Executive summary

Introduction For decades, the phrase In 2021, we asked Australians to describe ‘it’s nothing personal, it’s what quality leadership means in a just business’ was standard professional work context. Their responses operating procedure for many emphasised that effective leadership hinges on having the skills to motivate and organisations. Leadership was 1. They also stressed the engage your team about authority, top-down importance of emotional intelligence for decision-making, and never leadership success2. showing vulnerability. In the wake of the global pandemic, Now, in an era characterised by relentless managers and leaders have continued to change, leadership success calls for a new encounter a turbulent business landscape. mantra. Global disruptions, new ways of With inflationary pressures, talent shortages, working, and emerging technologies are and the adoption of remote and hybrid challenging leaders to 昀椀nd ways to: working environments, we know that emotional intelligence remains a critical • Inspire and engage people amid reports component of effective leadership. But how of rising exhaustion levels have things changed since 2021 in terms of • Communicate effectively and build a what Australians think of as a good leader? strong culture, especially in virtual and To understand the current state of leadership, hybrid work arrangements we conducted our fourth annual leadership • Find and keep staff with the right survey at the end of 2023. As a result, skills while ensuring they have a solid we gained insights from more than 586 foundation of skills to adapt to jobs that respondents across 68 industries in Australia. don’t yet exist We wanted to know what makes for great • Make meaningful progress in achieving leadership and to discover how good (or bad) a diverse, equitable, and inclusive leadership affects the relationship between workplace employees and the organisations they have worked for. We asked participants to • Prioritise environmental and social assess their own leadership skills and areas sustainability for improvement, as well as those of their managers.