Bosses fail to live up to pandemic demands for ‘caring’ leaders

pandemic demands: Three-quarters of UK professionals believe their company’s leadership fell short of expectations during the crises of 2020, according to a survey of 3,500 professionals in October.

ILM, a City & Guilds group business, found that an absence of soft skills was the main problem: more than a third reported that leaders or managers failed to motivate their teams; 31% said leaders did not show empathy and emotional intelligence (31 per cent). Employees claimed this had led to a significant impact on their own motivation and performance.

Despite the evident need, 35% went on to say that bosses had not demonstrated problem-solving skills. 29% that there was a lack of basic organisational skills. People management was considered to be the most important skill for leaders (68%), followed by good communication skills (48%) and the ability to build relationships and interpersonal skills (48%).

People power

“Leaders are always an easy target for criticism – it’s not surprising that one way or another, staff will have felt disappointed by their manager’s response over this most difficult of years,” says EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell [https://www.eapa.org.uk/].

“On the one hand, employees depend on bosses to make the right decisions for the good of long-term performance, to be decisive and tough-minded. On the other, they want them to see the bigger picture, to be considerate of employee experience and needs, preserving a sense of positive purpose, mission and community.

“This is why the role of HR is so important in providing the glue between those two different forces in the life of organisations, where one is often pulling against the other.

“What’s been demonstrated by the Covid-19 period is the critical importance of strong leadership combined with a culture of support. That includes maintaining day-to-day communications and encouraging time for interaction of all kinds between employees. But also a package of services, like the EAP, that demonstrate commitment to wellbeing and provides an outlet for people to talk about personal issues – the kinds of issues that managers aren’t ever in a position to help with.

“Once this basis of support, trust and confidence, has been created, people can be relied on to do the right thing more often, to provide support for each other in the knowledge that there’s always going to be someone there for them.”