Leadership is in crisis – it’s a good time to shine

Leadership is in crisis – it’s a good time to shine

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“Are you two really the best we’ve got?”

A despairing voter spoke for much of his nation when he fired the question at the UK Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and Conservative PM Rishi Sunak in a televised debate eight days ahead of what some view as one of the most frustrating UK General Election run-ins in recent memory.

Days later, a cartoonist ran the same phrase under unflattering caricatures of the No 10 rivals alongside US President runners Biden and Trump after the first head to head of the new campaign. Americans have a choice between an octogenarian who appeared to almost fell asleep during the debate and a septuagenarian convict who is calculated to have allegedly made 30,573 false or misleading claims during his previous term in office.

Meanwhile young men and boys are looking to the self-styled “king of toxic masculinity” Andrew Tait – currently awaiting trial for rape and trafficking – for guidance on how to be a man while much of Europe is so disillusioned with mainstream politics it is looking to the Far Right for strong governance.

Is leadership in crisis?

A newly-released index in leadership confidence suggests it is.

Russell Reynolds has been tracking confidence in executive teams for the last three years – and seen a continuous decline which it blames on widespread failure to address the unprecedented complexity and uncertainty of leadership in the current landscape.

The Leadership Confidence Index captures board members, CEOs, C-suite leaders, and next-generation leaders’ confidence in their executive team, looking at capability, issue management and behaviour.

All three fell, as, according to a separate index by the same researchers, did faith in leaders’ preparedness to face the top threats impacting organisational health: economic uncertainty, availability of key talent and skills, tech change, geopolitical uncertainty and increased regulation.

Yet it is amid this edgy climate of unease, economic shocks and rapid technological advancement in the wake of the AI revolution that effective leadership can and should shine like a beacon, navigating organisations through the turbulence, raising teams to the challenge and riding tailwinds to transformational growth.

So how can executives and senior leadership up their game to inspire confidence, loyalty and improved performance? Here are eight ways:

1. Inspire a Shared Vision

In times of uncertainty, a compelling vision can unite and motivate the team, encourage loyalty and minimise attrition and burn out. Executives can inspire by:

• Articulating the Vision: Clearly communicate the long-term vision and how you hope to get there. It should be ambitious but equally not too far reaching.  Ensure there is a strategy to support everyone to understand their role in achieving it and invite questions. The more the vision is challenged, the more robust and engrained it will become.
• Aligning Goals: Align individual and team goals with the broader organisational vision to ensure a shared sense of purpose and direction. Every employee should understand why they do what they do every day, feel valued and know what they stand to gain, personally and professionally.
• Involving the Team: Engage employees in the vision-building process to enhance commitment and enthusiasm.

2. Communicate with Clarity and Transparency

Effective communication is the cornerstone of inspiring leadership, especially during crises. Executives and senior leaders should:

• Be Transparent: Share the challenges being faced and the strategies being implemented to address them. Honesty builds trust.
• Maintain Clarity: Ensure messages are clear and consistent. Avoid jargon and be direct about what is happening and why. Think about the channels through which you communicate and who should deliver the messaging.
• Encourage regular two-way engagement: Keep lines of communication open through regular updates, meetings, and feedback sessions.

3. Show Empathy and Compassion

During difficult times, employees look to leaders for understanding and support. Executives can demonstrate empathy by:

• Listening Actively: Take the time to hear employees’ concerns and suggestions. Show that their voices matter. Build time into board and SLT meetings to discuss those concerns and share details of the discussions with the workforce to show you are listening.
• Offering Support: Provide easily and universally accessible resources for mental health and well-being. Create a nurturing culture where employees feel confident sharing any personal or professional issues, knowing leadership will respond with careful consideration, practical support and genuine understanding and kindness.
• Being Visible: It can be tempting to hide below decks when seas are rough but this is exactly the time the crew need to see their captain leading decisively. Make a conscious effort to be present and approachable. Check-ins and addresses to staff can go a long way to build strong relations and loyalty, whether virtual or in real life.. Take a personal interest in your workforce. Namecheck employees who have gone above and beyond and recognise any achievements they may have chosen to share from their personal lives such as adopting or charity work.

4. Demonstrate Resilience and Adaptability

One worrying trend noted in the Russell Reynolds report was the failure of leadership to develop resilience in response to repeated exposure to shocks and challenges. Inspiring leaders should embody resilience and adaptability, setting a powerful example for their teams.

• Stay Positive: Lead with realistic optimism. Positivity can be contagious, filtering down from the top, but only if tempered with honesty about the difficulties you face together. Employees will become jaded and may even be offended if leadership constantly tries to spin messaging that does not align with what they are hearing and feeling.
• Adapt Quickly: Show flexibility in strategies and be willing to pivot as circumstances change. Admit mistakes or wrong turns and be humble and open about what you have learned. Not only will this instil faith that you recognise when change is needed and are skilled enough to change tack, it will create a dynamic and agile environment in which others feel safe to go back and try things differently.
• Celebrate Small Wins: Even if you are struggling to steady the ship in a major storm, take time to recognise and celebrate even minor successes to boost morale and maintain momentum. Make sure staff can see the light on the horizon – calmer waters and exciting new opportunities ahead – and that they belong to an organisation committed to seizing them.

5. Lead by Example

Executives who lead by example are rewarded with confidence and respect and inspire leadership and teams to behave the same way.

Ways of leading by example include:

• Maintaining Integrity: Uphold the company’s values and ethical standards.  Executives should clearly define and communicate the ethical standards and behaviours they expect, model these themselves and reward employees who do the same. They should be seen to address conflicts justly and take responsibility for decisions, whether they have been successful or not.
• Showing Commitment: Executives and senior leadership need to be seen to be willing to go the extra mile and demonstrate a strong work ethic. This does not mean being in the office for 12 hours a day and over weekends to try to set up a slavish competition around time spent in the office. But it does mean showing company loyalty, determination to see projects through and genuine interest in the outcomes of initiatives and efforts across the organisation, not just in your own department or team.
• Embracing Challenges: One man’s challenge is another’s opportunity. Strong organisations and leadership welcome the churn and thrust of dynamic economic landscapes. Industrial revolutions – such as the AI-led one we are currently in – leave the luddites behind and create a new generation of entrepreneurs and visionaries. Be alert and open to flexing your leadership and business model to capitalise on emerging trends and technologies. If your organisation is struggling, embrace the opportunity to do things differently, always ensuring you take your people with you by following the steps we have laid out above.

6.Foster a Culture of Innovation

Embracing challenges in this way can be a catalyst for innovation and progress. Executives can inspire creativity and forward-thinking by:

• Encouraging Experimentation: Create an environment where it’s safe to take risks and experiment with new ideas. Open collaborative forums where employees at any level can suggest and work together on new initiatives or ways of doing things.
• Providing Resources: Allocate time and resources for teams to explore innovative solutions to problems. Think of how big tech companies build playful spaces designed to foster creativity. Ensure your workspace – and online resources – have an element of play.
• Recognising Innovators: Always respond to staff who show initiative, praising the instinct even if their ideas are not necessarily what you are looking for at that moment. Publicly acknowledge and reward those who contribute innovative ideas and solutions.

7. Build and Maintain Trust

Trust is a critical element of effective leadership, particularly during difficult times. Executives should focus on:

• Consistency: Be consistent in words and actions. Follow through on promises and commitments. If changes have to be made meaning that this becomes impossible, explain why.
• Accountability: Take responsibility for decisions and outcomes, whether positive or negative. Accountability builds credibility. Share your analysis of how things went wrong – or right – lessons learned and what is being done to ensure best practice is being adopted going forward. This also encourages employees to be accountable and trust that any mistakes owned up to will be treated fairly and with constructive learning in mind.
• Open Honest Dialogue: Encourage open and honest communication across all levels of the organisation. Explain clearly any changes in direction, restructuring and other critical decisions that will impact on the workforce; give the reasons and thinking behind them and the benefits to the company and employees. Encourage feedback and answer further questions.

8. Embrace AI

Surveys have repeatedly found that employees do not trust their executives or leadership to lead them through the AI revolution and are secretly using Generative AI without appropriate guidance or guardrails while they wait for official policy and training – at great reputational, compliance and commercial risk.

Meanwhile the Russell Reynolds research found only 58% of leadership felt confident in their Executives’ ability to effectively embrace digital transformation.  Executives and senior leadership should be embracing new technologies by:

• Becoming AI-literate: AI is not an IT issue. Every leader of every department and function should be AI-literate and collaborating to develop the best and most effective AI capabilities across the organisation in alignment with strategic priorities and objectives.
• Demonstrating proficiency: Explain to your workforce how you plan to improve their experience and skills and drive progress and growth through AI.
• Be open: Keep them up to date on any developments and how their jobs might be affected; invite their collaboration and feedback in the change management needed to adopt and scale up new tech initiatives and programmes. Offer personalised, human-led training and answer any questions or concerns they may have to maintain buy-in, confidence and trust.
• Show them the future: Leadership that is able to demonstrate its understanding of the AI revolution, its opportunities and risks, and show a commitment to genuine tech-led progress will give employees faith in the future of your organisation, even if things feel tough right now.

There is no doubt that leadership is facing an unprecedented myriad of complex challenges, globally, domestically and internally, with frequent economic shocks, changing cultures, regulations, expectations and fast-moving technology and trends.

As the England football team has demonstrated in its opening matches, skills, expertise and experience are nothing without cohesive, visionary leadership that inspires trust and confidence.

But when faced with adversity, unexpected challenges and external pressures, effective leadership can turn things around by taking responsibility, adapting, fostering creativity and innovation and inspiring loyalty and faith in the future.

Confidence can ebb and flow at the best of times, but in the worst of times, executives and senior leadership can show strength by asking for help and guidance, through mentors, networks or coaching, to refine, sharpen and build their skills and instincts in accordance with the changing, AI-led climate.

The Rialto team of executive coaches can support you and your organisation to navigate challenges, build resilience and adaptability and identify and seize new opportunities, including optimising the adoption of AI through intensive research of relevant trends & use by competitors in your industry.