March 2013
Featured in this insight: Business & enterprise, Manufacturing, engineering & industrial
Survey uncovers importance of good leadership in UK businesses: In line with the upcoming twelfth annual National Business Awards which recognises excellence, innovation and ethics in UK companies, British organisations of all sizes took part in a survey to reveal the qualities that are regarded as most important in the workplace.
It was discovered that good leadership in the workplace is regarded highly by both employers and employees – over 90% of respondents agreed that a strong leader has an important influence on the success of an organisation, while more than 80% of workers believed that having a good boss has an impact on their own career progression and inspires greater levels of motivation.
Furthermore, the surveyants agreed that honesty, good communication skills, confidence, trustworthiness and intelligence are the traits of a good leader, with Sir Richard Branson, Bill Gates and Lord Sugar voted as “top business leaders”.
While both staff and bosses agreed on the importance of a strong steer at the helm, they differed in opinion when asked to rate the standard of current leaders.
Approximately 86% UK bosses believed that they worked effectively in their positions, while less than a third of employees rated their current employers as “ok”.
The main personality flaws of bad leaders listed by workers were a patronising attitude, poor communication, overconfidence and untrustworthiness. Bosses in contrast thought that a worse problem would be indecisiveness.
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