LEADERSHIP 4.0

Adversity reveals what we’re capable of when tested. The Goldilocks Zone creates optimal conditions where potential can flourish. Belief and belonging provide the psychological fuel that transforms possibility into performance. But here’s the crucial question: How do you systematically create these conditions for others?

Individual hero transformation is just the beginning. The leaders who will shape the next decade aren’t those who’ve merely unlocked their own potential, they’re the ones who can architect environments where human potential flourishes at scale alongside AI.

This requires an entirely new approach to leadership, one designed specifically for an age when human and artificial intelligence must work together. Welcome to Leadership 4.0.

When Engineers Become Space Technology Experts

When NASA challenged HP to create a printer for the International Space Station, Anneliese Olson and her team faced an impossible puzzle. How do you make ink flow without gravity? How do you prevent paper from floating away mid-print? How do you design for an environment where every assumption about “normal” operation breaks down? 

The engineers could have approached this as a technical problem, modified existing designs, added constraints, and made incremental improvements. Instead, something remarkable happened. The team began thinking like explorers rather than engineers. They didn’t just solve a printing problem; they reimagined what printing could become in an entirely new context. 

The banner on Olson’s LinkedIn page shows a picture of her and some of her team having fun and experiencing zero gravity on NASA’s “Vomit Comet” parabolic flight aircraft. The parabolic flights were to test printer prototypes in brief periods of weightlessness.

This transformation from problem-solvers to possibility-creators represents exactly what’s happening to leadership in the AI age. The HP team’s breakthrough came from reimagining their environment; abandoning Earth-based assumptions to succeed in space. But environmental transformation alone isn’t enough. The most crucial breakthrough happens internally, when leaders develop the capacity to make value-aligned decisions regardless of external pressure. This inner development determines whether external innovation serves human flourishing or merely optimizes for narrow metrics.

The Inner Work of Leadership Transformation

Arsen Tomsky built a tech unicorn worth $1.23 billion, relocated 1,000 employees across countries during wartime, and transformed a social media portal into a global ride-hailing platform. Yet he credits none of these external achievements as his greatest leadership accomplishment.

I learned about Arsen’s mindset in preparation for providing leadership development for his company, inDrive. I read his autobiography, Inner Drive, and we shared a meal and conversation in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

“To get into the highest level of business, an entrepreneur needs either one-in-a-million luck or move independently into the highest level of personal and spiritual growth” (Tomsky, 2024).

Notice what he’s saying: external leadership success depends on internal leadership mastery. This isn’t a self-help platitude; it’s strategic necessity in the AI age.

Born in Yakutsk, Russia –the coldest major city in the world, where winters reach minus 50 degrees Celsius –Tomsky learned early that survival required both external adaptation and internal resilience. When he founded inDrive in 2013, he applied this same principle to business: succeed by developing your inner capabilities, not just your external strategies.

The real test came in 2022. When Russia invaded Ukraine, Tomsky faced an impossible choice: compromise his values or sacrifice his business. Traditional leadership would have focused on external factors, market analysis, stakeholder pressure, and competitive positioning. But Tomsky had spent years developing what he calls “inner drive,” the self-leadership capacity to make value-aligned decisions regardless of external pressure. 

He chose to relocate his entire company. Not because it was profitable (it wasn’t), not because it was easy (it certainly wasn’t), but because his internal development had created the clarity and courage to act on principle.

Here’s the Leadership 4.0 insight: Tomsky’s business success wasn’t separate from his personal development; it was the direct result of it. He used tools like the Wheel of Life assessment not as personal hobbies but as a business strategy. By continuously upgrading his self-awareness, emotional regulation, and value alignment, he built the internal capacity to lead through unprecedented external change.

This is what sets Leadership 4.0 apart from previous models. It’s not about having better strategies or more advanced tools; it’s about having the internal development to use any strategy or tool wisely. 

Leadership 4.0 requires not just individual transformation but team evolution. When executive leadership teams function as true collaborators rather than competing silos, they model the potential-focused culture the entire organization needs.

Tomsky’s inner work enabled outer impact. But what does this look like systematically? How do we move from individual transformation to organizational evolution?

Why Leadership Must Evolve Now

The HP space printer team exemplifies Leadership 4.0 in action. When every assumption about “normal” breaks down, leaders can cling to outdated models or evolve entirely new approaches. The choice isn’t optional, it’s existential. Consider what made the HP team successful:

• They embraced uncertainty as creative fuel.
• They integrated human ingenuity with cutting-edge technology.
• They distributed decision-making to the people closest to the problem.
• They maintained ethical responsibility while pushing boundaries.

These aren’t just nice-to-have leadership qualities anymore. They’re survival skills.

But before we can lead others through this transformation, we must first upgrade ourselves. This is where most leadership development fails and where one CEO’s journey offers a powerful blueprint.

The Psychology of Leadership 4.0

Christopher M. Barlow, PhD, teaches his MBA students a counterintuitive truth: “There is no such thing as a person having leadership.” Instead, people have a process of followership, trusting certain people on specific issues. When someone invokes that followership response, we call it leadership.

This distinction matters enormously in the AI age. Traditional leadership (1.0 through 3.0) relied on position, information, or expertise advantages. But when AI can access more information and analyze it faster than any human, what creates followership?

The answer brings us back to the HP space printer team. People followed their lead not because of their technical knowledge but because of their human qualities: curiosity about impossible problems, courage to reimagine solutions, and care for the larger mission.

Leadership 4.0 influence emerges from human capabilities that AI cannot replicate.

What is Leadership 4.0?

Leadership 4.0 is the systematic orchestration of human potential and AI to create unprecedented value while preserving what makes us irreplaceably human. Unlike previous leadership models that focused on managing people or processes, Leadership 4.0 architects environments where human creativity, wisdom, and connection amplify AI capabilities, while AI handles routine cognitive work that frees humans for higher-order thinking, relationship building, and moral reasoning. 

Core Distinction: Previous leadership models assumed human limitations and designed systems around those constraints. Leadership 4.0 assumes human potential is unlimited when properly supported by AI, and designs systems to continuously expand what humans can achieve.

Leadership 4.0 doesn’t replace human judgment with AI—it amplifies human judgment through intelligent partnership.

This is an edited extract from Potential-ize: How Leaders Unlock Human Potential in the Age of AI by Andrew Bryant (published by Wiley, January 2026). 

About the author: 

ANDREW BRYANT is a global authority on self-leadership, leadership development, and executive coaching. For over 25 years, he has spoken in 40 countries, coached senior leaders from companies such as Microsoft, SAP, and Singapore Airlines, and delivered transformational workshops around the world. His work is widely cited and has empowered thousands to take ownership of their growth and leadership effectiveness.