New research1, commissioned by training and executive coaching company, Zone2, reveals that 40% of workers in the UK have left a previous job due to a boss’ lack of leadership skills, indicating that British bosses lack the top qualities to make a great leader.
Alarmingly, only a third of workers (33%) identified leadership as a quality that their own boss possessed, despite respondents ranking it as the second most important attribute for being a great boss (59%).
Less than half of respondents (46%) agreed that their current boss had a positive attitude and just under a third (32%) of workers said that their boss had a caring nature, the other two top qualities identified as making a great boss.
Almost a quarter of Brits (24%) stated that their boss possessed no positive qualities whatsoever and over a third (39%) of employees agreed that their boss did not have the right skills to help them learn and develop further in their career.
Commenting on the findings, Robin Kermode, communications expert and founder of Zone2, says, “Leading with authenticity and gravitas is essential in today's demanding business world and is absolutely vital for engaging employees too. However, what this research clearly underlines is how 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. While there’s often debate about whether communicating with authenticity and gravitas is innate or can be learnt, with the right training and development, my experience has proven that anyone can learn to adopt an effective leadership approach.”
For more information about Robin Kermode and the work of Zone2, please visit www.Zone2.co.uk.
1The research was carried out between 28 May 2015 and 4 June 2015 and was carried out by Opinion Matters, on behalf of Zone2.
It polled 1,048 UK workers; working at all levels from no management responsibility to CEO level.