Overview

After almost two years of constant disruption – not to mention the ever-quickening pace of change that came before the
pandemic – it will be hardly surprising to learn that the challenges business leaders face, and have to face up to, are
reconfigured.

This landscape, of course, requires both tweaks - and in some cases complete changes to – the leadership skillsets needed
to overcome new hurdles, in order to both survive and thrive going forward.

To help understand what these challenges are, and what skills leaders will need to tackle them, myGrapevine+ has pulled
together insights from business studies and publications, as well as speaking to practicing executives and business
leadership experts, to find out what skills toolboxes leaders will need for the future. This report includes insight from:

• Sheldon Kenton, MD at Bupa Global on the need for leaders to become ‘Chief Empathy Officers’
• Manju Malhotra, CEO at Harvey Nicholls on the need to keep delivering operational excellence despite increased
pressure to deliver on work-adjacent issues first
• Karen Thomas, NED & Founder at FTSE & Business Transformation Consultancy on building a team to complement
your own skills

Within this exclusive report myGrapevine+, key trends will be analysed, and opportunities and challenges will be presented
as the future of leadership skills starts to come into view.
The challenges leaders face
One way of answering the question 'what leadership skills are needed for 2022?' is to pinpoint the exact challenges leaders

face as well as to better understand the landscape they will have to operate on. So, what does that look like? Well,

according to a 2022 Harvard Business Review (HBR) article entitled The Best Leaders are Versatile Ones two of the biggest

challenges business leaders will need to face up to are the need to balance competing demands (do more with less, cut

costs but innovate, embed in communities but also respond to global challenges) whilst keeping up with a seemingly ever-

faster pace of change.

The challenges that HBR see dovetail fairly neatly with the findings of PwC’s 24th Annual Global CEO survey which looks

at how those right at the top of the business hierarchy are shaping their agenda in response to what they perceive to be

the most novel or pressing challenges they face. Whilst many Chief Executives are broadly optimistic about the future

after ‘rebounding from the peak of the pandemic’ the majority are still worried about external health crises, climate change,

policy uncertainty, regulation as well as populism and misinformation. It indicates that, for those at the top at least, they

percieve a very uncertain future and the need to create a skillset that is able to steer their organisations and workforces

through this.

So, leaders are halfway there, then - as knowing the issue is half the battle, right? Not quite. According to business

leadership author, Kevin Kruse, writing in Forbes in 2020, “leadership development has remained stagnant” and that

leaders need to change they way they learn skills and then apply them. If Kruse is right, this is a critical issue if the pace of

change and a general uncertain business outlook come to be as expected. Kruse even thinks there are big questions

regards the manner in which business leaders learn appropriate skills - “little attention is paid to sustaining knowledge in

the long-term,” Kruse writes, criticizing the academy-and-then-go-out-and-lead-unsupported approach – and keep them

relevant.
However, there is some good news. Whilst the £260billion spent globally on leadership development in 2020, according to

training Industry’s figures, suggests that, at least in part, leadership skills aren’t up to scratch, it does indicate there is an

appetite to train new skills; with CLO Business Intelligence Board data showing that 94% of organisations with learning

programmes within them plain to increase or maintain this investment.

Whilst there will be arguments, from parties who think similarly to Kruse, that an investment in training isn’t enough and

the training needs to be appropriate - with change predicted to be ever-quicker, there’s a suggestion that “if leaders aren’t

doing it, they’re going to lose anywhere from 40 to 80% of what they encountered in learning and development programs”

so they need to be constantly updated – it at least suggests some patchy progress in this area. So, what are the skills that

are being learnt then?

What are the skills that leaders need?
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to what skills a leader might need. This was made clear by the pandemic, where

different industries were impacted in different ways and required different types of pivots, fixes and leadership styles to

helm them through. Consider the clear difference between technology CEOs right now – more confident about their
outlook than any other industry, a by-product of pandemic-sparked digital acceleration – compared to hospitality, leisure

and transportation, where confidence levels are low, due to deep impact on the sectors.

However, despite differences between sectors, there are clear trends in what leadership skills are considered in vogue,

with numerous studies highlighting that there are sector-agnostic skillsets which are broadly considered most needed for

future-ready leadership. For example, empathy is now considered to be crucial. With the impact of the pandemic on

general wellbeing and mental health – a recent Qualtrics study found that four in 10 had experienced a decline in mental

health during the pandemic with 57% now having increased anxiety and over half emotionally exhausted - it will be up to

leaders to manage this in their workforces.

On this playing field, Tracy Brower , an author on happiness at work as well as being an office design expert, notes that

“empathy can be a powerful antidote and contribute to positive experiences for individuals and teams.” For leaders that

display empathetic traits, there is also a direct correlation between this skill and an uptick in important business practices.

According to Catalyst, when people reported their leaders were empathetic, they were more likely to report they were

able to be innovative. They were also more likely to be engaged, were less likely to think about leaving the company –

especially so for minority workers – and believed their workplace was more inclusive.
For Jason Fowler, HR Director & Head of HR Northern & Western Europe at Fujitsu Global, this focus on empathy and

care is where managers and leaders will need to put their efforts next in order to get best outcomes – dropping what

leaders used to focus on, which might have been solely operational. “In a traditional sense, managers were the allocator of

work but that has altered during lockdown. Now, managers genuinely and sincerely have to think about the care they’re

giving to their team and have to want to know and care about how they’re feeling. They’re there to coax, coach and guide,”

he said.

£260bn spend on leadership development in 2020 –

Training Industry
Yet, this focus on empathy, wellbeing and coaching shouldn’t come at the expense of the operational, at least according to

the Rob Kaiser, President at Kaiser Leadership Solutions, who co-authored the HBR article The Best Leaders Are Versatile

Ones. Kaiser believes that the best modern leaders are versatile. Having coached leaders at Google, The Walt Disney

Company, Allianz and Schneider Electric, the individuals that focussed on how they lead and what they lead in the right
mix - requiring a careful balance between being forceful (asserting power, being decisive), enabling (involving others, being

participative), being strategic (positioning the organisation for long-term success) and being operational (execution,

focusing resources) - are the ones that are both versatile, and will be successful he believes.

However, getting this balance right, suggests Kaiser, is difficult. Currently only one in ten have the right mix of the above,

over-emphasising the parts that they are better at. “We find that leaders are five times more likely to use behaviors related

to their strengths when other behaviors would be more effective,” he wrote in HBR, the implication being that effective

leaders will need to be self-aware and choose skills that might not come naturally. “The goal for most leaders, then, is to

develop the ability to consider opposing needs and avoid maximizing one at the expense of the other,” he added

This will be particuarly important as the employee-employer dynamic changes. With workers demanding more from their

employers regard remuneration, wellbeing, purpose, and work-life curation – “whatever you thought the worker-employer

relationship was...its evolving now,” started Deloitte’s 2021 iteration of its Human Capital Trends report – leaders will be

expected to deliver on the above key areas. Especially as there is widely reported on backlash for organisations that don’t

deliver in these areas; and for the nine in 10 that believe their work-life is getting worse, according to Harvard Business
Review studies, they are voting with their feet and with their notices with many employers caught up in the great

resignation. (Currently, 40% of the global workforce are considering leaving their jobs).

Therefore, with so many challenges to tackle, what is it that leaders should focus on to get the best outcome? Below,

myGrapevine+ showcases some leaders who have renewed and changed their focus to deliver on 2022 needs.

The rise of the ‘chief empathy officer’

According to Sheldon Kenton, Managing Director of Bupa Global, a new breed of business leader is emerging, as global

executives adapt their leadership styles and shore up commitments to employee wellbeing, in a bid to future-proof their

businesses as the pandemic passes earlier peaks.

Kenton notes that Bupa Global’s recent research indicated that Board-level executives worldwide “now rate empathy as

the most important attribute of an effective leader, followed by integrity and self-awareness." The research found that a

quarter of executives now see CEOs taking on the new role of ‘chief empathy officer’, whilst two in five business leaders

already see this as a key part of their remit at their company.

Whilst leaders are seeing the benefits of a more wellbeing-focussed executive role, Kenton believes this shift in purpose

has been spearheaded by the expectations of workers – now more important than ever due to widespread talent

shortages. “Expectations of business leaders have never been higher, as they steer their organisations through the COVID -

19 crisis into the new normal,” he says.

“In the face of continued economic uncertainty, global leaders are clearly looking to the long term with a renewed focus on

employee wellbeing and empathetic leadership. Not only is it the right thing to do, but it makes business sense – for talent

attraction, retention, and reputation.”

He also notes that this shift in leadership priorities is significantly far removed from priorities pre-COVID. This, he says, is a

positive change. “It’s positive to see business leaders shoring up employee mental health and wellbeing after a tough
period. The pandemic has led to innovations in all areas of business and this year we are seeing the emergence of a

more empathetic, inclusive leadership style. It’s a huge cultural shift from 2020, where business leaders were struggling

with the stigmas of discussing their own mental health.”

Kenton also adds that, in addition to more people-oriented leadership, ESG initiatives are now taking a more central place

on the C-suite agenda – again likely as a response to expectations from key stakeholders. “By focusing on the

environmental agenda and more purpose-driven goals as part of a wider company cultural overhaul, leaders will surely reap

the benefits from employees, customers and investors,” he concludes.

Agile and holistic leaders
According to Karen Thomas-Bland, Global Board Level Advisor for organisations such as IBM, Accenture, EY, KPMG, WPP,

leading companies in the months and years to come will be intrinsically linked to agility and the ability to utilise all tool s at

their disposal to make informed decisions, even in times of uncertainty.

Thomas-Bland is no stranger to traversing uncertainty; for over 24 years she’s created strategies to guide businesses

through transformation. Within each of her roles, she says that her goal has been to create sustainable long-term value

creation.

Speaking to myGrapevine+, she states that the current climate has pushed leadership skillsets to the limit and divided

those with a strong mix of both learned and soft skills from those who are unable to lead through uncertainty. “Being a

business leader right now is not for the faint-hearted,” she notes.

However, there are several skills in 2022 which she believes will stand an executive in good stead. “The first is to test

strategic assumptions rigorously. Investigate what new or adjacent spaces have emerged to explore and to determine

where future growth could come from,” she says, noting that insight will also come from inside of the company. “Use the

collective creative brain in the organisation to imagine new ways to address customers’ needs and create the best possible

place to work for people.

"Assemble a ‘fit for the future’ team around you with the courage to challenge you. Guard against the temptation of

working with people who always agree with you," she adds.

However, as well as gaining market share, Thomas-Bland also believes that key skills for leaders in 2022 will revolve

around their dedication to their company culture, and the accountability that they accept. “Leaders must create a culture
that it is purposeful, inclusive, experimental, accountable, and collaborative, that will help teams thrive in a hybrid and

asynchronous model of working.

She adds that, just as the coronavirus pandemic has contributed to a revision of working practices, further change to

working life must come to ‘tackle systematic issues’. “They must have the courage and fortitude to tackle systematic issues,

call out poor behaviour, make bold moves and to stay the course even when the odds are stacked against them.”

When analysing her own experience, she says she draws inspiration from those bold enough to break down barriers and

push their abilities. “I get inspiration for my own leadership from people who have the courage to open up new ground and

opportunities. Who couldn’t have been amazed by the tremendous efforts of Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson recently as

they made their journeys into space, opening up new ground in commercial space travel?” she notes.

She also believes leaders should look to those who put purpose above everything else, and champion a movement more

broadly in society. “Paul Polman, ex-CEO of Unilever, has talked a lot about a deep sense of purpose, which is perhaps the

most important attribute of a leader,” she adds.

The stable leader
Manju Malhotra, CEO of luxury department store Harvey Nichols, believes that the thing that underpins all good

leadership, following several years of uncertainty, is stability. She notes that providing this sense of security for staff who

may have been impacted by furlough, seeing redundancies within the workforce or understanding that businesses have

struggled in this time, is essential.

“Following a difficult two years due to Covid, all employees need stability and trust. Leaders from across the board need to

provide a sense of security, whilst also proactively inspiring and motivating their workforce,” she says.

However, she notes that providing stability doesn’t mean that workers expect their companies to slow down. In fact, many

now look to their leaders to pave the way in change management as working life continues to evolve – hybrid working is a

prime example of this. And, the potential to gain market share is not lost on workers, who have seen companies falter and

fail in this time.

“Workers want leaders to be present, whilst also showing they can lead the business forward into a new era. Being agile

and adaptable in approach and forward thinking is how businesses will have survived to this point, but it needs to be an

embedded ethos in the business to inspire and maintain employee trust,” Malhotra notes.
She also notes that more than ever before workers must feel valued to thrive in their roles. With the Great Resignation and

a talent shortage looking to impact most businesses in 2022, ensuring that workers are rewarded for their loyalty and hard

work throughout this challenging time, according to Malhotra, is essential.

“Ultimately, one thing that has not changed, is that workers want to know their future is secure and they’re in a business

that values their work and loyalty, so all leaders need to be able to meaningfully convey this,” she says.

When looking for valuable attributes among her peers, she notes that egoless leadership is also a desirable quality, both to

peers and workers alike. More than ever before, she recognises that leaders must be approachable and therefore amiable

to their workforce.

“I try to observe behaviours in other leaders and pick out the qualities that I really value,” she says. “I’m very much drawn

to leaders that don’t have an ego and those with a respectful and approachable style irrespective of whom they’re talking

or interacting with.”
Conclusion
As this report has charted, there is a lot for incumbent business leaders to contend with. From a seemingly ever-quickening

pace of change, to uncertainty about the macro landscape they will operate on; a growing in tray for leaders is only
complicated further by an apparent stagnation in leadership skills development (although there is good investment in this

area and some agreement on where leaders need to focus their upskillin and learning).

It isn't all doom and gloom, though; there is agreement on where leaders should focus skills development, with clear

examples of what worked in the last uncertain period: the start of the pandemic. So, what are they? Well, number one is on

empathy, as well as skills that traditionally might have been referred to as soft. There is enough literature around this

leadership skill area to suggest that firms helmed by empathic individuals and leadership teams have better business

outcomes; not to mention, will be seemingly better placed to deal with the exhaustion and mental health issues within

their workforce as they push themselves through the later stages of the ongoing pandemic.
Yet, as the experts laid out, this focus on soft skills shouldn’t come at the expense of operational skills. Rather it should

supplement day-to-day business leading because, as lived experience shows, leaders who manage to wield a wide range of

tools – understanding when, where and how to apply them – in a way that is both galvanising, strategic and operationally

savvy will be the ones who are best placed to help their businesses suceed, as well as engage and retain the staff they

need for success (something that many leadership teams are grappling with right now).
What this does mean is that this means that application and practice is, of course, going to differ for leaders in different

firms and different industries. But there are some things that are both organisation and sector agnostic. As this report has

laid out, a focus on people – how they are feel, what they’re feeling and what they want, and what they need to perform

excellently – is going to be crucial. As is being more open to new ideas and being willing to take risks and pioneer, with the

road ahead so unsure. And despite needing to provide certainity to their workforce and business stakeholders on what is

an uncertain outlook, they’ll have to do this with a new humility. As the CEO of one of the UK’s most well-known

department stores said: “I’m very much drawn to leaders that don’t have an ego and those with a respectful and

approachable style irrespective of whom they’re talking or interacting with.” This will be crucial. As the last 18 months

have proven – not many will have been able to predict what was ahead so being humble in the face of new lessons and

experiences will be key.