7 lessons for good leaders

lessons for good leaders 7Kristin supancich

Senior leaders, HR professionals

and management consultants are

always trying to answer the perennial

question, “what makes a good

leader?” For all the testing and

performance coaching on earth,

nothing tells us more than employees’

actual experiences of being led.

Consistently, employees say a

positive leadership style that responds

to their individual needs, and the

ability to provide a clear vision and

direction are what they want most

from their leaders.

Across all generations and regions,

these two factors (leadership style

and vision) consistently rate above

issues of communication, personality

and experience. In fact, less than 5%

of employees feel that experience

is the key factor in determining

leadership ability. When we consider

that ‘experience’ is perhaps the most

prevalent way employers assess

people’s suitability for promotion,

there is a significant disconnect here

between employer expectations and

employee experience.

To improve leaders’ performance,

employers will need to reconsider

the way they seek and promote

talent in their organization. Many

employees indicate willingness to

accept inexperienced leaders if they

demonstrate the right leadership

style, and organizations must adapt

to pinpoint and build leadership skills,

rather than assuming they will simply

develop over time.

01forget experience, focus on vision

2 | seven lessons for good leaders

A leadership style they can relate to, and the ability to deliver a clear ‘vision’ is what employees want most from their leaders.

01 forget experience, focus on vision

02 educate about differences

03 dissatisfaction is high

04 recognize and reward what’s worKing

05 prepare your people for the future

06 rethinK your leadership culture

07 understand what you’re doing right

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Generation X consistently rates as

the generation most favored for

their leadership ability, with most of

that support coming from peers and

Generation Y. While Baby Boomers are

yet to provide their seal of approval

to Gen X leaders specifically, they are

just as likely as younger workers to

believe that age has no bearing on

leadership ability.

Generation X and Baby Boomers

are the most confident of their own

leadership abilities and around half

rate their peers as having the best

leadership qualities. These two older

generations also consistently display

a lack of confidence in Generation

Y’s leadership abilities, and it seems

Generation Y’s themselves agree

with this assessment. Although

Generation Y’s rate themselves

higher than their older counterparts,

fewer than one in ten feel their own

generation has displayed good

leadership qualities thus far.

Rather than taking these assessments

purely on face value, we should think

seriously about what this is saying

about human relationships. We relate

to our own generation best, and

particularly when we’re just starting

out in our careers, we prefer to be

managed by someone not too distant

in age from ourselves. Large age gaps

have the tendency to invoke feelings

of being misunderstood, but it’s true

that there are significant differences

in attitude and work style across the

generations. So, to create strong

leaders, you need to give them a solid

grounding in what makes the different

generations tick.

02educate about generational differences, looK for natural connections










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Generation X is singled out as the group with the strongest leadership ability, but what is this really telling us?

Employees worldwide give their

managers only a marginal ‘pass’

mark for overall performance in the

way they lead their teams. Across

all regions, managers score just 6.4

out of a possible 10 points—well

below the high-performance level

that many companies would hope

to be achieving.

It’s tempting to dismiss this as

employees simply asking ‘too much’

of managers, yet the widespread

nature of this assessment suggests that

people’s experiences of leadership

are generally average at best. If this is

the case, the prospects of employees

learning strong leadership skills from

their managers are low and companies

need to consider how to teach and

promote the concept of leadership

more directly. To put it simply, we need

to stop thinking strong leaders are

going to come out of environments

with consistently poor leadership

examples to learn from.

Generation Y employees consistently

rate the performance of their

managers above those in older

generations, but even here the

difference is only small. There is only a

single point’s difference between the

lowest rating and the highest—Gen Y’s

in the America’s are most satisfied

with their manager’s performance

(6.9 points), while Baby Boomers

and Gen X’ers in EMEA are the least

satisfied, awarding their managers just

5.9 points on average.

03dissatisfaction is high—it’s time to do something about it










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Employees are largely dissatisfied with the leadership they experience—and older workers are more so.


Less than half of employees (44%)

feel that their efforts at work are

recognized and rewarded. This means

that they do not receive feedback,

incentives or bonuses of any kind for

high performance.

Across all generations, employees in

EMEA are less satisfied than those in

other regions and the average positive

response was just 38% compared with

APAC’s 50% and 49% in the Americas.

The most common form of

recognition is simply that employees’

skills are noticed by management.

Across the regions, the ways that

employees reported being recognized

and rewarded was consistent,

although slightly more people in

EMEA are being rewarded for their

efforts with bonuses and incentives

than elsewhere.

Recognition for achievement is

paramount to an engaged workforce.

People do not necessarily look for

financial reward, but they do expect

exceptional efforts to be noticed. With

half of employees not receiving even

the most basic recognition for a job

well done, leaders need to rethink their

role in motivating their teams.

04recognize and reward what’s worKing









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When things are working well, it’s easy to become complacent, but employees notice when they’re not being ‘noticed’.


One of the most telling results from

the survey is the way employees feel

about their boss’ ability to prepare

employees for the future. In every

region and across all generations,

employees feel that this is a task their

leaders are not living up to.

Older workers are far more likely to

believe that their manager has failed to

prepare them for future success, and

employees in the EMEA region are

far less satisfied with the preparation

they’ve been given by their leaders

than those in other regions.

Generation Y’s in the Americas feel

the most positive about their ability

to achieve future success. Half of

employees in this group (49%) say

their manager has prepared them

well. The least positive group is Baby

Boomers in EMEA—just 29% feel they

are adequately prepared for the future

and put this down to the efforts of their

employer.

For younger workers, change is

often easier because it is expected,

and managers are focused on their

development and training needs

because they are seen as having the

most to learn. In practice, this may be

ignoring the specific needs of older

workers. Ensuring adequate training

and support is in place for older

workers to keep pace with all kinds of

change, not just technological change,

is critical to keeping them engaged

in the workplace—as critical talent

shortages begin to really tighten,

you’re going to need to hold on to

older workers longer, so this will be a

key challenge for leaders in the short

to medium term.

05prepare your people for the future









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If employees are not well-prepared for future success, how will your organization execute its strategy?


Many employees are unhappy

with the leadership culture of their

organization, and this is a key factor in

not recommending their workplace to

others—if you want to build a strong

employment brand, this is clearly

something that must be addressed.

Less than half of employees describe

the leadership culture of their

organization positively. While 48% of

employees feel that their leadership

culture is empowering or inclusive, the

rest feel it is authoritative, oppressive

or are unsure how to describe it.

Generation Y appears to feel slightly

more positive about the leadership

culture of their organization than

older generations, but the results

are remarkably consistent across all

generations. Employees in EMEA

are more inclined to describe their

organization’s leadership culture as

inclusive than elsewhere, but very

similar proportions of people in all

regions described their leadership

culture negatively. With less than

half of employees feeling positive

about the leadership culture in their

organization, it seems the way leaders

engage with staff is failing to resonate.

Leadership and management issues

topped the list of reasons why

employees would not recommend

their employer to others. The

more general response of a ‘poor

work environment’ also accounted

for almost one in five negative

assessments of a workplace to others.

It’s important to consistently remind

managers that poor leadership is

still the number one complaint of

employees. If leadership scores

are low and feedback for particular

individuals or areas is poor, this will

likely be the main reason for attrition.

Trying to avoid the obvious or hope

that dissatisfied employees will leave

and be replaced by satisfied ones is

burying one’s head in the sand. Good

leadership must occur all the way

up the line—and that means making

tough decisions when the evidence is

there to do so.

06rethinK your leadership culture









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A poor leadership culture is a key reason employees will fail to recommend their employer to others.


Despite the criticisms people have

of their leaders, more than half are

‘highly likely’ to recommend their

current employer to friends and

acquaintances. There is a slight

decrease in this sentiment as workers

age, yet overall the difference is

relatively small. The biggest

difference is seen in EMEA, where

55% of Generation Y’s are highly

likely to recommend their employer,

yet just 46% of Gen Xers and 44%

of Baby Boomers say they would

do the same.

When asked what drives employees

to recommend their employer,

most say it is because of a positive

work environment, however, work

environment becomes less important

as workers age, yet the nature and

challenge of the work becomes

significantly more important. For

Generation Y’s, just 16% felt the nature

or challenge of the work they did was

the main reason for recommending

their employer to others, yet almost

one-quarter of Baby Boomers (23%)

said this was the main driver of

recommendations.

Compensation was the lowest rated

issue for employees of all age groups,

with just 5% saying this was the main

reason they would highly recommend

their employer to others.

Keeping Gen Y’s challenged and

interested is a given. Achieving this

may not directly contribute to their

overall satisfaction, but NOT doing it

will certainly lead to dissatisfaction—

it’s an expectation rather than a

‘nice-to-have’. For older generations

however, this is a differentiating factor

of employers—to keep them in the

workplace for longer, employers will

need to think outside the square

in keeping the nature of the work

that their experienced staff conduct

challenging and interesting.

07understand what you’re doing right









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It’s not all bad news for leaders, so figure out how to capitalize on your strengths.


conclusion If “management is doing things right and leadership is doing the right things”, what exactly are these ‘right things’? How

do we know when we’re doing them and when we’re not? The latest findings from the 2011 Kelly Global Workforce Index

show that leadership culture and practice is failing to fulfill employees’ needs and expectations—and for companies looking

to strengthen their employment brand, this is a clear opportunity. The way we learn to lead seems doomed if organizations

are simply leaving the process up to existing managers. With such consistent poor feedback from employees globally, it’s

time for organizations to take this issue to heart and find solutions.

the seven practices that employees themselves are asking leaders to change are:

1. Forget experience, focus on vision: find and develop people who can convey a strong sense of vision and direction

rather than promoting people based on age or experience.

2. Understand the generational differences & promote natural connections: the way the generations lead and respond are

different—no matter who’s leading who, this needs to be top of mind to avoid conflict.

3. When dissatisfaction is high, act: don’t sweep negative feedback under the carpet and wait for it to go away. If

leadership is contributing to attrition, it won’t change unless you address the leadership behaviors.

4. Recognize and reward what’s working: employees who are excelling don’t necessarily need large bonuses, but they do

need you to notice.

5. Prepare your people for the future: ensure ongoing training and development is appropriate right across people’s

career, regardless of age.

6. Rethink your leadership culture: lead by example and show you mean what you say.

7. Understand what you’re doing right: capitalize on your strengths and share these good practices broadly.

Strategic execution is dependent on your people, and without the right leadership, change will continue to be a burden

rather than an opportunity. Employees themselves offer the best insights into what’s working and what’s not, so ask them

and then be ready to act.









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About Kelly

Kelly Services, Inc. (NASDAQ: KelyA, Kelyb) is a leader in providing workforce solutions.

Kelly® offers a comprehensive array of outsourcing and consulting services as well as world-class

staffing on a temporary, temporary-to-hire and direct-hire basis. Serving clients around the globe,

Kelly provides employment to more than 530,000 employees annually. Revenue in 2010 was

$5 billion. Visit www.kellyservices.com and connect with us on Facebook, linkedIn, & twitter.

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About the Kelly GlobAl WoRKFoRce INDex™

the Kelly Global Workforce Index is an annual survey revealing opinions about work and the

workplace from a generational viewpoint. Approximately 97,000 people from the Americas, APAc

and eMeA responded to the 2011 survey with results published on a quarterly basis. Kelly Services

was the recipient of a Marcom Platinum Award in 2010 and a Gold Award in 2009 for the Kelly

Global Workforce Index in the Research/Study category.

About the AuthoR

KRIStIN SuPANcIch is vice president and general manager of canadian

operations for Kelly Services. Kristin holds a bachelor’s degree in communications

from the university of california-San Diego.

This ebook is extracted from Leading by Example. Why

Managers are Failing to Create Strong Employment Brands.

DoWNloAD youR free coPy toDAy.

http://www.kellyocg.com/Knowledge/White_Papers/Leading_by_Example/

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7 lessons for good leaders