2024 may be the ultimate year of leadership change. At least 64 countries, plus the European Union, are due to hold national elections this year, representing about 49% of the total population of the planet being involved in some form of vote. And with a change in government comes a change in leader, who will often have grand plans to transform the fortunes of their nation.
All of this comes at a time when macro-economic factors are impacting the world like never before. As Rishi Sunak pointed out recently in his leadership pitch to the nation: “More will change in the next five years than in the last thirty”.
Politics mirroring the business world
This huge groundswell of change is reflected in the business landscape too. In BIE’s recent Transformational Leadership report, which captured the views of over 800 UK-based senior leaders, 82% of respondents said that the rate and scale of change in their organisation would increase over the next five years.
It is certainly a trend we have seen accelerate since the pandemic, where organisations going through change now seems to be the norm rather than the exception.
Leadership as the key factor in transformation
What is absolutely certain is that for transformation to be a success, you need a strong leader with proven experience of leading change previously.
In BIE’s Transformational Leadership report one in three respondents said the biggest challenges faced during unsuccessful transformation programmes were a lack of transformation skills and a lack of leadership skills. Without a strong leader, that understands what it means to lead change effectively, any transformation is unlikely to succeed.
So, what are the key skills required to drive successful transformation and lead change?
The ability to lead people through change will define success
Even with new technologies being introduced, and new generations entering the workforce, the skills a leader needs to drive change hasn’t changed. Fundamentally, it is about leading people effectively. The key skills can be broken down into five core areas:
1. Strategic planning
Any transformation programme needs a strong plan. A good leader should be able to not only create a strong plan, but also deliver against it and steer it through unavoidable risky situations. They will also require adaptability and agility for when things don’t go according to plan and the plan may need to pivot quickly.
2. Stakeholder management
An absolutely critical skill for any transformation leader. It’s the ability to influence and lead people, both directly within your sphere of influence, but also outside it. This means having the ability to manage both up and down, build strong relationships externally with suppliers and work effectively across a whole organisation. The skill of achieving alignment across groups of people will ultimately determine whether your transformation is a success or not.
3. Building the right team
Any leader of a transformation programme won’t be an expert across all areas of that programme. It’s crucial that they surround themselves with highly experienced professionals who are experts in their own areas. But not just that, once they have a team in place, having the ability to delegate effectively and trust their team is key.
4. Communication
A core skill that underpins the ability to manage stakeholders and delegate effectively is communication. Any transformation leader needs to be an effective communicator themselves, to get often complex messages across to their stakeholders in a way they not only understand but also engage with. Not only this, but they will need to have a watertight communication plan that will allow them to bring the whole organisation with them during the change.
5. Practical experience
Finally, the best transformation leaders are the ones who have been there and done it before. And not just once or twice, multiple times. Learning time and time again about what works and what doesn’t work creates the best leaders. This is because they have the experience of actually delivering something and developing toolkits to deal with any situation. It’s grounded in experience and not just theory.
Make sure you have the right leader in place
With change at an organisation level and also at a national level showing no signs of slowing down, these skills are key for individuals taking up leadership roles with hopes of delivering successful transformation.
So, when voters across the world step up to their electoral booths this year, I hope they have not only assessed the policies, but the leader’s ability to deliver change effectively. As we see in business, if the right person isn’t in place from the start, then the transformation programme never stands a chance.
Simon Cordrey is Managing Director, Transformation Practice, at BIE Executive. He has more than 20 years’ experience partnering with global PLCs, SMEs and private equity companies to recruit individuals with specialist transformation experience across sectors.
