Leading people through disruption - without losing humanity

Dr. Dots Ndletyana

According to Dr. Dots Ndletyana, faculty lead for the GIBS MPhil in Change Leadership, experienced middle and senior managers need to develop and evolve. She says, “We must recognise that there is no sustainable strategy without humane leadership, no performance without people and no organisational change without personal change. Leaders must be capable of anticipating change, not merely reacting to it. Furthermore, leaders must understand key organisational development principles to understand what is required to make organisations effective and sustainable. To meet the moment in times of complexity, uncertainty and turbulence, leadership needs to be inclusive, adaptive and ethical.”

African organisations who will succeed in disruptive environments are not those who seek to control change, but those who can humanise it with leaders who can integrate self-awareness with business acumen, complexity and systems thinking, and empathy with execution. What we can expect is that disruption will continue to intensify. The question is not whether organisations will change, but how they will change and at what cost? Current models have proven ineffective, especially for employees. The answer lies in a new approach to leadership.

Why developing the self is foundational to developing others

To grow as managers who can anticipate, navigate and lead complex change across individual, team, organisational and societal levels, today’s leaders need new and expanded ways of thinking about, and seeing the world. This demands enhanced emotional intelligence, authenticity, a coaching style of leadership, human-centred leadership skills.

“It’s about becoming the kind of leader who can hold complexity, honour humanity and mobilise meaningful transformation in a disrupted world,” says Dr. Ndletyana. “You lead transformation by working deeply with self, compassionately with others and intelligently with systems and complexity. This kind of profound engagement into what shapes you as a leader, shifts your understanding of leadership from being invested in your position or authority to it being rooted in your authentic identity.”

Why human‑centred leadership works in tumultuous times

At the core of human-centred leadership is recognition that organisations are social systems before they are economic ones, and that performance cannot be separated from human experience.

Building this capability positions African businesses to navigate complexity and disruption more effectively. An organisational culture of trust and psychological safety is not merely ‘nice to have’ – it actually strengthens organisational resilience and enables faster adaptation to change. Leaders who coach rather than tell create the conditions for proactive problem-solving, making organisations more responsive to fast-changing and complex challenges. Innovation and decision-making improve as people are empowered to contribute.

African leaders who are human-centred are also better equipped to meet the current challenges of integrating AI and emerging technologies in ways that augment, rather than replace, human capability. This is so because they start with a deep care for people, and because they understand it is not about the technology. They know it is about the people. So, they invest in creating truly humane organisational cultures founded on psychological safety, collaboration, autonomy, experimentation, performance, accountability, shared leadership and wellbeing. This aligns with a recognition that talent, which increasingly prioritises purpose and well-being, is more likely to be attracted to, and stay engaged with organisations that put people first. This strengthens strategic execution and supports long-term strategic delivery.

Dr Dots Ndletyana concludes, “This means that human-centred leadership is a strategic necessity that turns complex, unpredictable challenges into opportunities for growth, connection, competitiveness and sustainability by leveraging the full potential of an engaged workforce. Ultimately, leading through disruption without losing one’s humanity is not about choosing between performance and people. It is about recognising that the two are intricately connected.”

The MPhil in Leading in Change Leadership is part of the GIBS’s suite of research-led and practically applied Masters degrees designed for senior managers and executives in corporate, government and non-governmental organisations that have no option but to succeed while navigating complex challenges. It enables leaders to understand their roles in business differently to conventional conceptions and practices of management and leadership. Graduates of the programme see organisations not as machines, but as complex adaptive systems, employees less as assets, and more as humans with an unparalleled capacity to outperform the most ambitious strategic objectives, provided their leaders build, nurture and support the humans who build organisations. The programme draws from a variety of disciplines: systems thinking and complexity science; strategic management and organisational theory; organisational behaviour and psychology; change leadership and innovation; applied management research and critical inquiry; ethics and newer forms of leadership including human-centred, adaptive, contextual ethical, transformative leadership. With research forming a core component of the qualification, students apply evidence-based approaches to leading innovation, sustainable transformation and change.

Applications for the 2026 academic year are open now, and close on 16 April 2026.

Apply here.