The UK needs a new approach to business leadership, claim many of the
country’s top corporate chiefs in a new report.
The report states that, unlike Americans, the British have an innate
discomfort with celebrating success. It says many potential leaders may be
slipping through the net.
The Bright Business Effect Report, commissioned by Orange Business Solutions
and the Future Foundation, interviewed CEOs from leading UK companies. These
include Rod Eddington from BA, Neil Holloway from Microsoft UK, Paul Walsh from
Diageo, and Diane Thompson from the Camelot Group, as well as other experts and
HR professionals. It finds that leadership is the single most important factor
in determining business success.
The study shows the best leaders are those with rounded personalities and
with a ‘new sophisticated set of skills and personal attributes built around
communication, relationships, integrity, passion, toughness, determination,
emotional intelligence, and the self-awareness to know their own strengths and
weaknesses’.
It claims these attributes are the new ‘must haves’, rather than the
traditional skills of delegation, cost control and professional and technical
skills.
Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance
Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday
The research (which is available online) also suggests that women are now
well-placed to reach the highest levels of business because many of the new
skills needed are traditionally associated with them – communication, passion
and caring.
