What defines a good leader? Look for these six qualities

WHAT DEFINES A GOOD LEADER? LOOK FOR THESE SIX QUALITIES

Modern business challenges can require new approaches. Leadership will need to evolve in order to continue to guide organisations in tomorrow's world of work. But what are the characteristics of a good modern leader in the workplace - and how can organisations develop them? 

Many studies draw parallels between effective leadership and solid organisational performance. But whether they’re a junior manager or a senior executive, the qualities that leaders need are changing.
 
Nearly 1,500 HR professionals ranked leadership development as the number one priority for 2025, with managers feeling 'overwhelemed' by the expansion of their responsibilities. In today’s unpredictable world, you must combine traditional leadership skills with new abilities. So, what does an effective modern leader look like?
 

1. Remember what makes a good leader

Before looking at the new skills future leaders may need, it is worth reflecting on what a leader actually is.
 
What are the qualities of a good leader? It’s not what you may think.
 
Being in charge of colleagues does not necessarily make you a ‘leader’. Former Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg explains: “Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence.”
 
Retired astronaut Chris Hadfield believes that good leadership is: “Not about glorious crowning acts. It’s about keeping your team focused on a goal and motivated to do their best to achieve it. Especially when the stakes are high and the consequences really matter.”
 
There may be varying opinions on the strengths and weaknesses of leaders. But overall, most people believe that great leaders motivate their team members to perform their best and achieve common goals.
 
What traits do you need to achieve this in the modern workplace?
 

2. Use blended leadership styles for a VUCA world 

Stacey Philpot from Deloitte Consulting maintains that the core skills needed historically in leadership roles have remained unchanged.
 
“These skills allow someone to become a leader faster than their peers. This is even true in today’s volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) environment,” she says.
 
The core skills for leading in a VUCA environment include:
 
  • Pattern recognition
  • Motivation
  • Agility
  • Emotional intelligence
  • Ability to understand, control and express emotions
 
This represents psychological assessments of 23,000 senior leaders globally over the past 25 years.
 
Consider introducing servant leadership:
 
Leaders need new styles of leadership to deal with changing cultures. Being comfortable with not having the answer and owning failure can create an environment of trust and openness.
 
Collectively, these behaviours form ‘servant leadership’. The Chartered Management Institute (CMI) defines servant leadership as emphasising behaviours and values such as:
 
  • Active listening
  • Empathy
  • Leading by example
 
These are instead of opting for a more authoritative, ‘command-and-control’ leadership style. Leaders create the conditions for team members to excel by displaying vulnerability. But given the stigma around servant leadership, how can organisations encourage it?
 
How to combat stigma surrounding servant leadership:
 
Alsu Polyakova, HR Leader for GE Healthcare, says reducing stigma around servant leadership will take a specific strategy. Most importantly frequent performance appraisals for leaders.
 
“We give leaders lots of opportunities for self-reflection, so they understand how they behave,” she says. GE Healthcare’s most successful leaders help to encourage behavioural change, Polyakova says. The company measures success by how well employees rate leaders on achieving GE Healthcare’s ‘cultural pillars’. These pillars include inspiring trust and empowering employees.
 

3. Create a culture of trust in the workplace

Gaining workers’ trust is more important than ever. One way to build trust is for leaders to take action on issues such as climate change. 71 percent of employees consider their CEOs’ social awareness as critically important, according to the Edelman Trust Barometer.
 
Social awareness may yield rich rewards. The Edelman poll shows that workers who trust their employers are far more engaged and remain more loyal than their more sceptical peers.
 
Leadership styles are clearly changing. The most effective leaders will need to tailor their styles to suit different scenarios, says Professor Sattar Bawany. “Leaders need a broad repertoire of management styles and the wisdom to know when each style should be used,” he says. “In crisis scenarios like cybersecurity breaches, for example, leadership should be authoritarian because the scenario is unstructured.”
 

4. Adapt your leadership style for different generations

Managers must also balance leadership styles to suit different generations. Modern workplaces will soon house up to five generations under one roof. Therefore, there will be many people with differing preferences on leadership style.
 
As of 2023, millennials are the biggest group in the UK workforce, at 35 percent. Modern leaders must mix old and new leadership styles that meet the needs of younger generations. Doing so will future proof organisations. However, new leadership approaches cannot come at the expense of alienating older workers.
 

5. Commit to lifelong learning

With the workplace evolving so rapidly, leaders cannot rely on past experience alone to get by. Ben Farmer, Head of HR at Amazon UK agrees: “Experience is not always synonymous with wisdom and judgement. And naivety doesn’t always engender novel thinking and openness to change.”
 
Organisations should look for leaders who understand the future as well as those with experience. “Success comes from the ability to combine understanding of exciting, new trends with the experience required to put that knowledge into action,” says Farmer.
 
But what is the right balance? There is no one-size-fits-all approach when balancing experience with adaptability. Achieving the right balance will mostly depend on the organisation and the sector it operates in.
 

6. Be conscious of culture

Organisational culture is an important factor. Risk-averse firms may prefer experience over novel thinking. Leaders may be fearful of a backlash from stakeholders should novel thinking fail. To lower risk, companies should seek leaders who use both scientific evidence and intuition when making decisions.
 
Ultimately, there’s no single blueprint for an effective modern leader. Each organisation must tailor their approach to leadership development. There must be a focus on organisational culture, industry nuances and employee mix.
 
But above all, leaders should recognise that today’s reality may be old news tomorrow.
 
 

For more expert advice, take a look at the following articles: 

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null How your employer brand can win over contractors

HOW YOUR EMPLOYER BRAND CAN WIN OVER CONTRACTORS

The way businesses attract top talent and retain their best workers has changed, and certain companies have a distinct competitive advantage. Today there are particular types of organisations that get ahead - those that find find high-performing potential employees, and businesses that engage and re-engage top independent professionals.
 
Are you doing enough to become the client of choice? Read on for our top tips.
 
It takes more than remuneration to attract quality job seekers: Only one company can offer the highest pay. Simply offering potential candidates competitive rates is no longer enough when competing for temporary talent.
 
Proactively marketing your employer brand will help to achieve the goal of becoming the ‘client of choice’. This approach is how you entice valuable talent to work at your company. Just as contractor branding helps secure new clients, the same is true of your business.
 
Here are three tips to help you become a contractor’s first choice.
 

1. Build a strong employer brand that's true to your business

It’s no secret an effective employer brand promotes the organisation as a preferred place to work, but how do you find and define your brand? There are many ways to achieve this, including:
 
  • Social listening.
  • Monitoring review sites.
  • Researching careers pages and career sites.
  • Commissioning internal surveys.
  • Conducting feedback questionnaires.
When viewing these results, it’s important to see these through the eyes of your target audience. Consider what matters most to those with the right skills, background and values. You’ll also need market research to put all of your findings from your research into context.
 
Learn more from a leading employer branding example: Former Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos, described the concept of branding as “what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.” Therefore, when we’re looking at your employer brand, you need to uncover what people say about your organisation as a place to work when you aren’t influencing the story.
 

2. Align your employer branding strategy with your company culture

Employees are at the heart of a company’s brand. They need to not only be aware of your brand, but actively embrace it. As a result, there needs to be alignment between the employee’s values and the company’s values.
 
At Hays, we have an extensive LinkedIn presence with over 7 million followers, which we see as the culmination of good-quality online employee engagement and advocacy.
 
Our employees across the globe promote our brand via LinkedIn on a daily basis. By sharing events, services and job opportunities, we achieve six times the engagement our company posts do. This consistent posting keeps our followers and candidates engaged - whether they’re searching for a new role or not.
 
Sharing relevant content that reflects your brand among your own employee network creates a more personal message. As a result, this can create a strong organisational identification which will create a positive attitude towards the company.
 

3. Don't forget the importance of the hiring process for candidates

Just saying the right things isn’t enough. You can have the best brand in the world but if this doesn’t extend to reality then it’ll never work.
 
For contractors this means:
 
  • Speedy recruitment processes.
  • Correct payment on time, and increasingly, on-demand.
  • Effective on-boarding and integration.
  • Welcoming work environment.
  • Reasonable work life balance.
 
Just as you consider the wellbeing of your permanent staff, you also need to consider your contractor satisfaction. Measuring contractor satisfaction and having key performance indicators around this are vital.
 

A strong employer brand is key to attracting contractors 

Well-structured policies and practices to build your employer brand will help to attract, recruit and retain the right talent. This need for a strong employer brand is especially true in a competitive market. It’s no longer enough to consider your employer brand as a matter solely for HR teams to tackle.
 
Everyone has their role to play to deliver a competitive advantage. Achieving this common goal will enable you to be a client of choice.
 

Want to learn more about employer branding and talent acquisition? 

 
Talk to our teams for more information.