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 Tomorrow’s talent aren’t ready for the world of work

TOMORROW’S TALENT AREN’T READY FOR THE WORLD OF WORK

On Friday 15th July, we marked World Youth Skills Day, which the UN observes “to celebrate the strategic importance of equipping young people with skills for employment, decent work and entrepreneurship”. It’s firmly in the interest of organisations to ensure that those entering employment are equipped with the required skills and that opportunities are afforded to them.

However, in a recent poll run by Hays on LinkedIn, 69% of the 17,640 respondents said that young people don’t have the necessary skills to enter the world of work.

Elsewhere, we also asked what is preventing young people from gaining the necessary skills to secure employment. Almost half of the 12,500 respondents claimed that a lack of relevant opportunities was the main barrier to achieving this, while 28% of respondents believed that careers and skills insights were not readily available.

The growing skills gap is a critical business concern for all companies, regardless of industry or location. How can forward-thinking organisations shift the dial on learning and development?

 

Developing skills while in education

The pandemic has not only had a hugely negative impact on those in education, but also on their work experience opportunities. Many young people have missed out on a previously “conventional” introduction to the working world, while organisations are still discovering how to operate in the new era of work, which in turn makes it harder to integrate newcomers.

Hays work closely with our partners Manchester City Football Club on their City in the Community programme. We have recently been involved with workshops for students at a college in Greater Manchester, profiling careers in sustainability and the green economy and the capabilities that employers require for these types of roles. This helps to provide young people with invaluable skills and experience to prepare them for the world of work. Our staff have also volunteered in other secondary schools and colleges around the UK, supporting students with these skills and providing insight to help them with future choices.

Businesses too can play their part. By working with educators, it’s possible to reshape the curriculum so that it is relevant for the post-pandemic era. As Hays CEO, Alistair Cox discussed in 2020, business leaders must take responsibility for this; after all, they are uniquely placed to share their guidance so that students understand which skills are in demand and how they might develop these.

In the UK, our Inspire programme aims to tackle precisely this. We’re providing school pupils with learning materials that inform them of career pathways and contributions from employers on the skills required to get on in the world of work.

 

Offering additional support once in work

But what about those young people who have already kickstarted their careers?

We’ve spoken before about the importance of tackling the assumption that entry-level hires will subconsciously know how to navigate an organisation. We often hear from Graduates, Apprentices and School Leavers who state that they felt ‘lost’ during this time and would have benefited from a clearer understanding of the skills needed to succeed.

Making sure that you invest in junior employees’ growth is key if we are to close the skills gap and prepare the workforce of tomorrow for the challenges ahead. What opportunities are available within your organisation? How much hands-on experience do you provide to your entry-level staff?

Do you offer mentoring and coaching? It’s important to consider not only those skills you can offer to these employees, but those that they offer to you.

To further ensure that everybody benefits, some organisations implement a two-way mentorship scheme in which senior and junior colleagues train one another with relevant skills and knowledge. This boosts these employees’ confidence in two ways: firstly, by allowing them to develop useful skills and, secondly, by proving that their current skillset and experience is of real value to yourself and others.

 

Building a culture of continuous learning

Organisations must create and champion a culture of learning.

Training is often ‘front-loaded’ to equip new entrants with the skills they need to perform their role. However, we are all only human and our ability to absorb information is limited. Instead, the focus must shift to the timely delivery of essential information in a modular format, giving individuals access to the information they need, at time that is relevant to their development.

If employees understand that continuous learning is a prerequisite for success, they will be more receptive to upskilling and reskilling throughout their career.

Leaders must consider how they can effectively integrate training. Fortunately, the pandemic has forced us all to ‘think digital’. A number of providers now offer a fully online experience, including Thrive by Hays. Bespoke onboarding and training courses can equip your workforce with the skills needed to adapt to the changing world of work.

 

Plan today, benefit tomorrow.

If organisations want to reap the rewards of our future pipeline of talent, they must take responsibility for adequately preparing young people for the working world, nurturing them on arrival and encouraging them to continually challenge and develop their skillsets.

Failing to do so risks missing out on the skills and knowledge that these people have, which are becoming increasingly valuable and relevant in the digital age.

For advice on developing your Early Careers strategy, speak to the team at Enterprise Solutions today.

This blog was originally published on Hays Viewpoint. Click here to view the article.

 

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