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 to decide which HR tech is right for your business

HOW TO DECIDE WHICH HR TECH IS RIGHT FOR YOUR BUSINESS

No-one wants to get left behind as tech enhances the human element of HR. Technology makes the many tasks of HR more manageable, but whilst everyone can see the benefits, the plethora of options is overwhelming. So how do you choose which is right for you? Our head of digital recently recorded a podcast on this very topic, so here’s my take on the highlights.

Which technology is most likely to make an impact in HR

New technologies surface so regularly it’s hard to know which ones are worth even looking at. So we begin by looking at all those available which are the top ones we feel will help HR make the biggest impact:

1. Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI-powered technologies, such as chatbots are powering applications and interactions, changing the way we communicate. This technology enables conversations to happen 24/7, enabling candidates more flexibility. It has also become beneficial to existing staff, as organisations are now able to provide services which previously could only be offered during working hours, for example if you needed to know how much annual leave you have left. Most importantly, it’s taking some of the “manual” work away from employees to enable them to take on more engaging activity, whilst delivering businesses more informed decisions.

2. Blockchain

Blockchain has many applications in the Staffing and HR industry. Dealing in so much personal and confidential data this has the makings of being a real game changer for how we store and manage data. The security offered by Blockchain as people get to understand it more and trust it will drive a change in compliance and verification processes in the HR world.

3. Virtual Reality (VR)

It’s no secret companies are starting to use VR technology to give jobseekers a glimpse into their world of work pre-day one. It is also being used earlier in the recruitment process, in the assessment and selection process to realistically understand candidate’s capabilities before offers are made. We are also seeing it used more to support occupational health and safety. An employee can record what they are doing physically to ensure they are operating in safe practice.

4. Augmented Reality (AR)

AR is enabling companies to provide a more interactive and engaging candidate and employee experience. Whether it’s allowing a candidate to participate in mock client meetings or relevant work activity or as simple as a snapchat filter to increase their engagement, AR is infiltrating HR departments around the world.

Its uses aren’t limited to new hires though, apps are popping up in various industries to expand employees’ potential. We all might see it in our day to day, replacing video conferencing, allowing employees to attend meetings without physically being there.

First slow down

The speed new technology is being developed and launched at can feel quite daunting, especially when coupled with the sense of urgency companies are wanting to make changes. Never rush a tech investment decision without thinking about what impact it could have.

We’ve invested in the development and roll out of a change methodology to support our people in taking on a software mind set so they can quickly implement, learn, adapt, go. A key part of this however is the shaping phase and stakeholder engagement. Before you begin consider the problem you are trying to resolve and what you’re trying to achieve. What are your objectives? Are you looking to enhance what you already do? Or are you looking to transform a part of your process into a new way of working?

Most technologies look at specific parts of the process as opposed to anything that is end to end. You need to pick out the thing that is going to have the biggest influence in your organisation.

As a workforce solutions provider we work with businesses to implement full recruitment life cycle change, and so we’re pretty well versed in what tech solves which area. Don’t be afraid to reach out to MSP and RPO companies for advice on what they’ve implemented to tackle specific issues.

What else do you need to consider?

There will be a number of considerations that need to be made and you want to gain a consistent perspective on each of the conversations that you’re having.

Key things to consider:

1. How widely are you planning to scale the technology?

If you’re taking this beyond one country or even globally remember the English language is not the same in every country. Taxonomy that accurately reflects your world and that of your customers is critical and, without that, many solutions will not work effectively. For example, “servers” can mean very different things in the US and the UK.

2. What business environment will you be operating in and how might this impact on your choice of technology?

Earlier in the year GDPR, the new EU data regulation took effect, its important you find a supplier who understands the impact on legislations and they are set up to comply with this.

3. How will you get your team on-board?

The reason a new technology is successful is due to its people. Ease of use is a hugely important consideration. Not having employees fully engaged or committed to the success of this technology will result in failure. However, there are a few things you can do as part of the decision process to help you succeed:

  • Involve employees in the decision making process, ensuring you give an overview of key objectives and how they will contribute
  • Consider what skills you have available and how the provider can help you upskill everyone
  • Consider who are your change agents, those who are passionate about digital change and technology and canvas their opinion
  • Agree what criteria you will use to measure success. If you can’t demonstrate you’re solving the problem to everyone using the tech then it likely isn’t right for you, as you’ll struggle to get buy-in later
     

No matter what solution or tool you’re considering the crunch part will be getting your staff on board and ensuring you have the skills and engagement to make it work, so don’t neglect this part of the process, and before you make any decisions; listen to the full podcast here.

AUTHOR


Matthew Dickason
Global Managing Director, Hays Talent Solutions
Matthew is the Global Managing Director for Hays Talent Solutions, having joined Hays in 2005. Previous roles held at Hays include Business Director in the UK and Chief Operating Officer for Asia Pacific. He is now responsible for leading the global business of Hays Talent Solutions and investing to ensure clients retain a competitive advantage in talent acquisition from the delivery of Hays MSP, RPO, technology and modular service solutions.

Prior to joining Hays, Matthew worked within Engineering, Research, Operations and Commercial areas at Johnson Matthey and Corning Inc. He has formal qualifications in Organisational Psychology and Industrial Engineering.