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 use video in your recruitment process

HOW TO USE VIDEO IN YOUR RECRUITMENT PROCESS

Am I the only one who was warned my eyes would go square if I sat too close or spent too much time watching TV? If the old wives’ tale is true we might all be in trouble, as according to recent statistics from YouTube billions of hours of videos are watched on their site alone every, single, day. So for those of you looking for a way to build a more engaging recruitment process video could well be the way to go.

There are a myriad of reasons why video is so engaging. We're evolutionarily adapted to quickly respond to the combination of image, sound, and motion, be it emotionally due to there being more cues, or because we can process it faster. Whatever the reason the point is using video in your hiring process commands the attention, and contrary to popular belief your video does not need to go viral to be successful.

Here are five examples of how you can work video into your recruitment process, cheaply and easily:

1. Advertising your jobs on social

At Hays we’ve been using a tool called VideoMyJob to equip our recruiters to create branded video job ads they can quickly share on social media using just their smartphone, like this one. 

Users can record a video, edit and then share the videos all within the app. You can upload your own branding so all your videos look and feel professional, and you can even have users submit videos for approval so they can’t post just anything.

The app itself helps the user ensure their positioned correctly, and even includes an autocue if needed. Whilst the editing suite means you can not only stitch together videos and cut, but add icons, sub titles and other wording all within the app.

It’s a great way to stand out in the midst of all the other noise on social, humanise your job postings and even better it doesn’t drag on your precious marketing resources to create you a video all the time.

2. Bringing your employer brand to life

We’ve already covered how your employer brand needs to be authentic online. Video is a great way to do this. By showing your company culture, environment and engaged employees, not just telling, you gain serious credibility. 

These videos can be used on your careers sites, in your recruitment e-mails, at events. Here’s a great example from PwC demonstrating their parent friendly workplace and recent award win.

3. Explaining your application process

It’s an area many an organisation missed, but constant communication throughout the recruitment process to ensure your candidates know what’s next and when it’s likely to happen is key in today’s competitive environment. 

Explaining your typical recruitment process at the beginning, even if it’s just what is required at application stage on your website is a must. Video can be a great medium for this, breaking up all the reading and setting you apart from the competition.

The Dow Chemical Company do this well by including a typical timeframe to manage expectations as well as explaining their usual process and tools involved.

4. Use video as part of the application process

Video interviewing has been used in various ways to reduce costs on travel and make quicker decisions without the need to align diaries. We’ve tried numerous different systems with clients across the world, including Hire Vue, Sonru and LaunchPad. 

However, interviews aren’t the only way to use video in your selection process. We’ve used video as a self-selection tool as part of the screening process, by creating a video that users can interact with to see what a day in the life of a recruiter is really like and test their skills by answering questions throughout:

As candidates seek to stand out and better demonstrate the real them you should also consider accepting or even requesting video resumes. Just as we’ve sometimes found with video interviews not all candidates will be up for the challenge, but providing the option will show your organisation is open to creativity and those who are changing with the times.

5. Vlogging careers advice or to position you a thought leader

Vlogging seems to be almost every teenager’s ideal career right now, so nothing is more on trend than a video blog. You could get your CEO or one of your key hiring managers to record an overview of industry trends they are seeing in their world of work or what they think it takes to make it to the top, to help position you as a thought leader in that space to attract passive candidates, while allowing your candidates to know a little about their interviewer or future employer. 

Alternatively, you could just create simple careers advice videos to support your candidates further.

The historic world of ‘advertise & apply’ (where active jobseekers at that point in time apply to advertised vacancies) is being superseded by a ‘find & engage’ approach, and few things are more engaging than video.

Your candidates want to know what it’s really like to work at your company, and video allows you to give them the context that words alone will struggle to convey. So whether you’re showcasing your employees, your workplace, the things you believe in or just promote your job openings video could well be a new addition to your talent acquisition toolkit.

To find out more about the changing tactics that are impacting the world of talent acquisition download our Recruitment Remodelled Whitepaper.

AUTHOR


Laura Webster
Global Marketing Manager, Hays Talent Solutions
Focused on leading the planning and delivery of strategic marketing programmes to support the growth of Hays Talent Solutions globally, Laura works with our teams around the world to share our insight and expertise. 

Before moving to her current role Laura headed up the marketing for a third of Hays' UK specialisms, including Accountancy and Finance, Life Sciences and Financial Markets, developing our candidate attraction and client engagement strategies. Prior to joining Hays, and after completing a BSc in Management at the University of Manchester, Laura worked in a marketing agency as an account manager and headed up the marketing for a technical recruitment company and marketing consultancy, where she gained her Professional Diploma in Marketing.