In our blog, we look at 4 characteristics that help a leader to thrive in the modern world of work. 

1). Being a change maker

n the modern political and business setting, change is a regular occurrence with all organisations having to manage rapid, fundamental and continuous changes in their everyday.  

In our blog post ‘Leading Change That Grows Your Business’, Alexandros Psychogios – Professor of Leadership & International Human Resource Management at Birmingham City Business School – mentions the importance of leaders controlling and managing change.  

“There is more and more evidence to suggest that businesses that focus on how to lead and manage people through these changes are more likely to be successful,” he says.  

“Day-to-day leadership and change management within today’s organisational system is fundamental in helping an organisation to not just achieve growth but (also) thrive.” 

2). Trust

Trust in a workplace doesn’t necessarily mean you’d leave your kids with your boss while you’re on holiday. In a leadership context, trust is defined as ‘employees expecting their leadership to treat them well, and as a consequence, are comfortable to being open with their leaders.’  

Employees who feel trust from their leadership are less likely to quit and tend to be happier to commit to company decisions.  

With many organisations having to change their style of working over the last couple of years, trust has been a key factor in ensuring workplaces get back to business as usual quicker and more efficiently.  

3). Vision

At the best of times, a business’ vision can be impacted by a variety of different factors such as market change, unrest in the workplace and unforeseen circumstances. 

”Volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity are all impacting businesses currently”, according to Andy Salmon, Associate Professor for Enterprise and Corporate Development at Birmingham City University Business School.  

These can all play a key role in de-railing the direction your business is looking to go in, unless you have a leader or attributes which are focused on maintaining and controlling that vision. 

“Building and working towards a vision can help individuals better understand in what direction the business is going,“ says Andy.  

Even if this isn’t something that comes to you naturally as a leader, there are processes, techniques and external business support opportunities that can help you in developing this characteristic.  

4). Attitude

Bruce Lee once said “choose the positive, the constructive. Optimism is a faith that leads to success.“  

This is particularly important when it comes to leadership attitudes. Attitudes in the way you do business, approach your colleagues and set out your goals and vision for the future are all really important, particularly in challenging times for your business.  

Even if the forecast doesn’t look good, it’s important to be realistic yet approach this with a positive and can-do attitude.  

Many businesses are even analysing how positivity flows through their business by including it in key performance indicators in their customer service, product development or sales departments.  

Interested in finding out how you can access more support to develop your approach to leadership? Discover how the Enterprise For Success programme can offer you free and funded support.