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The role of leaders today extends beyond traditional management skills. As organizations grow and change, leaders must cultivate new competencies to foster stronger connections with their staff.
From mastering digital communication tools to emphasizing empathy and inclusivity, there are certain skills and qualities that leaders need to cultivate to build thriving, collaborative teams. To that end, Forbes Human Resource Council members share 20 essential competencies that empower leaders to create a more connected workplace and drive employee engagement.
1. Intuition
Intuition is in everyone, but great leaders hone it to increase emotional intelligence, connect with employees and make better, faster decisions. Leaders learn to focus on data to drive decisions and set emotions aside. In a fast-changing world, tuning into intuition is a superpower that can spark ideas, prevent short-sighted decisions and ensure alignment with values in a way that data cannot. - Sherika Ekpo, Shaw Ekpo Enterprises
2. Empathy
One new leadership competency that can enhance leaders' connectivity with their staff is empathy. Leaders with high emotional intelligence can create a supportive and empathetic work environment by recognizing the unique challenges of each individual employee. By demonstrating empathy, active listening and understanding, leaders can foster a sense of connection and well-being among their staff. - Tony Butler-Sims, Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture (CNFA)
3. Inclusivity
Inclusive leadership is quickly becoming a core competency for organizations with a people-focused culture. Leading inclusively requires a level of connection with staff that demonstrates a leader understands the diverse needs and perspectives of each of their reports and is able to adapt and flex to support them in a way that is meaningful for them. - Kathryn Medina, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
4. Attentive Engagement
For a leader to effectively connect with and inspire the employees to unlock their full potential, possessing empathy is imperative. The leader must remain consciously present, actively listening to others. It is in these moments of attentive engagement that magical connections occur, allowing the leader's vision to transcend to the broader group seamlessly. - Hitashi Malik, Joi Gifts
5. Emotional Intelligence
"The only way to change someone's mind is to connect with them from the heart," said Rasheed Ogunlaru. EQ, otherwise referred to as emotional intelligence, is a key attribute for leaders. It is an essential competency for creating connections and a proven route to strategic influence and change management leadership. It's not necessarily new, but the adoption of this cultural marker isn't yet widespread. - Alex Gillespie, Gillespie Manners
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6. Digital Empathy
With the increase in remote work models, face-to-face interactions have decreased. Digital empathy bridges the distance by enabling leaders to forge meaningful connections with team members despite not sharing the same physical space. As communication becomes more reliant on technology, there is a risk of misinterpretation or messages coming across as cold or impersonal. - Raunak Bhandari, Google Asia Pacific
7. Authenticity
The workplace is getting disrupted today more than ever, bringing a much larger focus on leaders to connect with their workforce. In addition to the established competencies for connecting with empathy, leaders need to sharpen their ability to navigate ambiguity with authenticity. Employees connect best with a leader who can walk with them through ambiguous phases of an organization's journey. - Sanjiv Agarwal, Swiss Re
8. Responsible Use Of AI
I will jump out on a limb and say effective and responsible use of AI tools can help leaders be more connected to staff. I recently gave a TEDx talk about how AI will continue to infiltrate work and the beauty of this reality is that delegation of tasks to a bot can carve out more time to connect with humans. - Joey Price, Jumpstart HR LLC
9. Vulnerability
Top-notch leaders have a special ingredient that makes them stand out: vulnerability. When leaders have emotional intelligence and share challenges, it creates a bond of trust and authenticity. Instead of being seen as untouchable figures, leaders become relatable as they share their life stories. This cultivates a culture of employees to spark new ideas, and ultimately think outside the box. - Patricia Karam, Mission Recruit
10. Effective Communication Skills
Good leadership is impossible without effective communication skills. Creating and selling a vision, solving problems, implementing processes and managing people are all important. To communicate effectively, leaders must establish an open-door policy from the start to form trust with employees. Many effective leaders need to be willing to listen to input and ideas from employees to communicate. - Heather Smith, Flimp Communications
11. Active Listening
A key new leadership competency is empathetic communication, which involves actively listening, understanding diverse perspectives and responding with compassion. This fosters a more connected and trusting environment, enabling leaders to better engage and support their teams. - Hassan Choughari, Jaroudi Group
12. Ethical Tech Advocacy
In the age of AI reshaping workplaces, ethical tech advocacy is crucial for leaders. It goes beyond adopting new technologies; it involves navigating ethical challenges. Leaders must address concerns about AI replacing them and champion policies that emphasize technology as a tool for growth, not downsizing. Advocating for Ethical Tech ensures business success while fostering trust within teams. - Andrea Davey, Scout Talent Group
13. Team Empowerment
Balancing vulnerability and authenticity is key to staying connected to your team, as well as emphasizing team empowerment over control. This approach requires courage, as it entails being open and authentic. It means sharing directions and vision while embracing a learner's mindset rather than adopting a "know-it-all" attitude, fostering an environment of growth and collaboration. - Elisabetta Bartoloni, Heidrick & Struggles
14. Balanced Staff Interactions
I believe leaders need to ensure balance in the cadence and content of staff interactions. Touchpoints need to be regular, productive and transparent. With new team members, I try to be more conscious in early interactions to ensure I understand their style, needs and goals. With that foundation established, driving formal and informal touchpoints ensures engagement and open communication. - Andrea Ferrara, PepsiCo Beverages North America
15. Intentional Presence
Intentional presence is a key leadership competency. The work-life balance is more unpredictable and expectations from the leaders are higher than ever. With the added complexity of remote work, it’s becoming more important to be intentional about being present while interacting with the team members. The feeling of connectedness presence creates enables being heard and understood, solving several issues before they even occur. - Gonca Icoren, Energy Vault Inc.
16. Regular Team Meetings
Meet regularly one-on-one with your team. Discuss both work and non-work-related activities that are important to that person that day. - Dinesh Sheth, Green Circle Life
17. Genuine Contact And Connection
Make coffee! When employees discover a leader in the breakroom grinding the beans and topping up cups, purposefully rubbing elbows with them and asking about their projects, it builds connective tissue within an organization. So don’t order out for java, brew it up. Don’t go chug it in some private office, click mugs and make contact. You’ll be brewing esprit de corps as well as caffeine highs. - Graham Glass, CYPHER Learning
18. Self-Awareness And Accountability
Self-awareness and accountability are two qualities that are imperative for leaders to adapt as they try to establish more connected workplaces. When a founder, CEO or other team lead put themselves in the trenches with their colleagues and staff, acknowledging their own missteps or their responsibility in the goals outlined for an organization, workplaces begin operating as one. - Rick Hammell, Atlas
19. Compassion
Compassion is a key leadership competency. Being able to openly and continually talk with your team about how they are doing, both where they are thriving and particularly where they need help, is critical. The more we can connect and understand each other, the better and more productive working relationship we’ll have. Modeling compassion as leaders can have an incredibly positive ripple effect on the team. - Sanja Licina, QuestionPro
20. Ability To Model Behavior
The ability to model behavior is key. Whether it’s something like being open about leaving early to pick up their kids, talking about the challenges or stressors they face or sharing their vacation pictures, leaders who can model positive work-life behaviors invite employees to do the same and underline their own humanness in the process. - Ursula Mead, InHerSight
