Too timid to take a lead
- Leaders reveal that operating outside their organisations is key to future success
- But 53% of UK leaders won’t work with people they don’t already trust
- And over half (51%) doubt they can extend their influence
Over half (53%) of UK leaders won’t work with people they don’t already trust. However, they recognise that they need to extend their circles of trust well beyond the confines of their own organisations or departments if they want to succeed in the future. Even so, research shows UK leaders are too timid to take the plunge into the unknown.
In a report by Common Purpose, over 500 UK leaders were asked to rank the importance of ten leadership skills to their current roles and again to their roles in the future. Worryingly, the top four skills set to become more important to tomorrow’s leaders are the same set that leaders lack confidence to deliver.
Top four future skills
- Spotting opportunities & threats from outside
- Leading diverse teams
- Influence outside organisation/department
- Networking across sectors
Top four confidence crushers
- Influence outside organisation/department
- Leading diverse teams
- Networking across sectors
- Spotting opportunities & threats from outside
The findings reveal that the ability to demonstrate outward-looking leadership will be a key to leadership success in the future. However, over half (51%) of UK leaders doubt their ability to influence outside their organisations, 49 percent lack confidence to lead diverse teams, 42 percent express anxiety about networking across sectors effectively and 42 percent feel poorly equipped to spot opportunities and threats outside their organisations.
Compounding the problem, leaders aren’t willing to take the plunge and learn on the job, with 52 percent saying they won’t work with people they don’t already trust and 40 percent saying they won’t lead in an area that they aren’t already familiar with. In an era of outsourcing and cross-sector partnerships, it is striking that a quarter of leaders surveyed are unwilling to work in difficult partnerships to achieve results.
As we witness the continued rise of vast organisations, complex networks, cross-sector partnerships and an increasingly multicultural workforce, leaders can’t afford to be unconfident about handling the unfamiliar if they want to stay at the top of their game.
The confidence gap is unlikely to be bridged through training either. When questioned about the leadership training they had received, three quarters (75%) of leaders say they have been taught how to develop a vision and strategy for their organisation. In stark contrast, well under half have had the opportunity to receive training on how to manage external stakeholders (42%) and only 48 percent on how to lead diverse teams.
Chief Executive and founder of Common Purpose Julia Middleton comments:
“These findings show that leaders know that the skills needed to be successful at the top are changing. They recognise that they need to be able to operate as a leader outside of their usual territory if they want to succeed in the future. Worryingly, our research reveals that they see doing this as a frightening prospect. There is an unwillingness among UK leaders to take the plunge into the unknown, a lack of confidence to perform key skills and a sense of unease about working with people that they don’t know or trust already - this needs to change.”
Read the full Common Purpose report into the skills and attitudes of future leaders, Trusting Times, as a PDF.
