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 Energy Companies: How to Attract Gen Z Talent

Energy Companies: How to Attract Gen Z Talent

The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2024 in Davos has set the agenda to accelerate the green transition, with over 120 countries committing to expanding renewable energy usage as a significant step towards combating climate change. However, this surge in renewable projects demands a corresponding increase in skilled professionals, a challenge the energy sector is struggling to address. The International Energy Agency (IEA) has underscored the urgency of this situation, estimating that 30 million green jobs are required to meet the targets to cap global warming at 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.  
 
So, can the next generation of talent be the answer to help energy companies navigate the green transition? According to Deloitte, Gen Z is expected to account for 27% of the global workforce by 2025. The numbers are there for all to see, but what’s different about this generation is these are people who have grown up in the era of global warming. Among most of Gen Z, there is real awareness of the urgency of the planet’s situation. And most importantly of all? Many of these are professionals who are eager to do what they can to help mitigate the damage to our planet. 
 

Here comes the “but”… The majority of the more traditional energy companies don’t have strong reputations amongst Gen Z. Indeed, 62% of all the Gen Z respondents to a large-scale study by EY said they consider a career in Oil and Gas “unappealing”, whereby 66% said they found the prospect of a green job “appealing”. Therefore, for renewable energy companies, attracting Gen Z talent shouldn’t be too challenging. However, for traditional energy companies looking to fill their talent gaps, there is a problem – that is, how to attract Gen Z talent? Not only for their own green transitions, but also to do the work still required to harness less-green energy sources which are still vital for powering a lot of the world today. These companies can still market themselves as attractive options for Gen Z talent, but only if they can evolve their EVPs and hiring processes to resonate with Gen Z professionals. 

Build an EVP for Attracting Gen Z Talent

Though it might sound obvious, energy companies looking to effectively attract and retain Gen Z professionals should tailor their EVPs to specifically align with Gen Z priorities when considering an employer. So, let’s look at what those priorities are: 
 

1. Work-life balance and flexibility 

Gen Z value a healthy balance between work and personal life. They seek employers who offer flexible work arrangements, such as remote work options and flexible hours. In fact, almost half (48.2%) of all Gen Z respondents to the Hays Salary Guide surveys across the EMEA region chose "Flexible Working” as the benefit they value most when choosing a job. Gen Z professionals are characterised by their holistic view of life - they don’t want to ‘live to work’. Therefore, energy organisations that prioritise work-life balance and employee wellbeing will always resonate well with this generation.  
 
SmartestEnergy, for example, has implemented the 4-day work week, which has helped companies across sectors increase productivity as well as employee satisfaction while reducing work stress. Though this is an initiative in heated debate across much of the world of work, the SmartestEnergy example shows a blueprint for its success in the energy sector. 
 

2. Purpose-driven work 

Gen Z want to make a positive impact. They gravitate toward employers whose missions align with their values, and they don’t hesitate to turn down offers from companies which they don’t perceive to have true ESG commitments. 
What does this mean for traditional energy companies? 
 
Organisations transitioning to green energies should emphasise social responsibility, sustainability, and community engagement when reaching out to young candidates. This can make Gen Z professionals feel like they’re actively solving the world’s wrongs by working at an energy company. In turn, they will feel more satisfied with their jobs, and energy companies can evolve their reputations from “the old company where my parents work” to “the company that’s helping to make the world healthier.” 
 
Apache Corporation, for example, has a solid strategy around social responsibility and awareness that includes visiting areas where there’s a lack of access to adequate energy sources or planting trees in endangered ecosystems. These actions foster a sense of purpose for employees and show the company’s alignment with sustainability. At the same time, they open the door for Gen Z candidates looking for organisations doing meaningful work to stop climate change and improve social wellbeing. 
 

3. Paths for innovation and career progression 

Generally speaking, Gen Z is tech-savvy and thrives on innovation. These are people seeking workplaces that encourage creativity, experimentation, and continuous learning. Therefore, for attracting Gen Z talent energy companies that can provide real growth opportunities, mentorship, and clear career paths can really stand out. 
 
Gen Z professionals can be seen to have a different perception of time, given that they were born already in the era of digitalisation and the internet, which has shaped their outlook on the world of work. Accelerating energy workers’ careers can help retain valuable young talent that would otherwise be job hopping. Those success stories can then be shared across social media and other digital channels so that potential new hires can imagine the same progression for them.  
Digital advancements and the implementation of disruptive technologies such as AI or ML can become powerful sources of attraction for digitally native Gen Z. Energy organisations should offer ‘more than a job’ and foster a thriving environment in which Gen Z can learn new skills and stay on top of the latest innovations in the energy sector, one that keeps evolving as the industry undergoes the green transition. 
 

Attracting Gen Z talent, moving forward

It’s clear that Gen Z have both the passion and the commitment to help the energy sector meet green targets. But for attracting Gen Z talent, hiring organisations need to understand what this generation expects at work. 

 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Roxanne Friedrichs 
Strategic Client Manager, EMEA 
 
Roxanne Friedrichs has a Master’s Degree in Social and Cultural Anthropology. She started at Hays 5 years ago, originally specialising in the Digital Technology and Engineering sector at Hays Germany, before moving to Hays Spain as National Technology Business Manager. She is now a Strategic Client Manager for the EMEA region, designing and developing workforce projects in the Renewable Energy and Financial Services sectors. In this role, she implements global client strategies and enables Hays business across cultures and borders in EMEA.