“Good leaders motivate people to have confidence in them – great leaders motivate people to have confidence in themselves.”
Being a great leader is a function of personal qualities, your knowledge and understanding of your employees’ situation, your ability to motivate people and to set clear purpose, goals and expectations within your teams.
And yet, effective leadership does not come about on its own. High performers are often given the responsibility to lead other people and then left to their own devices, without training or experience.
Leaders in today’s challenging business environment are under huge pressure to achieve more with less. While traditional leadership skills like decision-making, direction-setting and coaching remain relevant and essential, there’s widespread recognition that to lead in today’s world a fundamental mindset shift and an updated skillset is needed. Leaders need to lead inclusively, through ambiguity, complexity and changing customer demands. Yet, few organisations have mastered this blend of the old and new1.
Your leaders of the future must possess the following capabilities:
- Inclusive leadership: Workforces are more diverse than ever, but the benefits that come from this (increased innovation, team performance, faster decisions for example2) are only realised when employees are made to feel included – and the leader must create this environment.
- Learning agility: Leaders need to be growth-minded, willing to make decisions and mistakes openly, and rapidly embrace new technologies and concepts.
- Collaboration and influence: In this complex world, success often depends on working with people over whom we have no official authority. Tomorrow’s leaders need high-level influencing skills and the ability to collaborate with a wide range of stakeholders.
- Lead through uncertainty: The ability to assess acceptable levels of risk and make decisions based on incomplete or even conflicting information is key.
1Deloitte, 2019
