India’s largest workplace culture summit has exposed a sharp gap between crisis expectations and leadership readiness across India Inc. New research from Great Place To Work India shows that only 2 in 10 CXOs say their leaders took early action and maintained stability during business crises, even as every second CXO cites managing change as their biggest leadership challenge today.
Summit data flags leadership readiness gap
The findings were unveiled at the Great Place To Work For All Summit 2026 in Mumbai, which brought together more than 1,200 senior leaders from India’s top organisations. The data points to a widening disconnect between the pace of disruption and leaders’ ability to anticipate shocks, act early, and steady their teams. For companies in the middle of business model shifts, digital transformation and AI adoption, the numbers signal a structural leadership capability gap rather than isolated performance issues.
Balbir Singh, CEO, Great Place To Work India, said leaders who embrace “The Great Adaptation” are reshaping organisations through clarity, agility and consistent actions on change while building strong employee experiences. He stressed that the strongest organisations identify leadership potential early, invest time in mentoring and build trust by doing the right thing “every single time.”
From command-and-control to care-and-enable
A dominant theme at the summit was the shift away from “command and control” styles towards “care and enablement” in leadership. Speakers argued that individual heroism is no longer sustainable in complex, rapidly changing environments. Accenture’s Ajay Vij framed modern leadership as “making the room look smart” rather than being the smartest person in the room, underlining a model built on shared accountability and empowered teams. Founders such as Pramod Bhasin urged leaders to hire people “better than you” and give them genuine freedom to operate.
Former India cricket captain Mithali Raj and other speakers linked this mindset to performance under pressure, arguing that cultures win when leaders create conditions for others to step up. The discussions positioned collective leadership, psychological safety and barrier‑removal as central to building resilient organisations that can sustain performance through volatility.
AI-led transformation raises the stakes
As India accelerates AI adoption, summit sessions highlighted that leadership behaviour will determine whether AI becomes a productivity engine or a source of fear and resistance. Tech leaders such as CP Gurnani and Arun Kohli described AI as an amplifier of human capability, not a threat, and pointed to India’s young talent pool, learning culture and large data ecosystem as strategic advantages. They argued that clear communication, rapid upskilling and responsible use will be critical to turning AI into a broad-based innovation catalyst.
This framing positions AI leadership as a cross-functional responsibility rather than an IT agenda, with expectations that leaders across functions must understand AI’s impact on jobs, workflows and ethics.
Everyday employee experience and purpose
Several sessions moved beyond strategy to focus on daily employee experience. Uber for Business’ Rituraj Chaturmohta noted that great workplaces are shaped less by marquee programmes and more by removing everyday frictions and irritants that erode trust. He argued that today’s workforce expects friction‑free, transparent, trust‑based systems, and that “employee experience doesn’t need big budgets; it needs trust, care, and leaders who empower.”
Author and former P&G CEO Gurcharan Das told leaders that meaning lies in humility and deep immersion in one’s work, urging them to “take your work seriously but not yourself.” Dr Santrupt Misra observed that real influence has shifted from positional authority to human connection, saying impact has moved from “how I impact” to “who do you impact,” reinforcing the summit’s message that leadership is now measured by the quality of relationships and outcomes rather than titles.
