Recent research has found that nearly half of workers in the UK have left a job due to poor leadership from their bosses, with the suggestion that the majority of leaders fail to adequately communicate to their employees.
Out of the 1,048 workers polled by training and executive coaching firm Zone2, 40% left their positions as they felt that their bosses didn’t have the leadership skills necessary for the role. Only a third of workers identified leadership as a quality that their own boss possessed, whilst over half (54%) said that their boss didn’t have a positive attitude, despite all three being key attributes of being a great boss.
Most worryingly was that a quarter felt that the top end of their management structure had no positive features to it, which would appear to corroborate with our previous concerns that poor leadership may be becoming all too common.
This, in turn, also matches research by the CIPD, a professional body for HR and people development, which surveyed nearly 3,000 employees back in 2013 and found that there was a prevalent ‘us and them’ culture within businesses. Whilst staff largely had faith in supervisors and lower-level managers, less than a third believed in the top bosses of their organisation. However, this lack of trust didn’t seem to be reciprocated by those in higher up positions, who held a ‘blinkered’ view that trust levels were high in the workplace.
Robin Kermode, founder of Zone2, argued that “many leaders are failing to incite confidence in their workforce. This includes being able to convey a positive attitude, a caring nature and proving they are able to take charge and lead teams to success”.
“There is no doubt that British business has good leaders but this survey shows that many leaders are not communicating these skills to their employees adequately enough.”
A head of a company will almost always be a great businessman – however a great leader can also manage their own workforce in a similar way. Employees want to be appreciated for their work – rightly so – and if a boss can provide a sense of trust and respect to their workers, then they will be motivated to do the very best to make the company thrive.
