There has been much emphasis on the qualities leaders need in today’s business environment.
Leaders are generally expected to deliver organisational objectives and effectively address important workforce challenges, such as enhancing employee engagement, reducing turnover, and preventing burnout. They must adapt to emerging technological advancements, successfully navigate ambiguous political and economic landscapes, and guide employees through unprecedented and macroeconomic events.
In an era of remote and hybrid-working, there has been a seismic shift towards human-centered leadership based on trust and autonomy. First time managers are expected to have a steadying presence on their team and build authentic connections with individuals. As managers progress up the leadership ladder, inspiring purpose becomes a more important leadership behaviour.
But, there appears to be a lack of guidance around what leaders actually need to do to achieve these objectives and navigate challenges effectively. So much so that in a recent research report from Talogy, focusing on leadership transitions, only 38% of leaders feel well-prepared to advance into a new leadership role.
Poppy Boothroyd, Senior R&D Consultant at Talogy, and co-author of the latest research, highlights key findings from the research and identifies six leadership qualities expected of today’s leaders, providing insight into how organisations can best help the future leadership pipeline as they transition into new roles.
#1 Authentic connection – results matter, but so do people
In 2021, Talogy conducted a large-scale international research study that identified how leadership expectations were shifting. There was huge emphasis placed on human-centered, humble leaders who can operate and drive success in an increasingly hybrid working world.
Fast forward to 2024 and the latest research findings reinforce this message across the whole leadership pipeline. ‘Authentic connection’ by valuing people as individuals, trusting them, and being open, inclusive and fair, was cited as one of the top three most important leadership qualities to possess for every leadership level.
Fortunately, leadership effectiveness in this area shows promise with at least 82% of employees having responded that their manager was effective at demonstrating this quality to some degree. There are four essential skills that have been identified that are important for developing an authentic connection.
1. Building relationships – show genuine interest in people
2. Concern for others – promote wellbeing by ensuring practical support is provided
3. Embracing diversity – actively seek out and encourage diversity of views
4. Integrity – be open and honest when dealing with others
#2 Steady presence – be the leader that others can rely on
Potentially one of the most interesting leadership qualities, ‘steady presence’ requires leaders to be stable, dependable, and visible to their employees. To be effective at this, they need to have the courage to act in line with their principles. This can be harder to achieve in adverse situations, but the most effective leaders remain calm and consistent even under pressure.
The research highlighted some variation in how important this quality was for leaders at each level. For first-level leaders, having a ‘steady presence’ was considered most important, while mid-level and senior leaders rated it slightly less important. Results were similar from the employee perspective at each leadership level too. For many first-level leaders, it will be new territory to remain calm and true to themselves while managing the emotions and demands of those they are supervising.
Leaders across the pipeline also felt they were effective at demonstrating a ‘steady presence’ and so did employees. This shows promise that the call for a future with more human-centered leadership has been heard. There is still work to be done in this area though and for those who are looking at ways to maintain a steady presence, the following skills in leadership are good to work on:
1. Composure – retain focus on key goals and priorities even when under pressure
2. Resilience – convey a realistically optimistic outlook during challenging times
3. Courage – do the right thing, even if it means making tough decisions
4. Personal development – always be willing to learn and improve
#3 Empowering approach – leaders don’t have to know all the answers
Employees cite that leaders should demonstrate more humility and request that they shift their mindset to enabling and encouraging others to perform well rather than trying to be the expert themselves. For leaders to adopt an ’empowering approach’ they need to accept that they won’t have all the answers and to be comfortable with leaning on their team.
There is still some way to go for leaders to be more effective at demonstrating this quality. On average across the three leadership levels, Talogy’s research showed that there was a 10% difference in how effective leaders thought they were versus how effective employees thought they were. The largest gap was at the mid-level, where 69% of leaders felt they were ‘very effective’ or ‘effective’ at demonstrating this quality compared to 56% of employees who thought the same.
This perhaps isn’t surprising as mid-level leaders often struggle the most to let go of the detail and every day operational tasks to be more focused on broader organisational strategy. As a result, they risk not giving their employees (who are often leaders themselves) autonomy over their work, and teams, and can be seen as micro-managing them.
In fact, micromanaging is the number one behaviour that turns employees off according to the research. So how can leaders become more empowering in their approach?
1. Building teams – link team/organisational objectives to a common purpose
2. Delegating – encourage others to complete challenging but achievable tasks
3. Coaching and developing – make the most of individual and team talents
4. Managing conflict – proactively address and resolve conflict
#4 Agile mind – look ahead and always be ready to adjust course
Agility has been a hot topic of leadership development conversations over the past decade. The research highlighted a subtle shift in opinion as this being something leaders should primarily focus on, nevertheless it remains extremely relevant that leaders should foster an ‘Agile mind’. They should keep abreast of what is happening inside and outside of the organisation, assimilate complex data quickly, be innovative, and just generally show willingness to learn and adapt.
Interestingly, although leaders of all levels felt they were generally less effective at this quality than others, 84% of employees of senior leaders felt it was the quality in which they were the most effective to some degree.
Given that expectations for leaders to be more strategic increases as they move up the leadership pipeline, these results are reassuring. However, it does appear that leaders themselves feel they could benefit from further development in this area. They can do so by focusing on the following skills:
1. Breadth of perspective – think more broadly (or globally if a senior leader) when planning and prioritising
2. Strategic thinking – identify innovative ways of being effective to maximise results and impact
3. Business sense – keep up to date with market trends and competitor activity
4. Learning agility – be curious and experimental, and encourage this in others
#5 Focus on momentum – keep people moving in the right direction
A steadfast quality for effective leadership, focus on momentum is all about setting clear, realistic goals, removing barriers to success, and holding people to account. While the research highlighted the significance of human-centered leadership, it cannot be ignored that a primary responsibility of a leader is, and will always be, to get results.
That doesn’t make it a given that leaders are effective at building momentum though. There was a 10% difference in how effective leaders feel they are at demonstrating this quality versus how effective their employees think they are. On average, across all three leadership levels, 63% of leaders felt they were very effective or effective at focusing on momentum. This is in comparison to 53% of employees who felt, on average, their leaders were very effective or effective at demonstrating this quality.
The skills to work on, that help a leader to become more effective at focusing on momentum, are:
1. A drive for results – take accountability for team/organisational performance
2. Planning and prioritising – set out clear areas of focus to maximize results
3. Directing and guiding – provide constructive feedback
4. Decisiveness – make confident and timely decisions to keep team/organisation moving forward
#6 Inspiring purpose – give people a ‘why’
Arguably one of the most common ways of describing a successful leader is ‘inspirational’; someone who sets a clear and engaging vision for their employees, and who makes them feel like they contribute in a valuable and purposeful way.
Results from the research indicated change is necessary in how we think about ‘inspiring purpose’ and what it means for modern and future leadership.
Although still important, there was a notable difference in how ‘essential’ leaders felt ‘Inspiring purpose’ was for their leadership level. Senior leaders felt it was the most ‘essential’ (58%) compared to first-level (29%) and mid-level leaders (33%). In contrast, leaders across all levels agreed that ‘Inspiring purpose’ was the quality they were least effective at demonstrating.
What these results suggest is a potential shift in leadership development is required. The focus should adjust depending on leadership level and the expectations for them. That said, it seems all leaders could do with some guidance on inspiring purpose in their employees, and developing skills in the following areas will help:
1. Leading change – cultivate excitement for change
2. Communication – embrace and pioneer two-way, transparent communication
3. Influencing – adapt style to resonate with different audiences
4. Motivating and engaging – acknowledge differences in what motivates people and adjust accordingly
Poppy Boothroyd is a Senior Research and Development Consultant at Talogy. She has more than ten years’ experience in Business Psychology and primarily supports the development and enhancement of Talogy's 'leadership development' suite. Poppy has particular expertise in Emotional Intelligence (EI), 360s, and technology-enabled solutions.
She is co-author of Leading in the future world of work: an international report: Hughes, D., Boothroyd, P., Pennington, J. & Goldsack E. (2021)