FROM SKILLSET TO MINDSET: A NEW PARADIGM FOR LEADER DEVELOPMENT IN BANI-WORLD

In the article “From Skillset to Mindset: A New Paradigm for Leader Development,” Robert Kramer proposes rethinking how leaders are developed: the focus shifts from building a set of discrete skills to transforming leaders’ underlying mindset. In a BANI world (brittle, anxious, nonlinear, incomprehensible), this means that a leader needs, first of all, a coherent worldview and the ability to update mental models, rather than an ever-growing list of skills.

The core of the new paradigm

Kramer argues that traditional leadership programs are overly focused on specific competencies: negotiation, delegation, conflict management, and similar topics. These competencies remain useful, but they no longer determine leadership quality in the face of accelerating and unpredictable change.

• A skillset is framed as a collection of procedures: what to do and how to do it in familiar situations.​

• A mindset is a system of assumptions, beliefs, and deep mental models through which a leader perceives reality and interprets what is happening.​

Drawing on neuroscience and cognitive science, Kramer shows that leadership behavior changes sustainably only when the leader’s underlying mental models change, not when yet another skills course is “stitched onto” the existing worldview.

Why skills are not enough in a BANI world

The BANI concept describes contemporary reality as brittle, anxious, nonlinear, and incomprehensible. In such an environment, causal chains break down, decisions have unpredictable effects, and emotional pressure on leaders and teams keeps increasing.​

In this world:

• Rigid algorithms lose their value: scenarios shift faster than regulations and training programs can be updated.​

• Individual skills become context-dependent: what worked yesterday can trigger a crisis tomorrow.

• Organizations need leaders who can reframe the situation as a whole and make decisions without full information, not just “operators” of checklists.​

A skillset is a “toolbox” that works well in a stable or at least predictable environment. In a BANI context, the crucial question is no longer “Which tools do you have?” but “How do you look at the challenge, the world, and people?”—in other words, which mindset you bring to the situation.

The leader as architect of mental models

Kramer portrays the future leader as someone who is able to notice the limits of their own models and, when needed, “unlearn” outdated assumptions to make room for a new way of seeing. He draws on Otto Rank’s ideas of unlearning as a conscious process of letting go of obsolete beliefs and roles.​

Key characteristics of such a leader include:

• Reflexivity: the ability to observe one’s own thinking and notice which assumptions drive decisions.

• Willingness for “mental migration”: moving beyond familiar explanations to new meanings, even when this challenges one’s identity.

• The capacity to hold contradictions and paradoxes: seeing multiple logics at once instead of reducing the world to black-and-white schemes.​

This kind of leader does not just apply tools but redefines the problem itself. That is what creates the coherent worldview needed for balanced decision-making in a BANI context.

A coherent worldview as the core meta-skill

If we try to name the key meta-skill of a BANI-era leader, it is precisely a coherent, systemic worldview—the ability to connect economic, technological, social, psychological, and even cultural factors into one picture. In Kramer’s work this shows up as the development of the capacity “to see what others do not yet see and think about what others have not yet considered.”

This coherence includes:

• Systems thinking: understanding nonlinear relationships, delayed effects, and side consequences of decisions.​

• Multi-perspectival awareness: stepping beyond one’s professional and cultural lens and taking into account multiple stakeholder perspectives.​

• An ethical dimension: awareness of how decisions affect people, society, and long-term sustainability, not only near-term KPIs.​

In a BANI world, such a coherent worldview becomes the foundation for balanced decisions: the leader sees not only quick wins but systemic risks, not only local benefits but broader consequences, not only the company’s interests but the wider context in which it operates.

From skills programs to mindset transformation

Kramer’s logic implies a profound shift in the design of leadership development programs. If the old focus was on “upgrading” individual competencies, the new paradigm requires creating learning environments in which the leader’s way of thinking itself is transformed.

In practice this means:

• Less “instructional” teaching, more immersion in complex, ambiguous situations that demand reflection, dialogue, and meaning-making.​

• Active use of critical and transformative learning methods: guided critical reflection, work with value dilemmas, biographical exploration of one’s leadership story and identity.

• Shifting the assessment focus from “skills mastered” to observable changes in thinking and action: how the leader frames questions, deals with uncertainty, and works with their own and the system’s anxiety.​

The title “From Skillset to Mindset” is best read as an invitation to change the lens: not “add one more module to the existing program,” but redefine the very goal of leader development. In a BANI world, that goal is to cultivate a mindset capable of holding a whole-world view, and thus enabling more sustainable, balanced decisions amid brittleness, anxiety, nonlinearity, and incomprehensibility.

FROM SKILLSET TO MINDSET: A NEW PARADIGM FOR LEADER DEVELOPMENT (Robert Kramer)