Leading in the Age of AI: Why the World’s Top Executive Coach Says Character Matters More Than Ever

Artificial intelligence is moving deeper into boardrooms and back offices, and the pressure on senior leaders is no longer just about mastering new to...

Artificial intelligence is moving deeper into boardrooms and back offices, and the pressure on senior leaders is no longer just about mastering new tools. It is about how they behave when algorithms expose every decision and misstep. The World Economic Forum estimates that nearly 39 percent of workers’ core skills will change by 2030, with employers rating analytical thinking, resilience and empathy among the most critical. For executives, that shift is reframing leadership as a character test conducted under constant digital scrutiny.​

This is the context in which John Mattone, repeatedly ranked the world’s No. 1 executive coach by GlobalGurus.org between 2019 and 2025, has built his case that character, not charisma or technical mastery, will decide which leaders keep the confidence of their boards, regulators and employees. “Success has nothing to do with money, titles and possessions,” he tells clients. “Success is only about committing every day to becoming the absolute best you can be.”

From CEO Whisperer to Builder of a System

Mattone’s own path into this debate runs through both corporate HR and academic training. He holds a bachelor’s degree in management and organizational behavior from Babson College and a master’s in industrial and organizational psychology from the University of Central Florida, and later served in senior roles in assessment and executive development before founding John Mattone Global. Over several decades he has coached senior figures, including the late Apple co‑founder Steve Jobs and former PepsiCo chief executive Roger Enrico, while writing ten books on leadership, five of them best sellers.

Those credentials underpin what he calls Intelligent Leadership, a structured model that divides leadership into an “inner core” of character, values and emotional maturity and an “outer core” of observable skills and behaviors. Mattone argues that organizations have invested heavily in the outer layer—strategy, communication, financial literacy—while treating the inner layer as personal or private, even as scandals and culture crises often trace back to deficits in judgment and integrity rather than a lack of technical knowledge. His seven‑point Intelligent Leadership code urges leaders to think big, choose vulnerability, confront personal gaps, execute with precision, stay vigilant, adjust course and act from a sense of duty.