5 Factors for Leadership Success

We have reached an interesting point in our professional lives. The digital revolution and its implications coupled with the economic and societal aftermath of the pandemic have presented organisations with a new set of critical of challenges to overcome. The responsibility may fall on the board or a group of key decision makers to carve a successful path forward and present solutions for helping their organisation to stay relevant in the future. While those plans may look different for every business, it is clear that strong and engaging leadership will be crucial for success in whatever comes next.

But what makes an effective and successful leader? What skills, capabilities, and attributes do they possess that inspire others to follow their lead and buy into their vision? How do these individuals seem to effortlessly navigate even the most challenging circumstances?

The harsh reality is that not everyone is cut out for leadership, and not all who attempt it will be successful. We work very closely with global leaders of all backgrounds from organisations of varying types and sizes, and while there is no clear-cut formula for what makes a leader successful, several patterns have emerged.

Here are the five factors that most often result in leadership success, as identified by our ongoing research and multi-disciplinary team of specialists:

1. Mastering Buy-In

Good leaders have the ability to engage teams in facilitating change within the organisation, and know that speaking in edicts and assuming that their word will be taken as law is not the same as generating buy-in. Similarly, you cannot expect automatic buy-in on your initiatives simply because of your position in the company. Mastering buy-in is all about building strong collaborative relationships with the people you need to have on your side and giving all a voice in shaping the future.

Networking and fostering your connections over time helps to build a strong reputation and rapport. Good networking helps build a basis of trust and support that can help you to win new business or engage staff more effectively. These connections will not only enable you to win support more easily, but also allow you to gain understanding and perspective that can help to inform the plans and initiatives you create.

The most successful leaders are constantly looking for patterns, opportunities, and problems across their teams, industry, and markets that they can leverage to help further their business objectives. They are skilled at assessing concerns by asking the right questions and listening effectively. However, the challenge top leaders face is getting others to also understand these issues, see the opportunities to be gained, and get on board with making any necessary changes. It goes beyond persuasion. The most successful teams are those who truly buy into the bigger vision and purpose and are committed to delivering impact. It falls on leadership to create and encourage those attitudes.

2. Communicating Effectively

Of course, if you want people to buy into the plans, objectives, and initiatives you are proposing, there needs to be clear communication of what you are looking to accomplish and how. Leaders are tasked with managing countless relationships throughout the organisation, the industry, the community, and perhaps even the world at large. Learning how to convey the right messages to these various groups so that everyone truly understands and can act accordingly is a major skill for leaders to develop.

Effective communication is vital to gain trust, create alignment, and drive change. Without it, objectives get lost, vital information can be misinterpreted, relationships suffer, and unnecessary hurdles are created.  Being able to communication across multiple channels authentically, consistently, simply, and clearly is what separates a successful leader from the rest.

The best performing teams are typically supported by an environment that enables them to feel safe and enthusiastic about sharing their ideas and allows them to work through problems collaboratively and constructively. Strong leaders encourage and seek out the opinions of their people, and they take the time to actually listen. Staff usually have a deeper insight into the day-to-day workings of the business and the needs of the customer than those at the top of the organisation do and can provide a much-needed reality check when proposing new ideas. Leaders should encourage these discussions and take feedback on board in order to ensure their initiatives will actually provide value to the organisation.

3. Delivering Results

Making plans and setting objectives is only half of the battle. How well do you actually deliver on them? In our blog about leading with purpose, we discussed the idea of ‘walking the talk,’ or essentially practicing what you preach. If you are making promises to your team, your customers, and the organisation’s other stakeholders, there needs to be action attached.

You could have every sought-after soft skill there is, but at the end of the day success boils down to delivering results. In order to do this, get clear on expectations and responsibilities, clearly define your goals and determine what metrics you will use to measure individual and team. What is the value of your initiatives, and how will others experience it? Success will look different for every project and every leader, but some good areas to observe for benchmarking include efficiency, profit, productivity, leads, and satisfaction levels.

Your effectiveness as a leader hinges on your ability to not only make plans and get the team involved, but also to turn your ideas into positive outcomes. That sends the message to your team and your organisation’s stakeholders that you are trustworthy, dependable, and can follow through. All of these contribute to deeper trust and easier buy-in in the future.

4. Setting Standards for Wellbeing and Professional Development

Leaders are the most visible figures in the organisation. Depending on their level or role within the organisation, they may even be the public figurehead for the business. That responsibility comes with a unique set of pressures and expectations. The way a leader behaves, carries themselves, and manages their role is a reflection on the organisation and has been proven to directly impact staff’s attitudes and performance.

That is why it is vitally important for leaders to set a good standard and model the behaviours and attitudes that they would like to see reflected throughout their organisation. This includes being aware of and open about their own strengths, weaknesses, and limitations as not only a leader but also a person. Leaders carry a lot of responsibility, and that comes with heavy expectations. By looking after their own wellbeing, leaders are able to send an important message about the importance of mental health and work-life balance. While we may be in business to create a profit, we are not alive to be in business. Those who lead with emotional intelligence, mental agility, empathy, and humanity are more likely to be viewed favourably by the people they are looking to gain the support and trust of.

Because of the added pressures and responsibilities, leadership can often feel isolating. While a big part of the job is creating and managing relationships in order to further business objectives, it is important for senior leaders to create their own support network. The most effective leaders recognise that they cannot and do not have to go it alone. Having formal confidants such as other board members, trusted colleagues, a mentor, or a career coach can help to provide professional support when the stresses of the job begin to pile up. Outside of work, having an informal network such as friends and family helps to provide personal support and encouragement when needed.

Additionally, successful leaders know and understand that the only way forward is through experimentation, exploration, agility, and open-mindedness. At times, progress will require even the most experienced leaders to unlearn old habits in favour of new future-focused practices. The best leaders are those who are constantly evolving and adapting. These leaders seek out opportunities for continuous learning and encourage their teams to do the same.

5. Embracing New Technology and AI

Of course, technology is one of the most vital areas for reskilling and retraining. With our increased reliance on digital technologies and the rapid adoptions of new tools such as artificial intelligence (AI), proficiency in digital skills has become a must-have. It is vital that leaders familiarise themselves with these tools so that they can champion them within their organisation. As with any major change, there is likely to be pushback from some members of staff. Along with the other capabilities already discussed that help to build trust and credibility, a leader’s ability to reasonably explain the uses and benefits of emerging technology can go a long way for getting the sceptics on board. Once that happens, the organisation is able to better keep pace with the evolving business landscape and ever-changing habits and increasing expectations of their customers to deliver long term value.

Again, there is no fool proof formula for successful leadership. What sets effective leaders apart is a willingness to continuously learn, evolve and adapt, effective communication and listening skills, strong relationships, and a focus on the future. Focusing your attention on the five areas above will position you and your organisation well for long-term success.

2020 proved a challenging period to make a career move. Many executives choosing to put their transition plans on hold as organisations grappled with navigating remote working, creating new target operating models, adapting to rapidly changing customer behaviour, and new views about society impact. As we move into Q2 of 2021 with over a quarter of UK adults already fully vaccinated and the lockdown roadmap proposing a full lifting of restrictions ready for Q3, the remainder of 2021 promises a more optimistic outlook.

Many will now be contemplating whether this is the right time to reignite career plans that have been put on hold and invest some serious effort into career planning. With the furlough scheme due to end at the end of September, there is also a recognition by many that they will need to be match fit to be offered a new executive career challenge whether that’s internal to their current organisations or their role is placed at risk and in the worst scenarios they find themselves in need of executive outplacement.

Executive Job Market Snapshot

According to the latest data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS), the UK’s overall employment rate is at 75.1%, which is 1.4% lower than it was at this time last year, and 0.1% lower than it was in Q4 of 2020. The unemployment rate is approximately 4.9%. This figure is higher than it was at the start of the pandemic, but lower than it was when the second wave of the pandemic began last autumn. Businesses have become better at coping with lockdowns, and the government has invested heavily in supporting jobs in order to keep this figure low.

That said, there were some in small shifts in employment opportunities in Q1 2021. Since the start of the pandemic in March, a total of 813,000 payroll jobs have disappeared. According to the ONS data, 56,000 fewer people were on the payroll between March 2021 and February 2021 alone. It is not just existing jobs that are disappearing, but also new opportunities. There were an estimated 607,000 job vacancies in January to March 2021, which is a 22.7% fall compared to the previous year. However, this number increased month on month in Q1, rising nearly 16% between February and March alone. Things continue to look up as reopening plans provide businesses with more optimistic outlooks.

According to data from two latest labour market trends reports, the biggest gains in active Q1 job postings in the UK were found in a variety of professional functions. The number of active Executive Management job postings climbed an impressive 14% between January and February 2021 alone, and a further 3.2% between February and March for a total rise of 17.2% across the quarter. Marketing and PR postings increased by a total of 28.4% between January and March. Other Q1 gains include Sales/Business Development by 27.6%, Finance/Accounting by 23.2%, Administration by 21.8%, IT by 22.1%. HR by 17%, and Operations/Logistics by 15.7%. This signals a positive step forward for businesses and is encouraging news for executives looking for their next role.

Sought-After Skills

For those executives considering a career transition or in the midst of a job search, our research reveals that after technical capability to do a job, the capabilities that businesses will be most looking for in executives to lead the future include:

1. Technology Savvy

Digital transformation and next gen technology adoption are rapidly accelerating worldwide and will continue to do so. With hybrid work models becoming the norm, a basic knowledge of video conferencing tools such as Zoom, Webex, Teams, and Google Meet, and the ability to use collaboration platforms like Slack, have become the bare minimum baseline. However, employers are going to expect much more than that from candidates in the future workplace. In general, executives should focus on gaining an understanding of new tools and their impacts, uses, and risks. Artificial intelligence (AI) and the importance of data are excellent and very valuable places to focus one’s attention. Adoption of disruptive technologies such as AI, Blockchain, IoT, 3D printing, and so on is accelerating in every industry across the world. An understanding of these tools and the necessary skills to employ them successfully will be a crucial requirement for executives moving forward.

2. Strategy and Creativity

With this rise in new technology, various functions of executive roles will undoubtedly change. It’s likely that AI will pick up some of the more mundane or routinised tasks, freeing up time for higher value business activities. Future executives will be expected to be able to provide value in the human intelligence areas that technology does not currently have the ability to replicate. While tech can derive some incredible insights from data, it takes human intelligence and experience to translate those insights into strategy and actionable plans for the organisation. Similarly, while AI can write great copy or even music, its capabilities have yet to match human creativity. Executives may be able to find valuable niches in these areas to enhance their desirability in the future workforce.

3. Agility

The challenges presented by COVID-19 and the digital revolution have made rapid change a regular fixture of professional life. The ability to pivot to these changes, keep an open mind, and experiment will be one of the most valuable assets an executive can bring to their team. As a Agile leaders you should be able to demonstrate that you can align actions to thinking. For example, to gain competitive edge it may be necessary to quickly get a beta product to customers and then refine it with feedback rather than undergo prolonged research and development cycles. Show you are prepared to take risks and capitalise and learn from failures rather than fear them. Success as an agile leader also depends on learning new skills and acquiring knowledge and tools that allow you to determine how working practices can evolve.

4. Soft Skills

We have seen a rise in the prioritisation of basic soft skills as technology and the pandemic reshape and redefine the world of work. Communications, listening, and teamwork skills will be imperative for successfully navigating hybrid work models and collaborating with dispersed teams. Time management and accountability are also necessary for keeping on track when working this way. Empathy is essential as organisations place higher importance on wellbeing, diversity, and inclusion and begin to actively champion social causes.

Areas to Focus on for a Successful Executive Transition

Many people don’t appreciate the unique challenges presented when seeking a new senior level role. From our experience working with Senior Executives over 29+ years, we have found that the key challenges include:

• Family and money commitments
• The changing dynamic in organisation structure and reward.
• Fewer jobs at the right level (Our research indicates that approximately 800,000 senior roles have disappeared within the UK in the last decade).
• Competition from a wider talent pool including geography, age and skillsets.
• Time management.

It’s only when you actually sit down and start thinking about your next challenge that you realise the process is a lot more complicated than you initially thought. You need to be clear on how your skills and experience translate to your target role’s required specifications, your target organisations and their challenges, areas where you can add value, and where you will find opportunities.

All of the above make it more important than ever to ensure you create a market winning strategy to differentiate yourself and position yourself as indispensable to prospective employers or customers. Focus on the following high-performance behaviours:

1. Networking

As the old saying goes, much of business is all about who you know and as a result many opportunities are secured through referrals from connections. Foster your existing relationships and let them know that you are open to new opportunities. The pandemic has given rise to more virtual networking opportunities, which makes it easy to meet and connect with others. That said, do not simply view networking as a potential gateway to your next job, though this may be the case. Identify peers that you admire, can learn from, or can engage with in thought-provoking and insightful discussions about industry issues or the landscape for your role or field. These discussions may highlight other areas you can improve on or skills you can champion in your search, helping you to become a more valuable executive overall. As one executive explained: “Following the trail of “breadcrumbs’ from one contact to the next and to the next until you land in front of someone that has a position, or is in a position to create one, is the key.”

2. Personal Branding

Making a lasting impression as a senior executive is harder than ever, especially now that the entire process is much more digitally driven. If you have been out of the job market for a while and are now considering a transition, it’s worth reading up on the latest hiring trends in more depth to get an idea of how you need to be found digitally and how you may be assessed. A good place to start is by looking at the individual personal profiles of those in similar roles in order to understand how they present themselves. It’s fundamentally critical for leaders considering a transition to answer the question, “What makes you so great and what specifically can you achieve when you walk through the doors of your next employer?” Don’t underestimate the time it takes to do this nor leave it up to others to work out your story. Your positioning needs to be relevant and compelling. You also need to be crisp, succinct and articulate in your presentation and be ready to present with the same level of coherence regardless of the setting you might be in whether that’s online, at an interview, in a networking meeting, or with a colleague having coffee. Platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram provide an opportunity to build your credibility and brand to support this process through the creation of a digital trail that builds credibility, authority, and name recognition. You can read our advice for developing your personal digital brand in this blog and our tips for content creation here.

3. Remote communication

Online meetings have become the centrepiece of much of our lives, and this is no different when looking for a new executive position. Although we have been ‘practicing’ for the past year, many executives who have gravitas, presence, and confidence in person come across as stiff, unapproachable, or even uncomfortable during video meetings. Not all physical cues translate from in-person to video, which make the ones that do even more important. It takes time and practice to appear confident and show your true self, especially to people we don’t know. Unlike an in-person or phone meeting, you also need to remember that your first impression during an online meeting doesn’t always involve you. The first thing individuals see is your username and picture, followed by you and your chosen background. All these aspects could result in signals being misread even before you start to speak which doesn’t begin to take into consideration technology issues, lack of personal interaction, and the difficulty of being able to read people without social in person cues. Don’t just pitch up; prepare, practice and dress the part.

4. Upskilling and Reskilling – Acknowledging Development Needs

The world of work is changing more rapidly than ever. The skills sought by employers are evolving with it. An astounding 133 million global jobs are at risk of automation by 2030, and more than 10 million of those are in the UK alone. Companies are facing the challenge of not only hiring to enhance their teams but also finding candidates who have these newly in-demand skills. Successful executives are always iterating and adapting, and continuously learning. We have listed some areas to focus on, so if you find you are lacking in any of these areas, we recommend taking the time to invest in upskilling or reskilling. In our work with senior executives, we are finding that approximately 80% need to invest in personal development in order to increase their market value. You might consider a higher education course, short professional education programmes, masterclasses, or membership of professional initiatives such as the Rialto AI Leaders Programme. Whatever path you choose to pursue, you are very unlikely to ever regret investing in your own professional development and knowledge.

Making a career transition, especially amidst such a challenging economic climate and increasingly competitive executive-level marketplace, can be daunting and intimidating. Desirable roles are hard to come by and usually competed for by a large pool of qualified candidates. The data from Q1 provides some optimistic outlooks for the remainder of the year and suggests that there will be uplift in the job market. Executives in transition should take the time to assess their capabilities, strengths, and skills to best position themselves in the marketplace and prepare for future success.

To find out more about enhancing your value or to transition to a new executive role, do contact our team of professional career transition coaches. The Rialto Consultancy offers a range of career strategy services including Executive Outplacement, Executive Coaching, and Personal Branding.

The past year has been challenging for leaders everywhere, even surpassing the 2008 financial crisis. It has forced executives to adapt to professional and societal change at record speed. Waves of change altered the modus operandi, and the way customers and clients behave, requiring a new mindset, changed behaviours and in some cases, innovative operating models.

Some leaders responded by casting aside pride, bureaucracy and tradition to enable new positive behaviours that drove rapid change and helped their organisation stay competitive. This period proved to be a true ‘trial by fire’ lesson in digital transformation, consumer behaviour, and compassionate leadership. As a result, some of the most effective leaders were those who adapted swiftly to become more agile, decisive, innovative, digital and data savvy, collaborative, customer-centric and empathetic.

While some elements of our professional lives may return to the way they were before COVID-19, many aspects have changed permanently. If the Government’s plans are successful and truly irreversible, we will have no choice but to address them sooner rather than later. What lessons can be learned from the workforce to lock in the best practices developed during the pandemic, and how can they successfully combine with the ways we worked pre-COVID? How do we do this successfully when teams are split between remote locations and the shared office? Here are our top tips for successful leadership in a hybrid working environment.

The ‘Best’ Best Practices

What really constitutes ‘best practice’? Is it what works best for the most amount of organisations, creates the most profit, or causes the least friction? Normally what becomes considered ‘best practice’ involves a combination of these factors, but it can also vary on a case-by-case basis. Government and trade bodies give us regulations that serve as macro benchmarks, and there are a few that have become engrained in overall working life and were very prevalent pre-pandemic. For example, working from an office was the standard for most organisations.

But then during the pandemic, certain things became best practice out of necessity. Working remotely or from home is a prime example. When nonessential businesses were given no choice but to close their doors due to lockdown and the stay-at-home orders mandated working from home wherever possible, having the ability to log in remotely and continue to get work done was a saving grace that allowed staff to continue on with the essential activities of the business. But what happens now that these restrictions have lifted? Organisations and their leaders will need to assess the benefits and determine the best course of action. Was working from home successful simply because it was a necessity, or were there notable changes in morale, efficiency, and productivity?

This transition period requires leaders to take stock and be honest about what best serves the organisation’s objectives, its customers, and its staff. This may require letting go of preconceived notions and long held biases or beliefs about what best practice truly means.

One of the most valuable resources a leader has is the team. Open up a dialogue with staff to discuss what is and is not working. What elements of remote work do they like, and what benefits have they seen? Have they found a better way of doing things this past year? Do they even want to go back to the way things were? With their feet on the ground, your team’s feedback and performance will give you the best idea of what should or should not be considered best practice.

What you learn from your staff and what you have observed over the past year can be weighed against what you have traditionally done in order to determine the true best practices for your organisation. However, the only way for this to be successful is to be honest and to leave your own biases behind. Embrace agility and new ideas, whilst keeping your focus fixed on the future and the evolving needs of your core stakeholders and customers.

Creating Alignment and Clearing Communication Hurdles

Many major organisations have already announced their intention to allow staff to continue working remotely at least some of the time.  Many others are poised to follow suit. If you have determined this to be the best course of action for your business, your challenge is now to embed your new best practices into a hybrid work environment.

When all staff work from the office it is perceived to be easier to monitor performance and impact, and it enables easier collaboration between teammates. When staff were working from home, they all had no choice but to rely on email, video conferencing, and collaboration platforms to communicate with no in-person elements. A return to the office with a hybrid model will split the workforce between locations and may cause communication hurdles or confusion. Not only that, but how can you monitor impact and individual contribution this way?

In our consulting work with organisations, we at The Rialto Consultancy have found that the issues that most organisations have with mindset, impact, and performance stem from poor or ineffective communication and lack of alignment. Overcoming barriers to clear communication will be an essential first step for implementing hybrid working models effectively and creating much-needed alignment across the entire organisation.

You cannot have everyone on the same page and aligned if no one knows what the business’s goals are or what is needed to achieve them. Now that you have hopefully identified what is to become best practice in your organisation’s new normal, you need to be sure that all members of the team have a full understanding of what will be expected of them. Set standards for behaviour and benchmarks for performance, making time and putting systems in place to monitor whether or not these are being met both when the employee is in the office and at home.

It may require extra effort to level the playing field to make sure that communication is consistent across locations. When hosting a meeting in the office with the staff who are physically present, determine how remote staff can participate and ‘be present’ in a similar way. Will you require additional facilitation and means of sharing communication. Likewise, if hosting a meeting virtually, encourage in-office staff to gather and dial in together. Make sure that all parties are granted an equal opportunity to speak and share perspectives and ideas and foster an environment where they feel encouraged to do so. If an in-person conversation lends some valuable insights, recap and share on the Slack or Teams platform as routine to keep remote staff looped in. It may take reinforcement and frequent check-ins to ensure everyone is clear and nothing is missed.

This might seem difficult to accomplish and may take some getting used to. But once this in-depth level of communication has become standard behaviour, it will be much easier to keep the team on track and monitor progress. Thankfully, the technology we are fortunate enough to have access to can smooth out the transition and make hybrid working more seamless overall.

Easing the Transition

Technology has undoubtedly played a critical role over the last year, and it will continue to be essential in order for hybrid models to be both feasible and successful. But even after a year of relying on it, technology can still cause friction, annoyance, and discomfort. Is your staff ready and willing to work this way? Are they willing to potentially adapt their own communication styles in order to make sure all members of the team stay in the loop?

Of course, communications will be crucial to success here as well. Ask staff about their concerns and hesitations with the new model, and work with them to ease their concerns. Clearly communicate why the organisation is choosing to implement a hybrid work model, how it is expected to work, what communication channels will be needed, and what outcomes are expected to be achieved. Making staff feel included and heard as part of the process will go a long way to creating a culture that supports and embraces change and innovation.

There will undoubtedly be some grey areas and ambiguity throughout the transition period. By following the advice above, leaders will be better armed to help their team settle comfortably into a hybrid working model as a part of the culture.

Career transitions can be challenging for most executives, but there is an extra level of scrutiny, responsibility, and forward thinking that comes with considering a career as a Chief Executive Officer (CEO). These individuals are at the helm of the organisation and are tasked with driving the business forward. They are often credited for their company’s success, and on many occasions the first to be blamed when things go wrong.

But what does it take to be a CEO today? And what do current and aspiring CEOs need to build for future stages of their career? Here is the latest outlook and key considerations for current and aspiring CEOs.

CEO Snapshot

Our research has found that the average age for a CEO is 58 years old. Based on the current metric that only 5% of FTSE 100 and 2% of FTSE 250 CEOs are female, the CEO is more likely to be male. While this split is heavily unbalanced at present, we have seen the number of female chief executives rise in recent years as boards look to appoint more diverse leaders.

The average tenure for the role is 6 years. It is most likely that the CEO was appointed to the position through internal succession, as supported by recent research[1] which found that 72% of new CEOs are promoted internally, and 8.4% are former executives or current or former board members. That means that only 19.6% of CEOs are brought in externally for the role, but most of these ‘outsiders’ are not as disconnected as one might think. More than 90% of these candidates have pre-existing connections to the firm or its leadership. Most outsider hires are not CEOs poached from other firms (3.2%) but are instead in roles below the CEO or Board at other firms (55%) or those not currently in an executive position (31%).

For those considering a transition into a career as a CEO, it is worth examining the connections and networks you already have, and the need to invest in developing new ones within the companies and sectors you would like to work for.

Top Market Challenges impacting CEO’S

If you are a current or aspiring CEO, these three areas of concern will be most prevalent in coming months according to our research:

1. COVID-19 As we transition out of lockdown and face the economic repercussions of the pandemic, CEOs will be tasked with helping their company to thrive in the next normal. This may mean spearheading a change project, making tough decisions about the organisational structure, or creating a new strategy for the business and developing and launching innovations whist workforces get used to hybrid working.

2. Technology Adoption of new technology and artificial intelligence (AI) is accelerating in every industry across the world. Contributing to the creation of a new digital strategy will be a critical responsibility for the foreseeable future. Future-ready CEOs have a duty to understand the technology, its impacts on their industry and beyond, the potential benefits to the business, and any ethical risks or consequences for human staff.

3. Environmental Impact Sustainability and greener practices have become a top priority for both businesses and consumers in recent years. This issue is expected to remain prevalent, and responsible CEOs should understand their organisation’s impact and participate in any plans to help reduce it.

Top CEO Priorities

Current and aspiring CEOs should expect to focus their energy in the following four areas:

1. Data to Drive Execution Data has become a critical component of the digital-driven business landscape. This data can be harnessed and analysed by AI to make decisions based on insight rather than intuition. CEOs need to understand how their organisational and customers’ data can be safely collected and used, and how instrumental it can be in turning the generated insights into real, actionable strategy for the organisation.

2. Agility and Speed A crucial capability for today’s CEOs is the ability to pivot. They need to understand how to adapt their businesses and deliver sustained outcomes in a rapidly changing external environment. All of the challenges listed above will require CEOs to embrace a lot of change over the next several years, and the ability to be flexible without losing momentum is imperative for success.

3. Digital Evolution The future of business is digital, and the companies who are leading the pack in implementing digital technologies have radically improved their operational efficiency and their customers’ experiences. Understanding the capabilities available from harnessing digital technologies will help CEOs guide their organisation in reimagining its purpose and business models.

4. Linking the Company with the World at Large: The role of the CEO is that of the figurehead of their company, serving as the liaison between the organisation, the industry, and the world at large. Fulfilling this responsibility effectively is more important than ever for today’s CEOs as they navigate an era of digital technologies, social consciousness, and scrutiny across a vast range of media platforms. A CEO needs to be able to react quickly and effectively to a crisis should one arise.

People Priorities

A CEO is ultimately a leader and is responsible for guiding the organisation and its people into the future. CEOs should expect to focus on these people-centric priorities for the foreseeable future:

1. Hybrid Working The pandemic required teams to adjust to remote work models, and this way of working looks poised to stay in some form as we return to normalcy. CEOs will need to adopt a leadership style that is effective both in person and virtually, setting a precedent for leaders  around them to follow. There needs to be an understanding of how staff work best, and clear communication of responsibilities and expectations in order to maintain productivity and wellbeing.

2. Productivity For many organisations, this past year has produced a lot of creativity and productivity. The CEO needs to be able to capitalise on this in order to ramp up innovation capabilities. Some organisations struggled to adapt to remote working formats, or to the overall challenges posed by the pandemic. Within these companies, the CEO should prioritise a review of what needs improving and iron out any issues before proceeding with new initiatives.

3. Board Make-up and Upskilling The CEO often plays an integral role in the hiring decisions for other top roles within the company. Who are you seating at the table alongside you? Are you willing to champion, digital savviness, experimentation, diversity, inclusion, and or sustainability within your organisation? How do you plan to reflect this dedication in the decisions you make? These are all essential questions for CEOs to have in mind. Not only that, but consideration needs to be given to how existing staff will be supported and invested in long-term. The pace of change and rise in digital technology is going to cause potential displacement of staff and a critical need for upskilling. The CEO should work with the rest of the board to devise a strategy for supporting people through the transition, whether that means investing in training and development opportunities or making touch decisions investing and providing outplacement and career transition services.

Personal Development

Personal development is a critical component of a successful professional career, and your efforts here can make or break your career transition. Based on our research, we advise focusing on these core areas:

1. Being Accessible, Inclusive and Transparent The priorities and needs of staff have shifted in recent years to become more purpose driven. Our research shows that it is not just millennials and Gen Z staff who feel this way, as older employees expressed similar views. Staff want to work at a company that stands for something, and follow leaders who they respect and admire. It falls on the CEO to set the tone for the culture of the organisation and to ensure that the purpose statement is lived out day-to-day. Learn to be respectful of diverse viewpoints, be transparent, and work on your communication skills.
2. Experimentation Strategic, contemporary CEOs do not look for a niche but instead study the changes in the marketplace, actively seeking out new opportunities, and seizing them. Radical change, pivots, and growth rarely happen overnight or at the first attempt. A successful CEO is one who understands that they need to take risks but knows when to switch gear or change direction to achieve the right results. Be open and ready to sprint in the short term and set realistic goals to focus on and achieve.
3. Building Knowledge and Networks As mentioned, a majority of CEO roles are obtained through connections. ‘Who you know’ has always been an important aspect of business life, but it is even more imperative for the CEO.  While your connections may open the door to your next role, they will also be valuable for your success once you are firmly rooted in your role. It is common and highly beneficial for CEOs to connect with other CEOs to share ideas and experiences, encourage and support one another, and create a dialogue surrounding the challenges or opportunities in the market. Factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise in digital technology have accelerated this dialogue and fostered greater learning across industries. This has provided CEOs with the opportunity to share their successes, failures and best practice. Do not simply view your network as a potential gateway to your next job, though this may be the case. Identify peers that you admire, can learn from, or can engage with in thought-provoking and insightful discussion about the role.

The role of Chief Executive can be one of the most demanding and most rewarding executive positions available. This individual is responsible for the future of the organisation and its people. Success takes innovative thinking, resilience, flexibility, transparency, and initiative.

[1] https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3644496

We recently discussed some of the strategic priorities regarding artificial intelligence (AI) and other technology that leaders will need to keep in mind for the future. Whilst deciding on the best plan of action, there are many factors to consider. What is the current vs future 2–5-year climate likely to be? What will this mean for workforce reskilling and day-to-day practices? What ethical and governance issues need to be considered? These are just some of the crucial questions to consider when undertaking any digital or change programme.

The State of AI

One core message relayed in the previous blog is well worth reiterating here: artificial intelligence is no longer a distant ‘maybe.’ The time has arrived to either sink or swim, adapt or get left behind. AI is guiding decisions from crop harvesting, to bank loans, to medical and pharmaceutical testing.

The gravity of the situation is evidenced strongly in the various tech-focused initiatives included in the UK Government’s latest budget plans. Their aim is to support businesses, enabling them to come to terms with an increasingly digital climate. Two initiatives worth mentioning are a new fast-tracked visa to draw in top tech talent from around the world, as well as the £520 million Help to Grow scheme which is aimed at aiding SMEs to be more competitive while enhancing digital skills. The scheme will allow up to 130,000 SMEs to have subsidised access to university-level training, 50 hours of tuition, and one-to-one business mentoring. In order to further support digital transformation in enterprise, the scheme also includes a 50% government contribution towards productivity software up to £5,000 and delivered in vouchers.

According to a report released at the end of 2020, the UK is ranked third out of the G20 countries in terms of total implementation, innovation, and investment in AI. Britain is ranked first overall in ‘Operating Environment,’ which encompasses the regulatory context and public opinion surrounding artificial intelligence.

The UK government has been taking strides for years to secure this position, most notably through the work of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Artificial Intelligence (APPG AI), of which Rialto is a permanent board member. The group meets regularly for evidence sessions and discussions of the major issues and innovations in AI, all with the intention of supporting the adoption of the technology in enterprise. Membership of this community and access to these sessions is one of the benefits of our AI Leaders Programme, designed to help leaders stay up to date with key developments.

The Human Cost of Automation

The Help to Grow scheme itself is an acknowledgement of the government’s understanding of the necessary role which AI and other technology will play in this next chapter. The pandemic was a ‘trial by fire’ lesson in the importance of digital transformation, as even the most resistant organisations and individuals were left with no choice but to rely on technology to function. The difference now is that while most of the technology we turned to during the pandemic helped us simply stay connected and stay afloat, the technology we turn to next will be strategically focused on creating impactful and long-term change.

Much has been written about the numerous benefits that AI and automation can provide to organisations, especially in terms of productivity and cost savings. Normally, when business leaders are thinking about their AI adoption plans and their objectives, it is these benefits that they tend to focus on. But opportunity has its costs, and the change in practices that AI brings about raises some very serious questions about the impact on human staff.

The major focus we should take from the Help to Grow scheme is the emphasis on skill building, which is both intentional and necessary. It is crucial that any organisation looking at digital transformation, no matter how big or small, ensure that human staff understand the technology they are adopting as well as its uses and implications. A common misconception surrounding AI is that it is here to replace the human workforce. The reality is that AI has not yet reached a level of human intelligence that would allow it to be fully self-sufficient. Most tools that businesses will be looking to adopt tend to rely on a partnership between human and machine. Teams will be needed to oversee the technology, but more importantly they will be required to make sense of any insights and transform them into actions for the business.

That said, there will be certain cases where technology does displace human staff. In AI’s current phase, this is more likely to occur in tasks or roles that are heavily routinised, potentially dangerous, or methodical. There are many examples of this already occurring in manufacturing, agricultural, and distribution functions, amongst others.

When beginning a transformation project, it is essential that the organisation’s leadership look beyond the benefits to the business and examine the potential impacts on staff. On one hand, effort is required to ensure that the staff you have on hand are well prepared to deal with any changes. This is where upskilling initiatives such as those included in the Help to Grow scheme become crucial in terms of involving staff in the next phase of development.

On the other hand, what action is required to assist those left behind by AI? One option is reskilling and helping leaders and staff to develop skills and capabilities that differ from those required by their current role so that they may serve the business in another area. This reskilling may also focus on the human capabilities that technology (currently) cannot replicate, such as empathy, understanding, or strategy. However, if redundancies are deemed necessary, how can you provide support? It might be worth investing in executive outplacement services to help these individuals transition to a new role. Regardless of the approach you select, it is essential that you factor in the human and reputational costs when adopting AI.

Bias and Ethics

Apart from the displacement and critical reskilling needs of the human workforce, additional concerns with AI tend to focus on macros issues such as privacy, bias, and ethics. Customers are wary about the amount of personal data collected and how it is used. In Europe and the UK there are certain policies in place such as GDPR which partially govern this, but at present, AI remains largely unregulated.

Several professional bodies have begun developing their own codes of practice, and governments around the world are working to do this on both a national and global level. The work of the APPG AI community is helping to contribute to these efforts in the UK, and these issues are often discussed in the group’s evidence meetings. But until there are a set of standards or guiding principles that businesses can refer to and adhere to, how can you ensure your AI project avoids violating any ethical rules?

The past year raised some very pertinent ethical discussions, especially in regard to diversity and equality. The leadership team will need to deeply examine and make decisions about potential issues that may affect the outputs of the new technology. This will require answering some very important questions. Who do you have overseeing these systems? How do you plan to use the data you collect? What steps do you intend to take to protect this data and the customers it belongs to? What potential biases may arise from the data or how it is treated? Having answers to the tough questions will help to develop a set of standards or practices for the entire organisation to abide by to ensure any major breaches are avoided.

When adopting AI or other disruptive technologies, it is easy to become blinded by the potential benefits for the business. As we enter the next ‘normal’, it is essential that leaders deepen their understanding of what is happening with technology on a macro level, what impacts might be felt within the business, and how they can ensure that their new endeavour has both internal and external benefits. Membership of the Rialto AI Leaders Programme is a great way to accomplish this, which enabled members to take part in thought-provoking high-level evidence sessions, hearing discussions of the major macro issues first-hand. Furthermore, members are kept up to date with the latest developments, trends, innovations, ROI case studies, and investments on AI.

In the first instalment of our Personal Digital Branding series, we introduced the foundations to creating a representative ‘personal’ profile. In the second blog of the series, we delved into the ‘digital’ side of personal digital branding and provided our top tips for selecting the right social medium and using it to your advantage.

This article continues the series, exploring the ways in which you can bring your brand to life through thought leadership and the creation and curation of quality content. The right thought leadership can make the difference in positioning you as an aligned and relevant leader in the future world of work, thus ensuring you are better known and sought after in target areas.

What is Thought Leadership?

Every industry has its key players, the individuals that others turn to for insights or expertise on selected topics. These individuals are considered thought leaders and have earned that distinction through the active and strategic building of their profile within their designated space.

If executed properly, thought leadership can be a hugely beneficial tool for differentiating oneself in an increasingly crowded and competitive marketplace. This may prove helpful in an executive career transition, with securing new business, or attracting other opportunities for networking, NED roles, or further reputation-boosting publicity. Implicitly, people want to work with someone they can trust; an individual who they believe is best suited for the job. Thought leadership helps build that trust, authority, and credibility.

Thought leaders actively connect with others in their industry and attract valuable connections from outside of their immediate network, too. They are up to date with the latest developments and engaged in discussion about the issues, trends, and news impacting their space. They may be frequent commentators in the media, or active on the global keynote circuit (virtual or face-to-face). Alternatively, these individuals benefit from having a really strong and active social media presence or a great content strategy.

Our previous blog provided guidance for developing this strategy, but a key question is what should you actually be sharing in order to build your credibility? What separates good thought leadership content from average material?

What Do Thought Leaders Share?

We work very closely with our Personal Digital Branding clients, helping each Executive to perfect their thought leadership. In doing so, we help them to stand out from the crowd. Typically, once a client reaches this point in the process, they have already completed the essential work of clarifying their objective – for example, identifying the top organisations for whom they would particularly like to work and clarifying the compelling value proposition they have to share. They will understand their personal digital brand and areas of expertise. Our experts will also have helped them research the best ways to reach their target audiences and helped them to articulate key messages through different communication channels. Strong digital content is the next step for bringing those elements together to create results.

The types of content you should share as a thought leader will and should vary. Here are just a few examples:

• Blogs/Articles: The long format of this type of content allows you the space and freedom to go into depth about your key topics. You may choose to publish these directly on your personal website or your company’s site, if allowed, and share a link to the article via your chosen social platforms. Alternatively, LinkedIn allows its users to publish ‘Articles’ directly on the platform. These articles function exactly the same way a blog would and are an excellent option for executives who lack a platform for posting elsewhere.
• Personal updates: These posts provide your network with glimpses into your professional life. This may include news of any nominations or awards won, initiatives you have taken part in, promotions or new roles you have taken on, and attendance of or participation in any relevant industry events. However, do not confuse the definition of ‘personal’ here. Any updates you share about yourself should pertain to your professional developments or achievements.
• Company updates: If allowed and appropriate, you should share the projects your company is working on, relevant news or updates from your organisation, any mentions of your company in the news, case studies, or awards won.
• Third-party resources: Sharing news, articles, blogs, or other content from credible third-party sources about relevant topics is a great way of showing that you are tuned into what’s happening in your industry and the wider world around you. That said, when you share this type of content, you should always ensure that there is some sort of value add. Do not simply share a link and go. Always try to add a bit of insight, commentary, or critical thought.

As mentioned in an earlier blog, a great way to get a feel for what this content looks like in practice is to examine the profiles of the thought leaders you admire. Visit their social profiles, read their blogs, and note the things you feel that they are doing right. Take those lessons back with you and adapt them to suit your style, goals, and strategy.

Thought Leadership Content Tips:

Thought leadership takes time to cultivate. To become a thought leader, you need to remain vigilant and stay on top of your posting. Here are a few final pieces of advice to build your personal digital brand:

• Tag to build your network: Tag in posts wherever you can in order to draw more eyes to your content. Tag anyone directly related to the content, or you can even tag individuals who you think might be interested in what you have shared. Actively interacting with peers is a great way to continue growing your network and raising your name recognition in the industry.
• Add value: Reiterating our earlier point, thought leadership content should always come with a value add, no matter what the style of content. When sharing third-party content, avoid presenting it without any type of commentary or simply recapping what is there. A few brief lines of analysis will help to establish your position as a thought leader in that particular topic or area. When writing a blog, share any advice or insight you can with your readers. Do not be afraid to inject your own professional experiences in order to provide real-world context.
• Let your brand shine through: After all of the hard work you have put in up to this point, you should have a very clear idea of what your personal digital brand identity is. This should hopefully make it very easy to shape the content you create and select the topics you discuss. The time has come to let your brand shine through. Be your own champion. Do not be afraid to voice your opinions or share your insights and expertise on the topics you are experienced in and passionate about.
• Stay active: This will play into the strategy you previously devised, but in order to become a thought leader and stay that way, you do need to engage with your audience regularly. Our previous blog provided tips for determining the frequency of your activity. But a mistake that many professionals tend to make is pursuing thought leadership to achieve a specific goal, and then dropping their activity once that goal has been met. Maintain it if you can. If your thought leadership activity helped you to secure a new role, it is likely that your new employer was drawn to the idea of having a respected expert on their team. If thought leadership brought in some new connections or opportunities for you before, it will continue to do so if you maintain momentum.

Personal digital branding and thought leadership can be hard work but can also bring about some incredible and valuable opportunities for your career including internal promotion or external appointments. Once you have found your stride and determined which content works for you and your audience, keeping up with thought leadership should become a natural and effortless part of your normal professional activity. Make it part of your daily routine. Be patient, as it will take time to build trust and credibility. But with time, you are likely to find that putting in the work to pursue thought leadership was a worthwhile investment in your career and professional development.

With the COVID 19 vaccine rollout providing hope and early promising results, it seems that we are closer to a return to a new normal than we have been for over a year. This positive outlook means that it is safer for both individuals and businesses alike to start seriously considering and planning for what comes next, what this time has meant for businesses, and what needs to change in order to suit new ways of living and working. One major topic that needs to be covered as part of the discussion is purpose.

This past year has brought out the human side of business. It has led many of us to revaluate what is truly important and presented many organisations with challenges to their purpose statements. But what does purpose truly mean for businesses, leaders, and their people in 2021 and the near future? How do you transfer it from words into a real actionable leadership strategy?

Defining Purpose

Fundamentally, many businesses exist to make a profit, but profit should not be confused with purpose. Purpose is the starting point that led to the founding of the business. Think of it as the the ‘Why’ at the centre of Simon Sinek’s ‘Golden Circle’ model. Purpose looks beyond profits to the long-term impacts you would like to have on your customers, staff, market, community and the environment.

‘Purpose’ and ‘values’ are often misunderstood, due to being used interchangeably or variably in different contexts. Your purpose is why you are in business, and your values are the guiding principles and standards for behaviour. Think of purpose as the big picture roadmap for the direction in which you would like the organisation to progress.  Values are the compass for how to get there. In the Sinek model, values sit in the ‘How’ ring. How do you behave to ensure you are living out your organisation’s purpose? How does the organisation work towards this vision each day?

Why It Matters

Purpose and vision exist on an individual level as well. Just as you have your reasons for pursuing a particular career path and have a set of moral principles that matter to you, so will the people you do business with. Millennials and Generation Z are more socially conscious than previous generations, and as they begin to make up larger portions of the workforce and consumer market, these young people want to buy from and work for companies whose purpose they resonate with and whose values they share.

Think of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. At the top of the triangle after all the basic and security needs are fulfilled, we start to look at topics such as belonging, esteem, and self-actualisation. Purpose provides unification, motivation, inspiration, and helps individuals tap into these higher level needs to get more out of their role.

Employees turn to purpose as a way of bringing meaning to their work and to understand the contribution they are making to the organisation and the world around them. Research has found that these employees who find meaning in their day-to-day work feel much more satisfied and engaged. Employees who feel connected to their organisation’s purpose have a deeper sense of belonging and are therefore more motivated in their roles and are easier to retain.

The intrinsic motivation which purpose can provide to staff has become incredibly valuable during the hardships of the past year. The changing business landscape has forced many businesses to rethink how they can incentivise their employees, especially in situations where financial rewards are not practical or possible. In some cases, the fulfilment of doing meaningful work and contributing to the bigger mission and vision may be enough to encourage staff to remain with the organisation.

Walking the Talk

For this to have any affect at all, businesses and their leaders need to ‘walk the talk.’ Your purpose is mere words on a page until there is action behind it. For example, a business can say that its purpose is to create a fairer world for all, but this means very little if its board comprises only one predominant demographic, and if its female staff are not paid the same as their male counterparts. Clearly, a lack of diversity at a senior level and unfair compensation practices are in direct conflict with the organisation’s mission of fairness.

This is a very serious and big picture example, but infractions against a company’s values and purpose can occur daily in smaller instances. Authenticity matters. If a leader is to serve as a champion for the organisation’s mission and purpose, they need to ensure that their words match their actions. If your company has outlined its values, you need to ensure that both you and your team are meeting those standards of behaviour. If you state that you value inclusion, you must ensure that you give every member of the team a voice. If you value respect, it’s important that you are respecting your team’s boundaries and opinions, and that they are showing the same respect to one another.

This sends a clear message to your team that the company is serious about what it stands for, and thereby helps to build their faith in the organisation. Staff will find it easier to buy into a purpose if they see it being lived out every day. Leading by example is critically important to build this type of trust and to reap the productivity, motivation, and retention benefits that ensue.

Putting this into practice post-COVID will be challenging for many leaders. Reinforcing purpose on an individual level and creating that sense of alignment and unity is more difficult whilst staff continue to work remotely.

While it is essential for staff to have a clear idea of where the organisation and its leadership stands in terms of values and purpose, it is equally important that each individual team member understands the role they play in that. This understanding of individual impact will help staff find their place within that bigger picture.

Operationally, this links back to the standards set by management. Leaders need to continue holding their team to those same behavioural principles even when outside of the office. Examples would include allowing everyone a chance to speak on video calls or monitoring team correspondence to ensure that teams maintain respectful for one another.

At Rialto, we work closely with teams to help staff gain an understanding of the impact they make on the organisation, and to understand where they can improve. Often, issues can be swiftly resolved through better communication from leadership. Managers need to have conversations with their staff about the purpose of the organisation, the contributions each team member makes towards furthering that purpose, and the values and standards of behaviour that every person in the organisation is held to.

One of the clearest indications of walking the talk is a company’s willingness to invest in its own people. Taking the time to ensure that everyone is aligned, on board, and motivated is the best way of ensuring that a company is living out its own purpose. Leaders should ensure that they are authentic in their words and actions and are leading by example. Hold staff to the right standards, but make sure they each understand what contributions they can be valued for, how to make those impacts, and how this all fits into the greater purpose of the organisation. That way, you build a team that truly believes in the work that they do, and who are willing to stand by the organisation, its customers, and its wider stakeholders.

During 2020, digital transformation initiatives helped businesses to stay afloat when the world was plunged into challenging and uncharted territory. 2021 is a time for businesses to build on what they put in place in order to thrive rather than simply survive. We touched on technology in our Essential Leadership Requirements for 2021, but felt it was worth highlighting some of the key artificial intelligence (AI) and workplace technologies that leaders are prioritising this year and exploring how they will impact our working lives. Here is what you need to know about AI and tech’s potential in the working world in 2021:

The AI Imperative

We have spent the past several years discussing ‘the future of work’ and the ways that technology will eventually shake up the workplace. But the fact of the matter is, developments such as COVID and constant global innovation have accelerated the timeline, and the future has now arrived. Going forward, the future we have been predicting and planning for will start to be accepted as the norm. The time has come to sink or swim, adapt or accept defeat.

At this point, the benefits of AI, Cloud, and other disruptive technologies have been discussed at length. It should no longer seem unfathomable that AI will touch every aspect of our lives in due course. We interact with it on a daily basis without even realising or thinking twice about it. The tech already lives in our phones, our smart speakers, our email, our social media feeds, our streaming platforms, and our online shopping baskets. It may already be embedded in features of the software you use at work or will likely be introduced soon.

Better Technology, Bigger Possibilities, and Buy-in Challenges

We can expect to see an even greater acceleration in the advancement and intelligence performed by technology during 2021.

What this means is that work will become ‘smarter’ as businesses adopt new technology to help enhance their practices, speed up their processes, gain in-depth insights into the needs of their customers, discover patterns, reveal anomalies, and make predictions and decisions. Given the advancement of AI and machine learning in the past year, and the developments still to come in the year ahead, AI is increasingly becoming a key driver of organisational performance. The organisations who are leading the pack in adoption are already reaping massive benefits in productivity, efficiency, cost and resource saving, and competitive advantage.

We have become a bit spoilt for choice when it comes to available tools and vendors. The benefit of this is that regardless of an organisation’s challenges or goals, there is likely to be a solution readily available to help. With automation able to handle the routinised and data-driven functions of the business, human staff are freed up from the mundane aspects of their role and able to focus on more meaningful work.  They will also have more time to focus on the creative or strategic functions that technology cannot yet perform, this being a huge benefit for businesses which need to drive more innovation.

However, even though AI will reshape rather than replace most professional roles, there will almost certainly be discomfort or pushback from staff as their jobs change. Some may cling to the status quo and reject AI’s assistance, or feel threatened. The key here is for business leaders to offer their staff adequate support and preparation throughout the transformation process. This will likely involve offering retraining or upskilling opportunities to help staff develop future-ready skills and adjust to the evolving needs of the business. It is also crucial for leaders to serve as champions of change within their organisation. By increasing their own understanding of new technologies, business leaders can better address staff concerns, which helps to inspire confidence in the future of the organisation and its leadership.

Changing Expectations

2020 was a massive turning point when it came to our level of comfort with using digital interactions in our daily lives. Customers’ priorities and expectations have shifted after a year of living through a pandemic. Businesses closed their physical doors due to restrictions, so their customers flocked to their websites. As a result, there is a greater focus on providing effective, differentiated digital experiences than ever before.

We do not know how long the current restrictions will last, but as we look ahead to when life returns to some semblance of normalcy, it is likely that customers will no longer be satisfied with distinctly physical or digital experiences. Instead, business leaders need to prepare to offer their customers a blend of the best of both. AI can be used to offer customers a personalised experience that transitions seamlessly between the digital and physical environments, when allowed. Expect forward-thinking leaders to begin planning for this over the next several months.

Customer needs, behaviours, and expectations shift quickly and often. It is crucial for business leaders to stay on top of these trends in order to provide the experiences their customers expect and the products and services that will best meet their changing needs. It can be hard to keep track of these shifts, but AI tools make it easier track changes as they happen and gain deeper insight into their customer base. This will prove critical to business leaders as they try to move their organisation forward post-pandemic, and it is a benefit which leaders should factor in when considering adopting AI.

Smarter Strategy

Every industry has its leaders and its laggards, but most businesses today fall somewhere in the middle. These organisations and their leadership most likely understand that the world of work is evolving and that they need to adapt in order to survive. But as we start 2021, most of these organisations are still struggling with where to begin.

While having many vendors and tools in the market means that businesses have plenty of options, the drawback is that it can be difficult to know who to turn to. Conversely, with so many shiny tools available, it can be tempting to adopt whatever sounds the best or makes the most promises as opposed to the most effective tool for solving the problems at hand.

That is why it is so crucial for leaders to have a strategy in place. This should be the starting point for all digital transformation processes. Businesses undoubtedly have many challenges to overcome this year, but the specifics of those problems and the outcomes you are looking to achieve need to be identified first and foremost.

We have spoken in previous years of there needing to be a greater emphasis on having tech savvy executives in the C-suite to drive the change process, and we expect to see this accelerate in 2021. The shift of technology being the responsibility of the CIO or CTO will also continue to decline as more ownership needs to be held across many levels. Given that the impacts of new technology will touch every aspect of the organisation, it is crucial that the entire board understands the impacts, benefits, risks, and so on. Whether it is the CEO or CTO who leads the change, there needs to be a team of empowered and well-informed executive leaders driving the development of the strategy. It will be the responsibility of this team to define, expand, and shape the vision through effective collaborations with the workforce that creates alignment and buy-in throughout the organisation. Having the right skills, displaying the right behaviours and understanding how and what each person and process contributes is critical.

Investing in the future of work

Last year opened our eyes to just how much more beneficial and impactful technology can be in the workplace to remain competitive, increase employee experience and customer satisfaction. This year, leaders need to further expand their thinking to focus on how AI and technology can be used to help them get ahead rather than just stay afloat. Upskilling or retraining can help leaders deepen their understanding of AI while also developing the right skills to help inform the strategy and implement it.

It will also be vitally important for leaders to understand how AI and disruptive technology are impacting businesses across their industry and other sector, as well as learning how this technology is being regulated, and what the major trends are globally*.

Attending AI courses or programmes such as the Rialto AI Leaders Programme is a great way for executives to improve their relationship with AI, deepen their understanding of it, keep up with trends, and gain actionable insights that can then be applied to their business. They can then take the insights, skills, and knowledge gained back to their boardroom to create a strategy that leverages AI to its full potential.

As many executives begin to come to grips with AI, we expect 2021 to see greater investment, shifts in priorities, a bigger focus on digital skills, and smarter and more tech-driven strategies. Just as the idea of returning to a five-day in-office work week may seem old-fashioned to many of us now, we expect that by the end of this year, we will feel the same about not using artificial intelligence in our day-to-day practice.  The fact of the matter is that the time has now come to sink or swim, and those who swim safely to shore after the major waves of the pandemic have died down will most definitely be those who leveraged AI to chart their path forward.

Typically, the start of a new year brings with it the promise of new beginnings. The financial year restarts, most have used the holiday period to rest and refresh before returning to work ready and motivated, and many businesses will begin strategising and acting on their plans for the year ahead.

But this new year began with many of the same challenges that we had hoped to leave behind in 2020. Just as most professionals switched off for a well-deserved break, it was as though the door at the end of the tunnel was suddenly slammed shut. New strains of the virus emerged in the UK, which altered Christmas plans and shook up the tier system. Now we are starting this year the way we spent a large portion of the last one: in a national lockdown. These necessary actions have dealt another unfortunate blow to many businesses across all industries, and have undoubtably impacted the way that most of us will approach 2021.

With all of this in mind, there is no better time for professionals to think about what career moves to make in the year ahead. At the start of 2020, 18% of UK adults surveyed reported making a New Year’s resolution to pursue a career ambition. Given the lessons of last year and the challenges we are still facing, we imagine that an even higher percentage of UK professionals will be considering what career decisions to take this year. The following are some key areas to consider for those making a career transition and advancing their career in the current climate.

Just as the workplace has become increasingly digital over the past year, so has the job market. Technology has influenced every stage of the career journey, from search, to the interview process, to thought leadership and establishing an industry profile. Failing to take the following factors into consideration would therefore be remiss of all those considering a career transition in 2021:

The evolution of job sites

The way that roles and opportunities are found continues to evolve and change. This largely occurs virtually, with thousands of new roles listed across sites such as LinkedIn, Exec Appointments, and aggregate sites such as Indeed and Adzuna each day. LinkedIn in particular has become a major player for job searches. 50 million companies choose to list their opportunities on the site, and there are over 14 million job listings available. The encouraging news is that these listings do result in real placements. According to LinkedIn’s statistics, 40 million people use the platform to search for jobs each week and three people are hired every minute for roles they applied for via the site.

Most sites now allow you to upload a CV, which can then be scanned for keywords and matched to available opportunities that might be a good fit for your skills and experience. Some of these opportunities may not be roles you might have initially considered yourself right for, but actually fit the criteria set by the listing recruiter. Do not discount the possibility of finding your next opportunity on these sites.  Equally these sites are a great way for you to consider whether you are promoting the skills for your most desired role or indeed what recruiters and the future market requires.

Automation in recruitment

Just as digital is influencing the process by which professionals find opportunities, it is also impacting the hiring process itself. In recent years, we have seen the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the recruitment process to automate tasks such as CV screening, answering applicant questions, conducting interviews, and onboarding new staff. More and more tools enter this space on a regular basis, and they are becoming even more of an asset as many of the population continue to work remotely.

If you are undergoing a career transition, it is possible that your CV or Executive Profile might pass through an AI-powered keyword check, or that you might interact with a chatbot as part of your screening. Ensure you are prepared for these interactions just as you would if you were dealing with a real person. With the increase in technology usage, you will want to take time to check and recheck spelling, grammar, and punctuation before sending messages. Also be sure to keep an especial eye out for autocorrect-generated errors. Read over and double-check responses to ensure you convey energy as well as professionalism in all of your communications, because much conversational nuance and emotion can be lost in the translation to digital.

Thought leadership for attracting opportunities

Depending on your industry, social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram are proving to be vital alongside the most popular platform LinkedIn in supporting you being found and selected for a new career challenge. Your online presence can be the determining factor that secures that desired role, or an asset that attracts new opportunities to you passively. Most people are found online well before a recruiter or HR manager ever sees their CV. Personal digital branding has become a huge tool for establishing your industry voice and story. Social media has created a valuable ecosystem for professionals to share insights, interact with other key opinion leaders, and engage in discussions about important industry topics. Any hiring manager who visits your profiles will be able to see the content you share and the types of subjects you express an interest in. Keeping this in mind and ensuring your profiles and content are a good reflection of who you are professionally and what you want to be known for, will help to attract new opportunities to you and enable you to remain front of mind in the candidate pool. It is therefore essential that you keep your online profile updated and current so that you are visible above the inevitable noise created by your competition.

Networking is not extinct

Whilst LinkedIn and other sites are useful, the vast majority of more senior opportunities are usually secured via referrals and recommendations. Networking is the way to establish and build those essential connections. However, the coronavirus pandemic has completely reshaped the way we do a lot of things, and networking is one of them. Instead of exchanging business cards at conferences or shaking hands at events, we now must connect with one another virtually via Zoom, Teams, and other platforms. The rollout of the vaccine provided us with a glimmer of hope that in-person events might soon resume, but the introduction of the most recent lockdown is a devastating setback. It is unclear once again when we may be able to return to in-person networking. Instead, professionals looking to build their networks should consider attending some of the many available virtual events, joining relevant LinkedIn groups, or connecting with peers or desired contacts on social media.

This continuing struggle has led some people to reach out to contacts that they hadn’t spoken to in years or share their experiences and feelings with those that they may have rarely spoken to. Don’t be afraid to reach out. A robust network of contacts can help you more readily research the market and find open positions, including those that haven’t yet been posted. The more you make others aware of your ambitions, what you have to offer, and how you can help solve future challenges, the more likely you are to stay on others’ radar and put yourself in opportunity’s path.

Virtual interviews

Interviews are arguably the most daunting part of the hiring process but are often the deciding factor. These face-to-face conversations are where your CV or online profile comes to life and you are no longer just a name on a list. As the candidate, you get to share the skills and experiences that set you apart. On the other side of the table, the hiring team is evaluating your answers, tone, demeanour, and body language to determine if you are a good fit for the role and organisation. But with the continuing restrictions from the pandemic, these conversations are largely taking place virtually, often as panel-led discussions. Approach these virtual sessions just as you would an in-person meeting. Dress and present yourself professionally, and be sure to utilise a clean, simple background with minimal distractions. Take time to prepare and practice fielding sample questions you expect to be queried about. Body language translates differently virtually, and some people’s communication styles may change. Sometimes, individuals at all levels forget to take the time to ensure pre-installed platforms are working on their device properly prior to interview sessions or fail to test that both their video camera and microphone are functioning. With most of us having operated from home for over nine months now, interviewers are expecting candidates to know how to conduct themselves professionally and competently in a virtual setting. Regardless of any past interview experiences, a candidate’s interview preparation in 2021 should take these new challenges into consideration.

Fulfilling Your 2021 Career Resolutions

Regardless of the motivation behind your career goals for this year, there are some key things to keep in mind given the trends and circumstances that have presented themselves. If you are actively seeking and applying for new opportunities, think about what values are most important to you. Remote working has changed how many candidates look for a role and has driven many companies to hire based on values fit first and culture fit second.

When looking to promote yourself, think critically about your CV or online profile. Take into consideration how it is being found and assessed. Are you using the right keywords? As mentioned previously, many HR teams have begun using automated tools to scan and filter candidates. If you use certain online job search sites, their systems do the same. If there are specific roles or companies you are interested in, your CV should be in alignment with the requirements for these. You need to ensure that your CV and online profile highlight the right skills, so that these tools will pick up on them.

However, before you can highlight these skills, you need to know which capabilities are being sought after by your target industry or company. Researching trends is one way to stay current. Seeking out learning opportunities is an even better method, as this approach helps you catch up with current trends and gain the necessary skills for future trends. Reskilling or upskilling helps to make you a more compelling candidate during a career transition. Even if you are not actively searching for a new role, reskilling or upskilling helps you stay current in your industry and helps guide your organisation into the future of work.

It is without question that COVID-19 was the defining topic of 2020 and continues to be as we enter 2021. It has presented many challenges and obstacles, and completely reshaped life as we know it. The pandemic and lockdowns continue, but the introduction of the vaccine has hopefully placed us nearer to the end of it. We are not yet out of the woods, but there is a chance we will clear the major hurdles at some point this year. When that happens, anticipate being asked to reflect. Whether it be a job interview or a thought leadership opportunity, expect people to want to know about your COVID story. What challenges did you face, how did you solve them, and what have you learned along the way? The answers to these questions will provide great insight into your capabilities as a leader and your preparedness for any future challenges.

Whether looking for a new opportunity or working to establish yourself as an industry voice, investing in your own professional development is always a good investment. Keeping an eye on the key trends impacting the job market and developing the right mindset and skillset will help you stay at the top of people’s minds or give reason for you to get onto their contact list, which will allow you to claim your place in the future of work.

If asked to summarise 2020 in a word, the list would surely include answers such as uncertain, disruptive, chaotic, transformative, unsettling, and challenging.

At the start of this year, we never could have predicted the situation we currently find ourselves in. Up until March 2020, it was business as usual. There was optimism that initial decisions on Brexit had been made, and business leaders felt that they could spend the rest of the year focusing on business transformation and growth strategies. But then COVID-19 rapidly spread across the world and we were all forced to quickly shift the way we work, interact, network, and lead.

To help leaders better understand the business challenges of this year and equip them to thrive in the aftermath, Rialto has continued to embark on our research project in which we invite participants to discuss the future capabilities and skillsets they think will be important based on their experiences of current and future trends. The research feeds into the Rialto Accelerated Leadership Index (RALI), which enables leaders to benchmark their capabilities and skillsets. Approximately 350 leaders have contributed to this year’s research update.

Many businesses moved their staff from the office to remote working formats, some for the very first time. Business leaders needed to quickly adapt their approaches to accommodate the change in both their team’s and customers’ circumstances. Whether facing a downturn or growth, the new remote working situation highlighted the need for empathetic, authentic leaders with the customer and employee experience holding equal focus and sitting at the heart of everything.

Many leaders saw the importance of putting people first this year, especially their employees. In fact, the treatment of staff during this time soon defined what type of employer these organisations are. Widely, we saw employee loyalty and motivation maintained. Customers behaved similarly, remaining loyal to their favourite brands and returning as repeat customers.

The common themes arising from this year’s findings is the need for all leaders to be more collaborative, flexible and agile. It has also been suggested that leaders will need to become an exemplar requiring a range of capabilities and skillsets that can be switched on and off, enabling them to react to what is happening around them.

What follows are five of the key leadership capabilities that are being sought after to ensure leaders—and their organisations—are fully fit for the future. Rialto will continue to feedback findings on a regular basis as we continue to see changes in these predictions across our projects and many dialogues.

1. Adapt to Overcome Any and All Challenges

Our 2019 report identified the importance of developing the three As of agility,

adaptability and acumen. The challenges of this year made this an even more essential task for business leaders, especially the first A: agility.

No one could have predicted the massive amount of change and the obstacles this year would present. Many business leaders were forced to think on their feet and quickly adapt their mindset, management style, work practices, and plans in order to lead through these circumstances. Doing so effectively required agility in every possible area.

Working from home, lockdown restrictions, and widespread illness compromised the mental health and wellbeing of employees throughout 2020, and their leaders had to become more emotionally agile as a result. Leaders had to help their teams overcome these heavy burdens while also navigating these emotional challenges themselves. Customer relationships needed to be managed with additional care, consideration, and delicacy. The most effective leaders led with empathy, sensitivity, openness, and compassion this year and will need to keep this same level of emotional intelligence and agility moving forward.

Tough decisions also needed to be made, causing many organisations to change course and quickly adapt. It was a true test in risk, operational and decision-making agility as some leaders may have needed to navigate their team through new working conditions, cutbacks, difficult market conditions and an increasingly urgent need for digital transformation.

After this year’s tests of agility, leaders will need to think critically about which business and operating models will bring success moving forward and feel confident enough to shift focus to these areas. This will require adaptability and a lack of complacency. It is important to seek out continuous learning opportunities in order to stay current and allow for quick pivots to new models or technologies that may help advance the business.

2. Start an Open Dialogue

Communication and engagement challenges are presenting themselves and the two are becoming intermixed as traditional hierarchical structures break down and we see leadership positions shifting hands to Generation X and millennials. These younger leaders are bringing in fresh ideas and different approaches, with the latter of the two groups more heavily focused on experience than some of their predecessors. Additionally, the older members of Generation Z are beginning to enter the workforce and bringing their own set of expectations to internal operations.

Externally, leaders must also navigate communications with some of the most socially conscious consumers seen in decades. Today’s consumers care about the causes the businesses they buy from support, how they treat their staff, their environmental impacts, the fairness of their supply chains, and more. Clearly communicating stances can prove massively beneficial for building or improving customer loyalty, whereas vagueness or dishonesty can put customers off for life. Today’s consumers are also the most tech savvy we have ever seen and have come to expect a certain level of personalisation or ‘wow factor’ in their experiences. Engaging these customers both in person and online has become a critically important challenge for many business leaders to navigate.

Communication and engagement proved especially difficult this year as business operations shifted virtually, as did buying and servicing in many cases. Leaders will need to work hard to unite teams working remotely long term in order to maintain morale and productivity, while also encouraging impact on the team and individual levels. It is likely that many businesses will face tough market conditions well into the new year. Generating customer loyalty through strong engagement and experiences will be key.

Leaders need to show clarity of thought, honesty, and humility when communicating to engage both their staff and their customers. Creating an open dialogue between staff of all levels allows employees to feel more involved and engaged with their teammates, role, and leadership. Leaders who are able to communicate and engage successfully will possess strong storytelling abilities while also being able to provide clear, succinct, and relatable messages for all of their audiences.

3. Become a Digital Champion

This year was a pivotal moment for business 4.0 and digital transformation. Leaders and organisations who had been resisting change or slow to transform were forced to adapt suddenly and quickly in order to continue conducting business amid the lockdowns. Instead of regressing backwards, businesses and their leaders are more likely to continue on the path that they have started down towards digital transformation.

It should have become clear by now that technology is the way forward for all businesses, regardless of size or industry. Leaders should work to understand the impacts of converging technologies on their sector, clients, organisation, and job function, as well as the increasing rate at which they are going to be used. This does not require the leader to become a tech expert but may require some upskilling in order to build up confidence, understanding, and relevant capabilities. This will help leaders to make more informed decisions when selecting tools or methodologies, as well as helping to generate buy-in within the organisation.

Leaders who act confidently inspire confidence, and this will help to quell the fears of any resistant staff. Instead of resisting, leaders should embrace the idea of transformation to become advocates and champions of change within their organisation.

4. Deliver on Promises Efficiently

Since we first began conducting research for RALI, the ability to deliver results quickly has always featured in our findings. However, what we found this year is that the speed in which leaders must execute strategies, projects, and results has changed. It has become a matter of how leaders are able to organise and lead change initiatives across the organisation, and how quickly they can deliver on any promises made.

This acceleration towards even more rapid results could be attributed to a number of sources. As we previously mentioned, this year’s pandemic has required a high level of adaptability and quick thinking, all without a lot of time to work with. It could also be attributed to the increasingly digital world we live in, where everything is available at our fingertips with a few clicks. Whatever the source of this shift, it has meant that leaders need to be able to align strategic business initiatives and people to deliver results at speed.

It can be difficult to get a team on the same page, and staying on the same page in the fast-paced business world is even more of a challenge. Leaders have to respond to rapid changes in economic, market and customer demand.  Having a formula to keep the team aligned and projects on track is more important than ever before.

The best leaders are recognising that the barriers to boldness and speed are less about technical limits and more about mindsets toward what is possible, what people are willing to do, the degree to which implicit or explicit policies that slow things down can be challenged, and bureaucratic chains of command. Heading into the new year, it will be essential for leaders to get clear on these roadblocks and work collaboratively with their teams in order to overcome them. That way, unnecessary delays and setbacks can be avoided and projects can progress quicker, allowing for that highly desired speed of results.

5. Become an Out-of-the-Box Thinker

Pandemics, wars, and other social crises often create new attitudes, needs, and behaviours in the workplace, the market, and society at large. We can anticipate these events to an extent but can rarely predict their impacts. For example, in February none of us would have anticipated the longevity, reach, or damage of the coronavirus pandemic. In these cases, leaders typically have to think on their feet to come up with solutions to unexpected problems.

These influential events highlight a need for greater imagination. When these circumstances arise, the most successful leaders are those with the capacity to create, evolve, and exploit mental models of things or situations that don’t yet exist. Imagination and creativity are key factors for seizing and shaping new futures for work. This creativity needs to be channelled for purpose and not executed on a whim. Strategic creativity requires time for reflection, curiosity, inquisition, experimentation, and optimism.

Imagination is arguably one of the hardest things to keep alive under pressure, yet it can bring about some excellent benefits for business leaders and their organisations. In recessions and downturns, 14% of companies outperform both historically and competitively because they invest in new growth areas. We found that during the COVID-19 pandemic, organisations who were able to imagine came up with new business models that helped their businesses stay afloat or even excel, and they saw significant value as a result. For example, when the restaurants shut, many small restauranteurs and fruit and veg distributors reallocated the stock that would have supplied these eateries into meal boxes that were then delivered to households.

Individuals at all levels who are able to see creative ways around the problem when backed into a corner are the most effectively poised to thrive when future pandemics or disruptions occur.

Conclusion

Undoubtably, the skillsets highlighted here, especially agility and innovation, will continue to prove essential for years to come as businesses strive to overcome any long-term impacts of the pandemic and new challenges presented by Brexit.

The leaders who will be most successful at navigating the so-called ‘new normal’ in 2021 will have the ability to quickly pivot when unexpected obstacles arise but will still be able to maintain empathy and compassion in all of their dealings with staff and customers. These leaders will see challenges as opportunities to do things differently and will become champions for change in their organisation. 2020 has rapidly accelerated the wheels of widespread digital transformation, so leaders will need to seek out opportunities to better understand the impacts and benefits that new tech can bring their organisation. Communication will be key for these leaders when working to create buy in for new initiatives, maintaining morale, continuing to make an impact, and building customer loyalty.

Despite everything, it is still essential for leaders to continue investing in their own professionalism, development, and personal digital brand. Networking in the traditional sense was halted this past year and it is unclear when it might resume. There are still many opportunities for executives to connect with and expand their network virtually. The successful leader in 2021 will be entrepreneurial and take initiative to continue forging new relationships.

Continuous learning will also be key for advancement. Business as we know it has changed, and the skillsets required have evolved alongside it. Successful leaders will understand this and refuse to become complacent, seeking out opportunities to stay current while keeping their eyes focused on the future.

We at Rialto look forward to sharing further insights and trends with you.

If you are interested in taking part in events such as our leadership dialogues and surveys, please contact press@rialtoconsultancy.com  To find out more about the RALI, please visit www.ralionline.com