Context
Good leadership is essential for businesses
to perform at their best—to maintain a positive culture, make the most of
opportunities for growth, return value
to their stakeholders, and navigate the
uncertainties and challenges they face.
Proposals for what such leadership should
look like are widely published and applied
in frameworks and educational programmes
delivered by firms, business schools, and
leadership consultancies. Such theoretical
and normative approaches are valuable, but
also important is the view on the ground—
the understanding or ‘prototype’ of good
leadership within UK business.
The prototype of good leadership often lies beneath the surface, but its importance is present in the way it shapes the interpretation of what leaders do, the expectations that are set, and the performance of leadership roles. It may be important to question the existing prototype and introduce new ideas, but a clear grasp of how good leadership is understood is an essential starting point.
This report presents research by the Oxford Character Project into good leadership in UK business, involving over 1,100 participants working in 36 firms around the UK.
Research questions
Good leadership that is both effective and ethical is vital if businesses are to face the challenges before them and grow into the future. Businesses have an essential role to play in addressing the economic, social, and environmental challenges that face us around the world and that threaten the prosperity of society. What does it look like to lead in a way that brings business and societal benefits together?
In this research, we sought to understand three questions:
1. How do employees in UK firms understand good leadership?
2. Do ideas of good leadership vary between gender, age, education, or leadership level?
3. Do different sectors have different leadership prototypes?
Rather than focusing on a single theory or style of leadership, we sought to identify the shared idea or prototype of good leadership held by those working in businesses in the UK. This perspective is vital since perceptions of good leadership drive interpretation, expectations, and performance.
Key findings
- Participants identified 84 features, reflecting three dimensions of good leadership: Character, professional competence, and interpersonal skills.
- Character is central to good leadership: 52% of features relate to character, 35% to interpersonal skills, and 13% to professional competence.
- Kindness, creativity, and humility are widely considered important for good leadership but were rated by participants among the five least central features.
- There is a high degree of consensus between genders and across leadership levels.
- Participants with higher levels of education consider it less central that leaders are caring, friendly, helpful, and kind.
- Millennials and Gen Zs value leaders who are attentive, committed to mentoring, and who can provide answers to questions and solutions to problems.
- Across the sectors of finance, law, and technology, leaders are expected to be competent, hardworking, and committed. Beyond these qualities, however, there are distinct profiles between sectors.
Good leadership in Finance
Risk awareness is the most central feature of
good leadership according to professionals we
surveyed in the finance sector, featuring at the top
of a list which includes integrity, responsibility,
trustworthiness, and good judgement. These
were found lacking in the analysis that
followed in the aftermath of the 2008 Global
Financial Crisis and subsequent scandals
, and their identification may be aspirational.
It may also reflect changes in culture and
conduct that have taken place in the sector,
driven within many firms and catalysed by the
work of such organisations as the Financial
Services Cultures Board and Financial Markets
Standards Board. Comparing finance with other
sectors, inclusivity is regarded as more central
to good leadership, suggesting that efforts
to promote greater diversity in the financial
services industry may be taking root.
Good leadership in Law
Professional competence is a particular
emphasis in the prototype of good leadership
in the legal sector, comprising 40% of the top
20 most central features, compared to 25% in finance and 30% in tech. Character qualities
of integrity, responsibility, and trustworthiness
are also prized in the financial sector and
speak to the reliability that is essential in
professional services. The features that are
considered most central to good leadership
in law relate closely to what it means to be
a good lawyer. However, a broader set of
interpersonal skills and character qualities
may be required for senior lawyers to lead
their firms through the challenges and
opportunities relating to new technologies,
recruitment and retention, and employee
well-being that are faced within the sector.
Good leadership in Technology
The prototype of good leadership identified within the tech sector highlights the importance of character. Amongst the most central features are determined, resilient, driven, and committed, pointing to a sector where new opportunities are there to be taken but not without difficulty. Pioneering, strategic, and visionary leadership is highly valued, and curiosity—the character quality that drives new understanding—is considered more important than in finance and law.
Cultivating good leadership: Competence plus character
Our research identifies the features that people within UK business recognise as most central to good leadership. It supports the assertion that leadership is about both competence and character and also highlights interpersonal skills as an important area of focus. What does this mean for leaders and those involved in leadership development?
1. Leaders must balance opposites and cultivate practical wisdom
Much discussion of leadership identifies one important aspect, style, or approach and argues for its particular importance. The instinct to limit one’s focus in order to gain clarity is understandable, but such approaches can obscure the complexity that is present in the lived experience of leading and can result in prescriptions that are hard to apply in practice. We identified 84 features of good leadership, all of which are important, and research in specific sectors identified more. Furthermore, some of the features appear to push in opposite directions. Leaders need to resist the rush to resolution when it comes to these kinds of tensions. They can develop the art of good judgement by paying close attention to their context and gaining an awareness of the range of approaches that can be applied in any given situation.
2. Recognise the power of the leadership prototype
Our research found differences in the prototype of good leadership in different sectors. The prototype of good leadership in any given context may or may not accord with a particular leadership theory, but its importance is present in the way it shapes people’s expectations and behaviours. Leaders may be able to shift the prototype over time by modelling and communicating a new approach, but it is only possible to build the future by standing in the present. Leaders need to understand the expectations that exist when it comes to good leadership, reflect on aspects of leadership they may need to work on, and consider how they can shape ideas of leadership in a positive direction.
3. Adopt practices as well as principles
Many firms and professional organisations offer leadership frameworks that seek to make sense of the complex work of leading by identifying principles and associated competencies of good leadership in a particular company or sector. Such frameworks are helpful in bringing structure but need to be supplemented in order to develop character, which is cultivated like a muscle through habits and practices which shape patterns of thought, feeling, and action over time. A focus on character may need a broader range of approaches in the leadership development playbook, including personal reflection, deep reading, discussion, adopting new habits, intentionally learning from role models, and setting personal reminders.