"Beyond the Machine: Human-Centric Leadership in the 5.0 World"
"Beyond the Machine: Human-Centric Leadership in the 5.0 World"
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Session: Beyond the Machine: Human-Centric Leadership in the 5.0 World
The modern landscape of rapid technological advancement, environmental urgency, and evolving human values necessitates a new leadership paradigm: Leadership 5.0, a model defined by its fusion of human-centricity, technological intelligence, and sustainable purpose. While Leadership 5.0 provides the contextual goals for current leaders, it requires a clear, actionable framework for individual development. This paper bridges this gap by integrating John C. Maxwell’s enduring "5 Levels of Leadership" model with the demands of Leadership 5.0.Maxwell's levels (Position, Permission, Production, People Development, and Pinnacle) offer a roadmap for leaders to grow their influence from mere authority to earned respect and legacy. Advancing through these levels naturally builds the essential human skills required for Leadership 5.0. This framework operationalizes Leadership 5.0 principles as follows:
Levels 1 & 2 (Position & Permission): Cultivating the foundational human-centric focus by moving from transactional authority to relational trust and empathy.
Level 3 (Production): Fostering agility and strategic intelligence by leveraging data and technology to achieve results and model effective practices.
Levels 4 & 5 (People Development & Pinnacle): Accelerating sustainability and purpose-driven leadership by mentoring future leaders and aligning organizational goals with broader societal and environmental impacts.
This abstract outlines a practical approach for technical leaders to use Maxwell's hierarchical model as a personal development tool to achieve the human-centric and sustainable objectives of Leadership 5.0. The proposed integration provides a structured pathway for engineering leaders to transition from technically proficient managers to influential, ethical, and future-ready leaders who can effectively navigate the complex challenges of the 21st century and beyond.
Key Takeaways
- A framework for Leadership 5.0 that empowers people to lead responsibly, inclusively, and effectively
- Building transparent and ethical systems that earn stakeholder confidence.
- Cultivating leadership capabilities that blend tech-savviness with soft skills.
- Leading diverse, hybrid teams with emotional intelligence.
Bio
Sobhitha Neelanath is an accomplished industry Leader with diverse technology experience of more than two decades across companies like Wipro, McAfee, EMC and Dell.In her current role at Salesforce India, she leads the quality engineering team for Service Cloud .She is passionate about DEI and contributes actively to multiple technical and women specific communities and mentoring initiatives to enable and uplift women professionals and students. As a Google Women Techmakers Ambassador, she has delivered sessions for global audiences and serves as an Advisory Committee member for GHCI 2025 & the Regional Lead for the AnitaB Bangalore Chapter. She is an IEEE WIE Industry Expert and has been recognised by SWE for DEI Advocacy. A recipient of multiple accolades for her contributions towards women in tech from platforms like HerKey, Women In Cloud and HR SuccessTalks, she was recently selected for the Top 50 Asia Women Tech Leaders Award 2025. Her Mantra for life is "Explore, Believe, Achieve"Shilpi Mitra is an Engineering Leader at Microsoft Azure Data, based in Bengaluru, India. With 19+ years of experience, she leads the hybrid and migration charter, focusing on building robust enterprise, cloud, and security solutions. Shilpi is known for developing and guiding high-performing teams and driving innovation in her field. Her role involves overseeing the development of next-generation technologies for the Azure Data platform, contributing to Microsoft’s ongoing success. She is a strong advocate for women and diversity in tech, regularly participating in mentorship and community programs. Shilpi is an established speaker and dedicated mentor to professionals through many communities. Her achievements have earned her industry recognition for Engineering, leadership and advocacy. Shilpi recently received the Career Icons 2025 award from Avtar and Global Mentoring Excellence award by Women Tech Network, EmpowHerAccess and HRSuccessTalks. She believes in ‘work hard, party harder’. Her mantra: Never be afraid to ask and reach out for opportunities. If you can't find one, look at creating one. There are plenty of problems to solve.
