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 survive the "perm squeeze" with alternative talent networks

How to survive the “perm squeeze” with alternative talent networks 

The UK Report on Jobs has documented a continuous decline in the number of permanent hires throughout 2023. The tone was set in the first quarter, as permanent hires fell at the fastest pace for two years. Fast forward to November, and the report documented the thirteenth successive monthly reduction in permanent staff hires.
 
I refer to this as the “perm squeeze”, a hiring period that is characterised by reductions in the number of permanent appointments whilst the number of vacancies remains steady, and the availability of workers for permanent roles can even increase. It’s a trend we are seeing across the globe – impacting all industries, sectors and job levels.
 
This shortage of candidates needed to fill permanent roles – and a lack of appetite among businesses to hire permanent staff – points to a mismatch in the supply and demand of available talent, forcing organisations to think outside the box.
 
As we head into 2024, what does this mean for your workforce strategy?
 
 
 

 

Widening the net in the search for talent

 
The current financial pressures placed on organisations operating in difficult macroeconomic and political environments have clearly impacted the number of permanent staff being hired, but work still needs to get done.
 
As a result, organisations are looking more closely at the specific skillsets needed in their business and hiring accordingly. Looking to remain agile in the face of global economic uncertainty, many are exploring more cost-effective engagement strategies and turning to more flexible and temporary staffing solutions, rather than relying on traditional permanent hires.
 
With nearly every industry now looking to non-permanent workers to fulfil demand for skills – and these workers supplying everything from delivery services to IT solutions – you need to remodel your workforce strategy to adapt.
 
 

Making the most of non-permanent talent

 
So how do you ensure you have the right talent, in the right place? As the rate of non-permanent engagements increases, so too does the challenge of identifying the right channels to access emerging skills, engaging the right suppliers and conveying the right message to attract and retain the expertise needed.
 
Here’s my top tips to get started:
 
1. You need to achieve total visibility across your entire workforce – including (but not limited to) permanent staff, contingent workers or agencies and consultants contracted for specific projects. This will highlight any gaps that need filling, as well as possible overlaps in skills availability or resource allocation.
 
2. You need to understand the legal implications of non-permanent hiring, especially in overseas territories. Cybersecurity, data and tax legislation, particularly in an unfamiliar jurisdiction, are long-standing challenges and incorrect worker classification can incur significant penalties. A workforce solutions partner that offers guidance and support with current and upcoming legislation can help you make the most of global talent.
 
3. You need to ensure that you have a strong Contingent Value Proposition (CVP) in place to attract – and reattract - the best contingent talent.
 
 
Once you’ve taken the plunge and engaged non-permanent workers, you need to make sure that your contractors are equipped for success from day one.
 
1. Just as you would with permanent hires, set key objectives and clear project deliverables. Ensure you have milestones in place and define regular review periods.
 
2. Adopt a structured project management approach, especially when you’re working with a large number of contingent workers. Set clear parameters to respect the scope of the contractor, while keeping them at arms’ length to minimise the risk of worker misclassification.
 
3. Finally, it’s pertinent to have a clearly structured rate card to avoid any billing surprises. A strong workforce strategy partner will be aware of the market rate and analyse future trends to ensure you’re not paying over the odds as well, supporting you when market trends shift to ensure critical projects aren’t put at risk.
 
 

Moving towards Total Talent Management (TTM)

 
While the outsourcing of work is rising in strategic importance due to ongoing economic uncertainty, it does not diminish the significance of permanent employees.
 
Rather than treating these pockets of resource as mutually exclusive, organisations need to be aspiring towards the ‘Total Talent Management’ (TTM) mentality that takes your entire extended workforce into account. Instead of simply filling roles, you should take a ‘task-based’ approach to workforce management. This starts with defining the project that needs to be completed, before considering all the available channels – permanent staff, contingent workers, freelancers, temporary workers, consultants and agencies – to ensure you have the right talent, the right engagement style, all at the right cost.
 
Creating a clear talent roadmap, including existing and future capabilities will help you define your workforce needs, planning for your immediate requirements, while also focusing on long-term capabilities. Dismantle departmental barriers and get your HR, People and Culture, Procurement and Finance teams talking. This will enable you create an ecosystem that is exceptionally adaptable, enabling you to plan for, acquire and deploy this labour in a holistic way.
 
 

Balance short and long-term priorities

 
By looking at your business strategy over the coming months and years, you’ll gain an understanding of the priorities you need to tackle now and those you need to prepare for in future. Talent Advisory at Hays can help you get to grips with your current capability and capacity, versus your future requirements, and set the groundwork for a workforce that shares your vision and values.
 
A Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) solution offers your organisation access to a wealth of expert recruitment capability, ensuring efficient and effective access to permanent talent and an improved employer experience. Managed Service Programmes (MSP) allow you to access the expertise of the non-permanent workforce. Used in conjunction, you’ll have a resilient workforce strategy that works today, and tomorrow.
 
“Data from our own annual report reflects the growing demand for contingent workers. In the financial year 22/23 we sourced over a quarter of a million temporary roles, an increase of 30,000 from the year before. As your external workforce grows, so too will the complexity of managing it. Why not use our knowledge, experience and global operating model to help create a successful workforce strategy action plan?”

 

AUTHORS

Patrick Mannall
Senior Service Delivery Director at Hays 

Patrick is one of our most experienced Service Delivery Directors with 18 years’ experience in designing, implementing multi-country talent and contingent workforce strategies for enterprise clients. With a proven track record of managing outsourced services for global clients across multiple geographies and industries, he partners with some of our largest multi-country customers, supporting a portfolio of clients across 24 countries.

 

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