Anne Chow, former CEO of AT&T Business, is Chief Director Frank LincoveyBoard of Directors, Directors 3m and CSX,as well as Leadership is greater: the power of inclusive change.
During my years on AT&T, I’ve witnessed a strange phenomenon. When the crisis reaches our communication network, our teams, regardless of functionality and hierarchy, will gradually recover the critical and essential services we provide to our customers. Whether it is a hurricane, a trans-Pacific cable cutting or a cyberattack, the purpose is crystallized. The silo disappeared. People abandon politics, their own agendas, and focus on a common task. result? Execution and performance soared.
These powerful moments of clarity remain with me in the chaos. I often find myself wondering: Why can’t we bottle it? Why are our most explicit consistency and optimal execution disasters?
Today, I find myself reviewing these issues, rather than revisiting them from the telecom giant’s C suite, but through my work on the board and university lecture halls, most of whom are mothers of two Gen Z daughters, enter the workforce. What I see is a business environment, not defined by a crisis or even a regular crisis, but through what PwC is making a phone call Pan-Melody. Trade wars, AI destruction generated, political polarization, supply chain shocks, and the rise in geopolitical risks: this is a hurricane in all directions.
Here is the trap: In this endless storm of instability, I saw the opposite of my AT&T experience: many leaders lose Focus on issues and events that are concerned, but beyond their true permissions. At the same time, they may ignore the issue until their control and influence.
A good example is how much time you spend on the emerging workforce. I’m talking about your frontline, their managers and your latest employees. Overall, I call them your “newborn”. These employees are not just your future; In a world where everything feels fragile, sorting this group is a greater leverage point for resilience throughout the organization.
However, as a cohort, this group pays much less attention and training than senior staff.
Hurricane inside the building
When it emerges from the outside, it is easy to identify interference: supply chain decomposition, regulatory whipping or technical turmoil. But more and more storms are also coming from the inside. Generational transformation, flatter hierarchies and decline in corporate loyalty make it more difficult to develop and retain talent. Young employees are hired to let go faster and they are more likely to change jobs themselves. Even senior team members are staying shorter. As a result, institutional knowledge is disappearing. Technology is replacing the needs of many mid-level management functions and threatening to replace the entire job.
In this shift, frontline – people who face to face with customers, suppliers, code bases will gain weight every day. In the past, management above the frontline absorbed all this complexity and turned it into those who served their customers, interacting directly with the market every day. Now? This complexity lands directly in the circle of your latest employees and their managers who are largely unsupported. Traditionally, leadership development is done for senior management and those considered “high potential talents.”
We ask these early professional professionals to step in and need roles that make decisions, critical thinking and rapid analysis at the speed previously reserved for more experienced players. Are we preparing for this? Are we even present enough to pay attention to what they need?
Your new line: Unexploited power
I use the term New life line deliberately. These are not only your young employees, but also the latest team members to all your demographics. The skills and mindset they bring and the leadership they respond to differ from pre-generational.
They are the latest technology our organization needs. Many people lack traditional business etiquette, but appearing with more subtle social wisdom can be won and persuasive. They are purpose driven and are skeptical of the trade-offs of blind loyalty that my generation certainly accepts.
Some managers may not like their tendency to “the way they have always led.” But in a business environment where innovation is needed, it is an asset, not a responsibility.
It’s the key to your newborn clue: They absorb the effects of our collective uncertainty like everyone else, but with less background, less patience and less experience. If you want to build resilience in your company, this is the queue to invest. Not only because it’s the right thing, but because it’s yours Best opportunity In agility, especially during transition periods.
Redistribute your leadership energy
Leaders today are exhausted by global economic policies, AI risks and tariff policies that change weekly. But while these dynamics are certainly important and contribute to your situational awareness, they are not where your highest leadership in 2025 is.
Ask yourself: The last time you sat down with a bunch of frontline managers, not to evaluate them or make quick introductions, but to listen? When was the last time you walked on the floor, not checking if they were present and working, but asking them what it is and what? Hear their worries and thoughts while also showing them do you care?
These are conversations that convey your culture. This is how you determine the blockers’ execution, innovation and morale. This is where your next generation of leadership is incubated, not incubated in company strategy, but on site, on ground and on factory ground.
Many people may think they have done enough. but A recent survey It was discovered that nearly half of the employees did not know who their CEO was. There is a certain gap here.
From boss to builder
Flattening of the hierarchy means that your front-line team has moved from outsiders to the center of your organization. The frontlines are absorbing complexity, interface with AI, representing your brand, and increasingly affecting and driving internal change. For example, their priorities for authenticity and well-being are driving the evolution of the workplace, which is staying here and is changing the way we have to lead.
In this environment, leaders need to appear in different ways. When we lean, we have to do this by guiding and suggesting more than managing more. We need to actively help freshmen develop business acumen, including decision-making confidence, stakeholder awareness, relationship building and calculated intelligent risk mindsets. This growth does not happen by chance, but by intention and support. We can’t just assume they will “figure it”.
These are your changers. But only if you invest in this way.
Call the leader
Please forgive me for explaining the obvious: Today’s business world won’t reward analysis – peers. It rewards focus, courage, action and outcome. And if there was a place where every business leader could focus on uncertainty (Plakis, hurricanes everywhere), it would be to attract and develop talent with the greatest potential to shape what will happen next. Don’t forget people, most often, are your business facing your customers and partners. Spend time with new employees. Develop and bend your own communication style to better connect with them. Understand their point of view. Build their confidence and support their ideas. In changing times, these early career employees will shape how your organization adapts to technology, culture, and growth. If you don’t stand with the freshman line and act as an active coach, you’re already behind.
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