Leap Trends · Who it’s for
Who it’s forWhat keeps boards, executives, middle managers and HR busy.
Every layer of an organisation runs into questions of its own. For each group, here are the challenges that recent research measures, with the figures, the sources and the briefings behind them.
Compiled with AI from public sources, with the source for every figure. How the challenges were chosen
The groups
- BoardsExecutive boards, supervisory boards and boards of trustees, including in healthcare, education and housing associations.
- Overseeing AI while the board's knowledge lags behind
- Geopolitics and compounding crises on the board's agenda
- Cyber risk and digital dependency as an oversight issue
- Doubts about the board's own make-up and expertise
- Executive teamsCEOs, managing directors, executive teams and owner-directors, in business and in the public sector.
- Doubts about keeping pace with technology
- AI spending without a visible return
- Staff shortages as the biggest brake on business
- Reskilling lags behind changing work
- Middle managersHeads of department, team leaders and managers of managers: the layer between the executive team and the front line.
- Managers short of time for their people
- Bigger teams after management layers are cut
- Falling engagement and exhaustion among managers
- Middle managers worried about their own jobs
- HR and L&DHR directors, HR business partners, learning and development and talent management, in business and in the public sector.
- Finding digital talent and mapping skills
- AI training lags behind AI use
- Time and support to keep up with changing work
- Keeping staff now matters more than hiring
Where the top and the middle answer the same question differently
In each survey below, two layers of the organisation were asked the same question. The further apart the two dots, the further apart their views. Grouped by organisational condition.
Structure
Knows what excellent work looks like in their role
Leaders (managers of managers) 32%Managers 22%
Gallup, U.S. Employee Engagement Declines From 2020 Peak, January 2026. Strongly agree. Employees without a management role: also 22 per cent. Survey in the US.
No guidelines for teams of people and AI
Leaders 41%Managers 55%
BCG, AI at Work 2026, June 2026. Share who say the company has no clear guidelines. Fourteen countries, including the Benelux.
AI agents could do half my work
Managers and leaders 65%Employees without a management role 52%
BCG, AI at Work 2026, June 2026. Expectation for the next three years, among regular AI users.
Culture
High trust in senior leadership
Managers at higher levels 40%Frontline managers 28%
DDI, Global Leadership Forecast 2025, January 2025. Higher levels: "almost 40 per cent".
Worried about being laid off
Middle managers 45%Employees without a management role 26%
Perceptyx, Employment anxiety on the rise across US workforce, April 2025. Here the middle is the most worried. Survey in the US.
Felt a lot of loneliness yesterday
Leaders 31%Managers 21%
Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026, April 2026. Worldwide. Employees without a management role: 21 per cent.
Feels safe proposing new ways of working with AI
Leaders 81%Employees 67%
Microsoft, Work Trend Index 2026, May 2026. Research by an AI software vendor, among knowledge workers in ten countries, including the Netherlands.
Finds it hard to deal with change
Senior executives 31%Managers 24%
PwC, Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey 2026, September 2026. Here the top struggles more often than the middle. Worldwide.
Leadership
Confident the top will meet its strategic goals
Managers at higher levels 37%Frontline managers 27%
DDI, Global Leadership Forecast 2025, January 2025. Higher levels: middle, senior and executive levels combined.
Own manager gives room to experiment with AI
Leaders 78%Employees 59%
Microsoft, Work Trend Index 2026, May 2026. Research by an AI software vendor, among knowledge workers in ten countries, including the Netherlands.
Technology
Enthusiastic about AI
CEOs 74%Frontline managers 58%
DDI, Global Leadership Forecast 2025, January 2025.
Generative AI rollout a success
Senior executives 75%Employees 45%
Writer and Workplace Intelligence, 2025 enterprise AI adoption report, March 2025. Research by an AI software vendor, in the US.
Uses AI a few times a week or more
Leaders (managers of managers) 51%Managers 36%
Gallup, AI and Workplace Productivity: What the Data Show, July 2026. Employees without a management role: 26 per cent. Survey in the US.
Feels more productive thanks to AI
Managers 56%Non-managers 35%
EY, European AI Barometer 2025, August 2025. Employees in nine European countries, including the Netherlands.