared — closing this gap requires deliberate, ongoing AI literacy investment.
- •Leaders must acknowledge the fear spectrum around AI adoption and bring people along rather than mandating overnight transformation.
- •Leaders should shift identity from decision maker to decision orchestrator — determining which processes, teams, and tasks are best suited for AI versus human judgment.
- •Competitive advantage will not come from access to AI (which is democratized) but from the speed and intelligence with which organizations adapt it to their specific context.
- •Transparency and clarity are prerequisites for organizational agility — when people lack clarity, fear and self-protection instincts shut down innovation.
- •Teams are closer to day-to-day innovations than leadership; strategy co-creation that incorporates frontline input produces better outcomes than top-down imposition.
- •Building a culture of courage means celebrating people who fail while attempting bold experiments, not only rewarding those who succeed.
- Vision must be co-created with teams, not imposed on them — people want to build a vision together, not simply join one that already exists.
Transcript
Again, thanks for being here. Focus right is a great place for leaders to come together. We're so fortunate to have built a culture of connection over the last 26 years and we are fortunate to have leaders from all different walks of the industry from startups to established companies to uh to uh not for profofits and social enterprises who are participating at the conference uh year-over-year. And it means that it's a great kind of audience for us to pull from for new ideas and discussions that...
