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 Introduction to on-boarding

INTRODUCTION TO ON-BOARDING

Article First Published in the Sunday Business Post December 2015– Employment Matters

Hays Ireland recently launched its State of Resourcing Report which surveyed 150 prominent Irish companies and employers across a number of industry sectors including financial services, technology, construction and life sciences on their resourcing needs for the year ahead, and in particular, the resourcing capabilities required by Irish employers to secure the best talent in an increasingly candidate-driven recruitment market.

One of the key themes to emerge from the report was the increased importance employers now place on on-boarding as a critical means of retaining staff.

The report benchmarked the ability of leading Irish companies to attract, recruit and retain talented employees, and the integral role on-boarding plays in this process.

What is on-boarding?

On-boarding and training are often grouped into the same category however, whilst complementary, they are actually quite different functions within human resource management.

Whilst ‘induction’ typically prepares someone for their first day of work and professional ‘training’ is usually focused on one specific aspect of the job, on-boarding is a broader, more holistic and fixed-term process designed to help deliver a smooth introduction to the organisation for new recruits.

On-boarding begins from the moment an organisation makes a job offer to a particular candidate. It then includes key steps such as managing the resignation process with the candidate’s previous employer, the various compliance and credit checks, the issuing and signing of the new contract, and agreeing a start date for that person.

Once this person commences in their new role, the next phase of on-boarding is the process of acclimatising this person into the business and ensuring they have the necessary information, tools and support to become successful and productive in their new role.

Given that approximately 95% of respondents to the Hays ‘State of Resourcing Report’ cited on-boarding as being important or very important to their organisation, employers clearly recognise its benefits. Despite this, only 72% felt they were good or very good in this area.

Why is it important?

Effective on-boarding feeds straight into increased retention rates. Conversely, onerous or awkward on-boarding processes often result in the loss of candidates. The more welcome, prepared, informed and supported the candidate feels, the more engaged and productive they will become.

How it works?

On-boarding begins as soon as an organisation decides to make a job offer to a successful candidate. From this point, the most comprehensive on-boarding will typically last until the completion of that person’s probationary period in their new role. This can be take anywhere between three and twelve months.

Functional areas involved typically include HR, payroll, finance, governance, training, IT, facilities management, security, procurement, health and safety, operations, and line management.

Having said this, the depth and scope of the on-boarding will often depend on the individual involved. In other words, senior appointments who come with a detailed knowledge of their particular industry will likely require a less detailed on-boarding to someone who may be a recent graduate, or moving from a different industry or country.

For example in the case of new recruits from overseas, many organisations will provide detailed information on the practicalities of working in Ireland, including helpful information such as how to apply for a PPS, set up a bank account and find somewhere to live.

Equally some organisations have adopted the policy of routinely conducting ‘light inductions’, thus supplementing any potential gaps for new employees who commence their employment before or after regular monthly inductions.

The concept of on-boarding extending until the expiration of the probation period is becoming more commonplace. This concept keeps HR departments and line managers alert to the need of conducting regular reviews up to and until that time.

Tips on maximising potential?

On-boarding processes should be engaging, carefully considered and should reflect the culture of the company.

Ensure adequate provision is made for new recruits and that they are appropriately engaged during the first weeks of employment. Feeling lost, unsure or ‘in the way’ is a dispiriting experience for new employees.

Adequate investment in administration must be made to enable HR teams to focus on activities that add value. If HR teams are not afforded adequate resources to oversee the on-boarding, there is a danger that the process will be neglected, and by extension, the new employee will feel equally neglected and ignored.

Although effective on-boarding can be a complex process spanning many departments, it is important that ownership of the process is assigned to a senior individual in the organisation. This person must have the necessary authority to ensure that the different work streams free up the required resources and personnel to make for a comprehensive and positive on-boarding experience.

AUTHOR


James Milligan
Senior Business Director, Information Technology and Hays Talent Solutions Ireland
James has worked in recruitment for over 15 years and currently runs two divisions: Hays IT across the UK and Hays Talent Solutions in Ireland.

A qualified Prince2 practitioner in May 2014 James put his project management expertise to the test and launched a report: Women – An answer to Ireland’s skills shortage.

At the launch of the report Hays IT announced that they would help drive the creation of a mentoring network in Ireland with other interested parties. As a result MinT was born, a networking platform for IT professionals.

MinT is governed by a steering committee that includes representation from WITS, Coderdojo for Girls, Symantec & the federation of VMWare, EMC and VCE.