Book "Leading with Alpha Intelligence: ..." published
Book "Leading with Alpha Intelligence: ..." Released
May 17, 2025 – In her new book, IFIDZ director Barbara Liebermeister presents an innovative leadership approach that empowers leaders to achieve the desired impact even in a world undergoing fundamental transformation.
"Leading with Alpha Intelligence: Ready for the Future Workforce" – this is the title of the new book by management consultant and speaker Barbara Liebermeister, which has been published in mid-May by Haufe Verlag.
In it, the founder and director of the Institute for Leadership Culture in the Digital Age (IFDIZ), Wiesbaden, introduces an innovative and integrative leadership approach with the Alpha Intelligence concept, which enables leaders to thrive even in
an increasingly hybrid working world and
a context in which "the greatest transformation of all time" is currently taking place,
successfully fulfilling their leadership role.
Thesis: Leaders Need a New “Brain Code”
The new 208-page book by Barbara Liebermeister builds on the fact that leadership increasingly takes place in an environment that is rapidly changing – keywords include AI and new world order. Our “old” brain, however,
clings to outdated (thought) structures and
tries to maintain the illusion of control even in “chaotic” situations and constellations
even in management and leadership.
And this, even though we have felt for years: The digital transformation, persistent uncertainty, and increasingly unpredictable markets (or the "turning point," as we often generalize) require
a new form of leadership and
new competencies in leaders (regardless of the fields in which they operate – whether in business, politics, etc.).
Leaders Should Understand How the Human Brain Works
Barbara Liebermeister describes what such future-oriented leadership could look like in her book. In it, she links the latest neuroscientific findings with current changes and challenges in management and leadership. Moreover, she introduces a leadership and management concept under the term Alpha Intelligence®, which she and her team have developed and expanded over the years based on numerous leadership studies.
One of her central findings is that in our world shaped by rapid change and contradictory developments, mere competencies are no longer sufficient to adequately fulfill the leadership role. What is needed instead is a new brain code, which she calls Alpha Intelligence®, and partly new intelligences, which allow for situational and context-sensitive deployment of the available competencies.
Leaders Need New “Intelligences” and Competencies
In her book, Barbara Liebermeister describes five dimensions in which leaders must partly develop new intelligences in order to be so-called “alpha-intelligent leaders”; she also specifies the competencies or skills associated with them that empower leaders to elevate their leadership to the next level.
Alpha Personality (Personality Intelligence): Be a master of self-leadership – competencies or skills include: Self-reflection, authentic leadership, maintaining inner clarity even in turbulent times.
Alpha Relations (Relationship Intelligence): Be an architect of relationships – competencies or skills include: Actively shaping trusting relationships and sustainable networks – both internally and externally.
Alpha Digitality (Digital Intelligence): Be a virtuoso of the digital world – competencies or skills include: Using digital tools confidently, categorizing technological developments, modeling wise interaction with AI & Co.
Alpha Resilience (Stabilizing Intelligence): Be a crisis whisperer – competencies or skills include: Staying stable in uncertainty and change, recognizing opportunities, radiating confidence, emerging strengthened from crises.
Alpha Synergy (Integrative Intelligence): Be a cyborg of collaboration – competencies or skills include: Utilizing technology purposefully, making diversity productive, fostering collective intelligence, understanding co-creation as a leadership task.
Leaders Must Become “Alpha-Intelligent Leaders”
As a central characteristic of alpha-intelligent leaders, Barbara Liebermeister describes that they
maintain the necessary positive future outlook and the required inner calm amid uncertainty, and
lead not through AI, but with AI,
which is why they also have the necessary charisma in stormy times to create the desired impact in their environment.
Want to Read the Book "Leading with Alpha Intelligence: ..."?
The book by Barbara Liebermeister, which offers new perspectives for leaders and personnel and organizational developers in the area of (self-)leadership, collaboration, and leadership, costs 39.99 euros. It can be purchased at physical bookstores and, among others, at Amazon.
About the author Barbara Liebermeister
Barbara Liebermeister is the founder and director of IFIDZ — the Institute for Leadership Culture in the Digital Age. As a management consultant, coach, and keynote speaker, she combines business experience with scientific depth and coined the concept of Alpha Intelligence®, which captures the key capabilities modern leaders need. With many years of leadership experience and as a coach for top decision-makers, she has supported organizations of all sizes for more than two decades on their path toward contemporary leadership — practical, strategic, and effective. Insights from her work have informed several books on self-leadership, networking, and leadership in the digital world. Barbara Liebermeister teaches at RWTH Aachen University, Kempten University of Applied Sciences, and other institutions, and also mentors students at universities in Hesse. She studied economics, holds a master’s degree in neuroscience, and has completed training as a business, management, and sports mental coach. Recognized work: For her pioneering work, she was nominated for the #digitalfemaleleader Award in 2017. In 2018, LEADT, the analysis tool developed by her institute to measure digital leadership maturity, received the renowned Wolfgang Heilmann Award at Learntec.
