Trends. They indicate a change or development in a specific direction. They guide our choices and decisions in everything from education to music. Trends point to something that is happening. They can be positive, like a pink horizon indicating a beautiful morning sunrise is coming; or negative, like the ominous clouds building and a shift in the atmosphere on a spring evening that warn of a coming storm. Whatever the case, ignoring the trends could cause us to miss something important.

That is why we keep a close eye on the trends in an important aspect of our world today: leadership. In the 2016 Trends in Executive Development research-based benchmark report, results indicate what leaders are currently experiencing and what we need for the future based on responses from 466 leading organizations. On a high level, this research points to these top five trends.

We live in a VUCA environment

VUCA is a military term that we have adopted as the best analogy of what we are seeing in business today:

• volatility in economic conditions, including a slowly recovering economy and looming interest rate increases, and changing customer requirements

• uncertainty brought about by increasing globalization, as well as regulatory and legislative changes

• complexity driven by revolutionary technology changes affecting organizational products, and ongoing demand for increased innovation in a climate of rapid technological evolution

• ambiguity brought about by the generational shift accompanied by Baby Boomer retirements and next-gen leaders rising to take more senior roles.

All of these factors combine to create an extremely dynamic climate that puts pressure on leaders to excel.

We need leaders who can create a compelling vision and engage others around it

The military came up with VUCA to describe the “fog of war,” which is the extreme uncertainty experienced in the modern battlefield. In business, our leaders also are experiencing extreme uncertainty. They have no grid to help understand the challenges that they are facing today and, because of the VUCA environment, the trends indicate that we need leaders who can create a compelling vision and engage others around it.

People need leadership, and the more tumultuous the environment, the more we need to feel that someone knows where to go. Visionary leaders are able to establish a destination somewhere beyond today’s current fog and lead us there. It is possible to be visionary without engaging employees around the vision. That part takes caring about the employees and helping them understand and buy into the vision. So our leaders that will take us into the future must be both caring and courageous.

Our organizations need to be more customer-centric than ever

In addition, customer centricity has risen to the top of what is needed. Because of this we are seeing design thinking become an important part of organizational mindsets. Design thinking is about having empathy for the customers, understanding what they experience, and adapting to make their experience as positive and easy as possible.

Our leaders need new and more advanced thinking skills

As executives are adjusting to the current, crazy life in leadership, it may seem as if the world is a Magic 8 Ball and God shook it to see what would come up next. The preparation that we have used for decades to develop leaders seems like child’s play in today’s environment. Yes, of course we still need self-awareness, team building, and conflict management, but those are specific and limited.

What is needed now is leaders who can deal with any problem. That requires higher order thinking skills, referred to as cognitive readiness—the mental preparedness needed to deal with whatever comes your way. Cognitive readiness includes metacognition, sense-making, intuition, attentional control, adaptability, emotional control, and advanced communication skills.

Bench strength continues to be problem

Finally, the trends indicate that a lack of bench strength remains a top five trend. There are two primary reasons for this gap:

• The demographic shift is creating a natural gap in talent, as there are 11 percent fewer Gen Xers than there are Baby Boomers.

• Organizations are not focusing on it as a top priority.

Since 2009, we have experienced a lag in leaders who are prepared for high-level leadership positions. Those who are getting the bench strength problem addressed are becoming more mature and sophisticated in their succession planning processes by conducting mission-critical position bench-strength reviews and then having the talent sessions necessary to address the gap. Once potential talent is identified, emphasis is being poured into their development in preparation for higher level leadership.

Leading forward

Humans’ need for leadership is deep and instinctual. Without leadership we flounder, we wonder, we wait. And when we find it, we feel relieved, excited, and hopeful. Leadership is one of the biggest needs across the world today, and the trends are pointing toward the changing tides. It may not be a devastating storm that is approaching, but it also isn’t likely to be a beautiful sunrise. Now, more than ever, we need leaders who can set the vision, care about the people, and boldly lead us forward through the fog.