Handle with care: future leaders need love

Fiona Lander

With the recruitment industry undergoing rapid change thanks to technology, investing emotionally in our leaders is more important than ever, says Fiona Lander

There is no doubt that the UK staffing sector has matured exponentially over the past twenty years. The advent of job boards, websites and social media, coupled with the shifting economic climate, globalisation and a move towards contract workers has changed the profession beyond recognition.

Those of you who have worked in recruitment as long as I have will have recognised an explosion of interest in leadership development during this time. Over the last two decades there has been an influx of new leadership development methods. Almost all focus on the growing recognition of the importance of a manager’s emotional resonance with others.

Back in the 1990s, we were just beginning to comprehend the impact that management style had on employee productivity. We now know that 80% of people in high-performing organisations report that their line manager is effective or highly effective compared to 39% in low performing organisations. According to leadership expert Professor Steven Sonsino, people are more likely to be disaffected, disengaged or de-motivated by their managers than motivated or inspired.

Engaged employees deliver, and careless management communication can have as much as a 61% negative impact on behaviour and therefore performance.

Invest in behavioural skills

Research over the past few years has changed the way we view the role of a leader, and how we develop leaders of the future. With this in mind, decision-makers need to allow time and money to invest in the development of their managers to ensure future growth, success and profitability. By learning from experience, we now know that twenty first century leaders must exude positive energy, define vision, build great teams, care, reward, teach, decide, innovate and execute.

Traditionally, mentor-mentee type relationships were available to the lucky few who were able to forge them organically in the workplace. We now understand the value that developmental relationships such as coaching, mentoring, action learning and 360-degree feedback can bring. According to a study on the practice of executive coaching sponsored by Boston University’s Executive Development Roundtable coaching involves practical, goal-focused forms of one-on-one learning and, ideally, behavioural change. It can be a short-term intervention intended to develop specific leadership skills or a more extensive process involving a series of meetings over time.

Another clear trend over the past 20 years has been the increase in the variety of developmental experiences on offer. What we know about the importance of emotional intelligence in leadership means that we understand the value in team-building activities. It is fair to say we have learned that classroom style training should not be the only part of a leadership development initiative; in fact it may be the least critical. The traditional formal development model is now complemented with, or even substituted for, activities as diverse as adventure experience days and reflective journaling. Developmental experiences are likely to have the greatest impact when they are integrated into a professional’s day-to-day work.     

The changing face of recruitment means that the leaders of today must embrace technology, globalisation, and the transition of demographics in the workplace in a way that was incomprehensible in the past. But through training and development, we can nurture change-ready leaders who not only lead by example but who also have finely tuned awareness of themselves and those around them, resulting in engaged, high-performing teams. Much has changed in the past 20 years, but by building on the experiences of the past to overcome the challenges of today we can create effective leaders for the twenty first century through an increasingly dynamic range of developmental tools.

Fiona Lander is head of professional development at APSCo and MD of Lander Consultancy