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 Finding talent for the Financial Services Industry: Your six-step guide

Finding talent for the Financial Services Industry: Your six-step guide

Skills have become a powerful currency, with 77% of employers reporting difficulty in finding the talent they need. Organisations across the Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) industry are no exception.
 
Communication, interpersonal and problem-solving skills are in high demand, teamed with demonstrable financial expertise. Mounting pressure to deliver a technologically enhanced, hyper-personalised experience to customers creates a need for digital proficiency and an aptitude for learning, amid ongoing digital disruption.
 
We’ve teamed up with industry leaders, the Everest Group, to provide you with an in-depth analysis of the current climate, along with an action plan to secure, manage and retain the talent you need.
 
In this blog, I dig deeper into some of the steps we recommend to ensure your business remains bold – and crucially, ahead of the curve . To access your six-stepworkforce strategy, download our latest report now.
 
 

Key workforce strategy #1: Adopt agile recruiting methods

 
Digital transformation is leaving no stone unturned. As a result, BFSI organisations are competing for talent not just with ‘challenger’ FinTech companies, but also leading healthcare, technology and renewable energy firms who can promise big benefits and exciting career opportunities.
 
In response, we’re seeing more organisations explore ‘non-traditional’ methods such as direct sourcing. Already hugely popular as part of a permanent talent strategy, direct sourcing leverages the authority of your brand to attract candidates, shaping a faster and more flexible hiring process.
 
Your next steps:
 
  • Build your pipeline of pre-identified candidates, widening the net to include boomerang employees and referrals.
  • Enhance your employer brand by aligning to candidate desires, such as a commitment to innovation and sustainability, as well as evident career development opportunities.
  • Define your KPIs for additional sourcing methods, such as time-to-fill.
 

Key workforce strategy #2: Foster Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I)

 
Today’s challenges can’t be solved with ‘traditional’ talent networks. Businesses will need to shape a DE&I roadmap that attracts previously untapped talent sources, enhancing their employer brand to ensure they are first choice for future talent.
 
Bringing together a broader spectrum of skills, experiences and opinions will also benefit organisations who are tasked with implementing new technologies amid a complex (and often unforgiving) regulatory environment.
 
Here’s our top tips to kickstart your DE&I commitment:
 
  • Conduct a thorough examination of the current state within your organisation, with a focus on identifying shortcomings.
  • Create a comprehensive DE&I roadmap, with defined end goals against which to measure your performance.
  • Consider the diversity of your supply chain – do you use female-owned, or minority owned businesses?
 

Key workforce strategy #3: Reimagine the candidate experience

 
In a tight talent market, first impressions matter. An automated, intuitive and consistent candidate experience will be critical in the battle for skills.
 
Workforce solution providers such as Hays can support organisations in optimising the candidate experience – at each stage of the hiring process or as part of an end-to-end review. Chatbots and satisfaction surveys are readily available, ensuring convenience for candidates and clients alike.
 
The key areas of focus:
 
  • Find ways to facilitate communication and engagement between candidates and their hiring managers.
  • Remove ‘excess effort’; implementing intuitive technology that allows candidates to submit vital information with just a few clicks.
  • Streamline the admin associated with timesheets, expenses and approvals.
 

Bank on our expertise

 
A growing number of organisations are partnering with workforce solutions providers to leverage cost-efficiencies, tap into relevant geographical regions and adopt new technologies. We’ve given the BFSI industry ‘major adopter’ status of Managed Service Programme and Recruitment Process Outsourcing models, owing to the need for scalable and specialised solutions.
 
Talent is an organisation’s foundational and most vital asset. Invest in your future, today.
 

 

AUTHORS

Nigel Kirkham
CEO of Enterprise Solutions at Hays

Nigel Kirkham has spent the last 30+ years driving growth in major global businesses. A strong, transformative Chief Growth Officer, he brings a Big 6 Consulting Partner background as well as large-scale BPO and outsource business experience. A blend of strong business acumen and C-level operating experience help deliver high revenue growth and business expansion. His most recent positions include TMF Group, the global Financial Services business where he sat on the ExCo as Chief Client Officer; Avanade, the JV between Accenture and Microsoft, a global tech giant and largest implementor of Microsoft technology in the world, where he was Global Head of Sales; CSC (Computer Science Corporation), the tech giant (now DXC Technology), where he ran several Industry Verticals, including Financial Services, Retail & Consumer Goods, Transport and Technology. Prior to this he ran Xansa’s consulting business in the US, where he was based in New York. He also spent 12 years in KPMG Management Consulting, the last 5 years as a Partner in KPMG Consulting in the UK. In this role he also spent c 4 years in the Middle East, setting up and running KPMG’s business in the Lower Gulf, where he was based in Abu Dhabi.

Outside of work, he spends his time between houses in Hampshire and Cornwall in the UK, with his partner Daisy. His son Toby works as an Account Executive for Sony Entertainment, and his daughter Milly has recently started a Graduate Management Training programme with tech giant DXC Technologies. .

 

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