No one said being an executive would be easy, and no one said it would get easier. On the contrary, a study conducted by Manchester University’s Alliance Business School has found that being a business leader in the UK is only becoming more complex and more difficult. Of 500 executives, directors and managers working in Britain, 73% report that their roles are now more complicated than they were five years ago, while this percentage rises to 85% for leaders in the tech sector.
The causes of this increase are manifold. Not only does Alliance Business School highlight the emergence of AI and new technologies as a key factor in complexity, but it also flags the growth of cybersecurity risks, of diversity, equity and inclusion requirements, of remote working, and of regulation. Throw some geopolitical and economic instability into the mix, and the mathematics of being an executive has become incredibly fuzzy.
It may therefore come as little surprise to learn that the report also reveals that many executives are finding their jobs increasingly stressful. This is something corroborated by management consultants and experts, who affirm that organisations need to do more to support their leaders. This includes providing adequate training and sufficient resources, while it also entails that organisations make operational changes enabling executives to focus more on their core duties.
Increasing interconnection = increasing complexity
Alliance Business School commissioned Censuswide to conduct its survey, with responses gathered between December 12 and 20, 2025. What’s significant about this timeframe is it suggests that, in the context of rapidly advancing AI, the work of executives is now even more complex than it was when the study’s data was collected.
Nonetheless, it seems that the situation was already bad enough in December 2025, when 30% of leaders declared that their roles have become “much more complex” in recent years. Another 43% acknowledged that their jobs had become “slightly more complex,” while 18% reported no discernible change (and the remaining 9% were lucky enough to report improvements).
Respondents blamed a whole range of factors for increased complexity. 31% cited the growth of AI and 28% flagged greater cybersecurity risks. 27% pointed to the performance of the UK economy, 27% to regulation and legislation, and 20% to managing reputational risk in a social media-driven environment. Yet the list of issues doesn’t end there, with leaders also mentioning environmental and sustainability policies (19%), supply chain disruptions (19%), and geopolitical uncertainty (12%).
According to Elliott Stott-Briggs, an Associate Partner at management consultancy Q5, such factors and challenges combine in ways that are hard to predict. They can’t be dealt with linearly, while they often can’t be dealt with by methods and practices that worked in the past.
Leaders can no longer rely on tried and tested solutions
“That can make leadership feel like ‘one plus one equals orange’, while the answer might be different again tomorrow,” he says. “For organisations, the risk is that they can no longer rely simply on tried and tested solutions to tackle the problems they face, while the opportunity is to align strategy, structure, people and ways of working so the business can respond coherently.”
Other experts have similar views, including Accenture Managing Director Maynard Williams, who argues that change has become increasingly interconnected in recent years. In his opinion, such interconnection means that leaders now have to make decisions which balance numerous competing factors and concerns, from growth and resilience to skills and technology.
“AI is a good example,” he explains. “The technology is creating significant opportunities for productivity and growth, but the pace of adoption is also increasing demands around governance, cybersecurity, and skills.”
More resources can help leaders avoid stress
Alliance Business School’s report also confirms that complexity equals difficulty, with more leaders reporting that job functions have become harder rather than easier in the past five years. This includes the 59% who say that “navigating policy, regulation and legislation” has become harder, as well as the 54% who say the same thing about “creating a long-term strategy for growth.”
Such increases in difficulty and complexity have come with considerable mental health costs. Of the 73% of leaders whose jobs have become complicated, 54% admit that this has had a negative impact on their mental health within the previous 12 months. Similarly, 67% of all UK-based business leaders report that they experience work-related stress at least once per week.
“Stress and responsibility are often seen as going hand-in-hand within businesses — to hold a senior management role and lead on decisions comes, many would say, with a degree of pressure and potential stress,” said Elinor O’Connor, a professor of Work Psychology at Alliance Business School. “Our research, however, highlights far deeper concerns among managers and leaders.”
While stress is rarely ever welcomed, Stott-Briggs suggests that complexity on its own is not necessarily stress-inducing. Rather, stress increases whenever leaders lack sufficient resources to confront and adapt to complexity, and here ‘resources’ refers not only to money and staff.
“They also include skills, experience, time, ownership, relationships, tools, organisational constructs, and visible support from senior leadership too,” he explains. “Leaders will rarely have access to all resources at once, but what matters is understanding what they can draw on immediately, where the gaps are and how quickly the organisation can mobilise to address them.”
From training to systematic organisational shifts
Many organisations have heeded such advice, adopting various measures to improve the ability of leadership to cope with new challenges and increasing complexity. Within the last three years, 45% of companies have focused on improving communication and collaboration between departments, 40% have invested in automation and new tech, 35% have provided advanced training programmes for managing complexity, and 30% have sought to provide more data as an aid to decision making.
Despite these efforts, 8% of organisations have not adopted policies aimed at supporting their leaders, while 31% of executives haven’t received any kind of formal training. This represents a significant gap, since 40% of leaders are interested in receiving training on AI. 32% would also like training on digital transformation, and 26% on product innovation.
Only 41% said their calendars protected time for deep work
Yet complexity also requires a wider shift from enterprises than just providing leaders with more training. According to Hernan Saenz, the Global Head of Strategy and Transformation at Bain & Company, organisations need to work towards developing routines and systems for changing their businesses while still running them. They should also consider introducing governance processes to boost speed and agility, as well as institutionalise risk-taking and innovative behaviours.
Without adopting such measures, more demands are made of CEOs and their time, undermining their ability to fulfill their main duties. “In Bain’s survey of 100 CEOs, only 41% said their calendars protected time for deep work,” Saenz explains. “Many want more time with customers, boards, leadership teams, and for the strategic questions only they can answer but, again, they get pulled back into day-to-day operations.”
Maynard Williams agrees that the responsibility for change doesn’t reside solely with executives and leaders, and that the organisations which most successfully navigate complexity are those that help their leaders focus on core business objectives. He adds, “They also recognise that transformation is a team effort, building leadership capacity, sharing accountability across teams and giving leaders the support needed to drive change effectively.”
No one said being an executive would be easy, and no one said it would get easier. On the contrary, a study conducted by Manchester University's Alliance Business School has found that being a business leader in the UK is only becoming more complex and more difficult. Of 500 executives, directors and managers working in Britain, 73% report that their roles are now more complicated than they were five years ago, while this percentage rises to 85% for leaders in the tech sector.
The causes of this increase are manifold. Not only does Alliance Business School highlight the emergence of AI and new technologies as a key factor in complexity, but it also flags the growth of cybersecurity risks, of diversity, equity and inclusion requirements, of remote working, and of regulation. Throw some geopolitical and economic instability into the mix, and the mathematics of being an executive has become incredibly fuzzy.
It may therefore come as little surprise to learn that the report also reveals that many executives are finding their jobs increasingly stressful. This is something corroborated by management consultants and experts, who affirm that organisations need to do more to support their leaders. This includes providing adequate training and sufficient resources, while it also entails that organisations make operational changes enabling executives to focus more on their core duties.
