2.1 Different employers value different skills

The key skills and attributes that organisations look for in leaders differ. And I think, perhaps, that's one of the most important messages I can offer to everybody listening, is there is no secret sauce here. There's no one recipe that I can offer you. Different organisations are looking for different things. The most important thing that you can be is the authentic version of you and bring your best self. Understand who you are and bring your best self to an organisation. And I would say that's the first and most important part of not only being great at work and happy at work, but being a great leader and demonstrating leadership. It starts with knowing yourself, being the best version of yourself, and striving to be that best version. So that's the first thing, is that sadly, I can't offer you an easy answer to this question. However, I've worked in lots of different organisations. I've recruited on behalf of lots of different organisations as well in the last few years. And I think there are probably a couple of key qualities which, regardless of whatever language or label they use- values, behaviours, competencies, strengths- they all use different languages- there are some similarities that I see that most people look for in a leader. So I've already talked about self-awareness and striving for improvement, both in yourself and in everything around you. I think those two key qualities are really important. The other things that I think link to that very strongly are about self-belief- so not only being self-aware, but being comfortable and confident and happy with who you are. There's a lot of uncertainty in being a leader. There is no handbook that tells you if you're making the right decision or the wrong decision. Often, you have to weigh things up, make careful decisions, but the best decision that you can, and then confidently convey that to people. So I linked to self-belief. I think that leads me on to the final two, which are about good decision-making- so using your intellect, using the skills that you've learned through your life and through your work and through your studies to help you make sense of all the information that you've got in front of you. And outside of academia, that's often imperfect information. You don't have the whole picture to enable you to do a perfect case study. You just have to do the best you can do with what you've got and seek out as much information as you can and then make the best decision that you can, so decision-making. And then the final thing is about communication skills. So how do you share the decisions that you've made, or the direction that you're going in, with your team as a leader? Most people will tell people what they're going to do. But really great leaders and good communicators spend much more time on why. Why are we doing this, and why is it important, and why have I made this decision? Those are the most important factors for me. You'll see them called all kinds of different things on graduate web sites and employer web sites. But those are the fundamentals that, wrapped in different clothes, I would say I've seen again and again and again for 20 years.