Each year presents new opportunities and challenges. This requires leaders to adjust and adapt their approach to be more in line with what their organizations need to thrive and win. With this in mind, here’s our list of 10 in-demand skills for leaders in 2024. Read through the list and consider how well you are currently incorporating these skills and approaches in your leadership style.
- Embrace Transparency
Literarily, “transparency” means being easily seen through. Within the context of the workplace, transparency means an organization’s actions and its leaders’ actions are open and available for all to see. Essentially, there are no secrets aside from the necessary personnel or technological confidentialities. Therefore, leaders who want to be seen as authentic will embrace transparency and strive to build a workplace that values trust, encourages regular two-way communication, and prioritizes across-the-board transparency. Effective leaders in 2024 will strengthen their existing culture by using transparency to increase trust and maintain openness.
- Model Diversity and Inclusivity
Diversity fosters a workplace culture where people of all backgrounds, beliefs and orientations can work comfortably and confidently, secure in the respect afforded to them and to others. Inclusion ensures that everyone feels valued and, more importantly, adds value. By enabling all team members to contribute to the visioning, strategizing, and decision-making process and have access to growth opportunities within the organization, inclusive leaders make their companies best places to work.
- Prioritize Empathy
When leaders prioritize empathy, they make their employees’ sense of well being mission-critical. Empathetic leaders understand how emotional matters can truly affect employees’ experience on the job. A leader’s caring attitude will motivate team members to show up as themselves on any given day without fear of repercussion or dismissal. When an empathetic leader goes out of their way to show they care and make a gesture to improve the well being of an employee, it engenders true loyalty. Be the leader who sincerely empathizes with team members. (To learn more about the role of empathy and emotional intelligence in the workplace, see our blog “Eight Powerful Benefits of Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace.)
- Display Adaptability and Resilience
Herb Brooks, the coach of the gold-medal-winning 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team, once observed that the best teams are not comprised of the best players, but the right players. Apply this principle by recognizing that each of your team members has the potential to become a “right player” given the knowledge and opportunity. Therefore, show your support for adaptability by allowing people to grow into roles that will advance their careers and increase their worth. Do this by providing opportunities to be trained, mentored and challenged. As a leader, be resilient by not wavering when things don’t go according to plan. Show your grit and optimism to forge ahead despite the occasional setback.
- Flex for All
Recognizing the hybrid onsite/remote workplace is no longer an experiment. Embrace it! Your people certainly have. Deploy the tools and policies necessary to manage it effectively. Research has shown that most home-based workers are generally not distracted or otherwise slacking off. In fact, they’re often more productive when freed from the burdens of commuting into work. Therefore, allow people a choice when it comes to being onsite or working remotely, when feasible and practicable. Another aspect of being flexible is accepting that people have varying preferences when it comes to using their vacation time. Some people prefer to take time off in the summer, others at different times of the year. Flex by responding to team member preferences in ways that strengthen morale without impinging on business operations. Do everything you can to let people take their vacation time when they want to and give them plenty of it to rest, recharge and come back ready to go for another sprint.
- Leverage AI
Artificial Intelligence is either a bright promise for a better future or a dark threat to grapple with, depending on who you talk to. Regardless of where you stand, there’s no doubt that AI is radically transforming the world of work. Rather than resist this inevitable trend, the savvy leader in 2024 will leverage Al and seek ways to ethically use its power to benefit their company and staff. Therefore, learn all you can about how AI applies to your business. Make training available to others on how they can harness this technology’s enormous potential to improve their work performance. Also understand and examine the ethical implications of using AI in relation to services performed for clients. Choose to be transparent where it makes sense to do so. 
How far can your organization go with AI? Imagine if this is the answer to the highly desired 4-day workweek? No loss in productivity, morale up.
- Climatize Your Business
Few topics today stir as much debate or discussion as climate change and the climate change crisis. While opinions of the impact of climate change may vary, the scientific community is generally united in recognizing climate change as a human-caused phenomena we must deal with now. As a business leader, you can acknowledge the impact of climate change on the workplace and seek ways to lessen its effect on your business operations. Make lowering the carbon footprint part of your workplace culture. Sponsor seminars and outside-of-work activities that help people to think “greener” and live greener lives. Also look for ways to make work safer and more sustainable for those who are field staff.
- Talk Less, Listen More
While it used to be that leaders were expected to do most of the talking, conventional wisdom now regards leaders who listen more than talk as better at what they do. If you haven’t already done so, now’s the time to adopt a “talk less, listen more” approach to your leadership style. Instead of focusing on what you want to say, focus on what questions you can ask to get the best ideas from the group. Pay more attention to what others tell you instead of what you tell others. Demonstrate and practice the emotional intelligence characterized by careful and thoughtful listening.
- Safeguard Time Off
Workaholics pay a heavy price in terms of their personal lives, their health, and their relationships with others. Today we know that an excessive and compulsive attitude towards work is damaging, and that achieving the proper work/leisure balance is what we should strive for instead. “Job Burnout” is now an “occupational phenomenon” recognized by the World Health Organization. Recognize that you, and your staff, need breaks and “time-off” to maximize performance during “time-on.” Be a leader who actively advocates for a healthy balance of work and time away from work and acknowledges the value of granting an employee time off when they need it, and maybe even when they think they don’t. 
- Take a Coaching Approach
The “coaching approach” doesn’t tell people what to do. Rather, it guides people towards finding and implementing their own solutions to problems or challenges. The smart leader as coach realizes that people are not looking for control as much as development. Encouraging people to generate their own solutions builds their morale, confidence, and a sense of autonomy that leads to higher productivity. By being more of a coach, you’re actually being a more effective leader – the kind of leader set to thrive in the ever-evolving workplace of 2024.
These are 10 traits and approaches leaders need to adopt to succeed in 2024. Take on a few at a time and fully live into them before moving on to others. May you find that by doing so, you become a model leader within your organization that others are happy to follow.
Want to read more about becoming a model leader? Read our blog on “Leading by Example: How Leaders Can Shape Their Organizational Culture.”
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Are you ready to become the leader you want to be in 2024? If so, we’re here to help you succeed. Schedule a complimentary 30-minute Zoom meeting with us to explore how our leadership coaching programs can empower you or others on your team to get to the next level as a leader and as a person. You can also send us a message via our Contact Form.
Photo copyright: Featured photo is from ©August de Richelieu via Pexels. Secondary photo is from ©Vlada Karpovich via Pexels.
