While executive search firms race to adopt AI for efficiency gains, Russell Reynolds Associates is taking a radically different approach: building what their new Chief Science Officer calls a "synthetic brain," a proprietary OpenAI-powered system that ingests proprietary data and insights to fundamentally transform how leadership potential is identified and predicted. Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic is an international authority in people analytics, and the Chief Science Officer at Russell Reynolds Associates, a founding member of the Association of Executive Search and Leadership Consultants (AESC). From Individual Expertise to Collective Intelligence Where advantage in the profession once came from who you knew, what matters now is what your organization knows. Dr. Chamorro-Premuzic is trying to solve this paradox: brilliant individual consultants whose collective knowledge is inaccessible and untapped. “What I’m trying to do is transfer individual knowledge into a collective brain that makes the firm smart as a system,” he explains. "Individually, people are very smart and experienced and have a lot of expertise, but collectively, it doesn't necessarily systematize or transfer." The competitive landscape has fundamentally shifted. A decade ago, a consultant might win an engagement by personally knowing every viable CFO candidate in a region. Today, clients can ask ChatGPT [...]

John Amaechi OBE, organizational psychologist, author, and founder of APS Intelligence, is a keynote speaker at AESC’s Global Summit on Leadership in London, November 17–18. His challenge to today’s leaders and leadership advisors is both profound and practical: if anxiety and fear are holding the modern workplace back, only human leadership, truth, and trust can set it free. The Data Distraction In the age of analytics, organizations have become intoxicated by the illusion of certainty that data provides. Metrics of every kind promise precision and objectivity. Yet, as Amaechi reminds us, data informs, but only humans can conclude. “Data and analysis are for insights, not for conclusions. Human beings are for conclusions.” He cautions that the field’s focus on “valid” measures too often mistakes replication for truth. “Creating something that is considered valid is easy; proving that it's valid requires decades, and most of the metrics that I look at are a picture of leadership of the past. If you're still saying extroversion is important in leadership, the 1980s called and they want their data back.” For Amaechi, the problem isn’t data itself, it’s deference. Executive search professionals and leadership advisors, he suggests, must be interpreters, not statisticians, helping clients [...]

The corporate world is experiencing a fundamental shift in leadership philosophy, and chief human resources officers are at the forefront of proving a compelling business case. And that case is that empathy isn't the opposite of high performance—it's the pathway to it.During the recent AESC Global Summit on Leadership in New York City, a panel of Chief Human Resources Officers (CHROs) echoed what moderator Gian Power, founder and CEO of TLC Lions, described as the essential challenge of our time. He said, “employees seem to be crying out for leaders to be more human.”But as these seasoned executives revealed, being human in leadership isn't about lowering standards or avoiding difficult conversations. Instead, it's about recognizing that sustainable high performance requires a fundamentally different approach to managing people.Redefining the Performance Equation"Empathy is the new superpower," underscored Matthew Breitfelder, Head of Human Capital at Apollo Global Management. "And empathy is what drives durable outperformance over a long period of time, which is what we're here to do."This perspective represents a significant evolution from traditional command-and-control leadership models. As Stephanie Kramer, CHRO at L'Oreal North America, explained, modern leaders face "a strong tension between empathy and drive," noting that "as CHROs, that's one [...]

When Jessica Sibley became CEO of TIME in 2022, she stepped into a brand with a legendary past and an uncertain future. Like much of legacy media, TIME was struggling to hold its place in a world where news consumption had moved online, and attention spans had grown shorter.What followed was a transformation that few could have predicted. Under Sibley’s leadership, TIME has grown its audience to 120 million people, reaching more readers than ever before, and doing so across a far broader media landscape than its founders could have imagined.The 'TIME 3.0' BlueprintSibley's transformation began with what she calls "TIME 3.0", a seven-page strategic plan that became both roadmap and rallying cry for the organization. The plan emerged from a pivotal conversation with TIME's owner, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, who asked a deceptively simple question during their first meeting: "What would you do with TIME?""I opened my laptop to a blank screen, and I just started, and I wrote TIME 3.0," Sibley recalled. "By the time I got to TIME, which was about three and a half months later, I was on version seven, seven pages. And I had the plan; I had the playbook."The strategy focused on leveraging [...]

In the high-stakes world of executive search, much attention is paid to track records, leadership competencies, and strategic vision. But one factor remains both elusive and critical: organizational culture. It is no longer enough to ask, “Can this person lead?” We must also ask, “Will this person lead here?”Organizational culture—the shared values, norms, and behaviors that shape how work gets done—can either be reinforced or disrupted by executive leadership. Executives are not passive participants in a company’s cultural landscape; they are its most potent shapers. This interplay between leader and culture means that when selecting external candidates for executive roles, cultural alignment is not a soft metric—it's a strategic imperative.Culture Starts at the TopExecutives don’t merely adapt to organizational culture; they define it. Their behavior, decision-making, and priorities become the reference points for others. Decades of research show that the kind of organizational culture an executive creates is driven by their values. At Hogan, we measure values with the Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory (MVPI). The 10 values of the MVPI are not surface-level preferences; they are enduring motivations that influence how a leader communicates, what they prioritize, and how they build their teams.For instance, an executive with high scores on [...]