3 Proactive Skills Your Next Leadership Hire Must Have
Leaders must be proactive, data-driven, and excellent communicators to navigate the evolving workplace.
Passive management styles are the signs of a bad leader today. Great leadership requires modern skills to effectively use data, build trust with dispersed teams, and tailor communication. Steven Jiang, CEO of hireEZ, explores how to detect these skills in hiring.
There’s no such thing as a successful passive manager today. The world has changed too much, and the way that we work has evolved. Managers must be proactive, data-driven, and communicative to create teams that thrive in a difficult economy, with burnout and disconnection as real problems.
Evolving Leadership Skills in the Digital Age
The qualities of a great leader remain consistent. Still, the skills needed to lead effectively today look very different than they did, even just a few years ago — what a good manager accomplishes is the same, but how they do it has evolved. So, hiring leaders must understand what new skills to look for when hiring for management positions.
Due to the drastic change in how work gets done, spurred by accelerated digital transformation, modern leaders must be capable of the following:
- Effectively using data
- Building trust with dispersed teams
- Tailoring digital communication
Here’s how to look for evidence of these three skills:
1. Effectively using data
In today’s business environment, leaders must be numerate, using data to make the right decisions and to prepare for the future. An ideal candidate can analyze their team’s data and use it to set strategy and make decisions. Despite using data daily, many managers need clarification on basic statistics.
That’s an ability recruiters should look for, testing applicants on how they use data to support their reasoning and asking questions about how they have used data in previous roles. For example, a strong candidate might talk about how data suggested how some customer segments might respond to marketing messages and how they tailored those messages using that insight.
Moreover, the ideal candidate would be on top of industry trends and what your competitors are doing. They should also be able to speak to how they use employee data to inform decisions around career advancement, employee goal setting, professional development, skill building, and more.
For example, talent acquisition leaders may have access through a recruiting platform to data from their competitors, providing insight into what roles other companies are hiring for. If you’re interviewing a leader responsible for your recruiting strategy, you may want the candidate to demonstrate the ability to use data like this to make strategic decisions.
2. Building trust with dispersed teams
Trust among leadership is a critical factor for employee engagement. According to Gallup, employees are six times more likely to be engaged when trust is established. The challenge for leaders today? How to build trust with employees they may never meet in person. With hybrid work, this starts by being intentional when setting expectations and delivering feedback.
When doing interviews, ask candidates about how they handle employee check-ins. The best candidates will have experience with frequent and regular meetings, as well as a track record of making themselves available as needed throughout the work day.
Ask for examples of how they set expectations or deadlines for work, and look for signals that show trust in their employees to meet those expectations. Do they micromanage employee schedules? Do they dictate what process an employee takes to complete work on time?
Instead of managing how work gets done, the ideal candidates will act as a guide and trusted partners. This builds a sense of trust that is felt across even long distances.
See More: Earning employee trust through equity and sustainability
3. Tailoring digital communication
Strong communication is important too. Candidates must know how to share information across multiple channels, including Slack, email, Zoom meetings, etc. They must also be able to tailor their communication style to each team member meeting them where they are.
That can be difficult in today’s working world. The ability to communicate effectively both verbally and nonverbally is now essential. A good leader has to consider signals beyond body language to understand if an employee is struggling, disengaged, or uncomfortable.
Ask candidates how they adapt their communication style to different team members. Do they use different channels? Do they think about how people with different learning styles will receive their messages? Do they use inclusive and welcoming language? Are they proactive listeners?
See More: 5 Tips and Tricks To Manage Digital Communications
Proactive Performance
The common thread among these skills is proactivity. Passive, reactive management styles make using data less effective, communication less intentional, and building trust impossible.
Research shows that managers with proactive tendencies perform best. By setting clear expectations and priorities, providing feedback, and anticipating challenges for employees, proactive managers gain a better understanding of employees’ work — thus can provide more meaningful support.
In the same study, workers reported appreciating managers who shifted away from managing time and activity (reactive) and toward managing results and outcomes (proactive). Employees now expect managers to devote time to removing interpersonal and work barriers, coordinating among stakeholders, and coaching performance.
Passive Management Is Dead
Bad managers today have less opportunity to slip under the radar, while good leaders have more opportunity than ever to excel. It’s simply a matter of proactively using tools and data to make decisions and empower your team.
So be proactive when you are hiring too. I recommend an outbound recruiting approach, to go out and find talent that fits, versus waiting for them to come to you because only managerial candidates who show that they have or can develop those skills should be on your shortlist.
Can hiring proactive managers with modern skills lead businesses to succeed in today’s dynamic business environment? Please share your thoughts with us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. We’d love to hear from you!
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