Leadership effectiveness tops HR’s priorities in 2023

Social and political turbulence, work-life fusion, and flexible work arrangements are redefining the leader-employee dynamic, yet some HR leaders say their leadership development approach does not prepare leaders for the future of work.

Mark Whittle, Vice-President of Advisory in the Gartner HR practice, said, “Rising inflation, scarce expensive talent, and global supply constraints represent a new combination of values for HR leaders to understand as they consider their 2023 strategies.”

According to a new survey from Gartner, most HR leaders (60%) will be prioritising leader and manager effectiveness in 2023, followed by organisational and change management (53%), employee experience (47%), recruiting (46%) and the future of work (42%).

To drive their organisation forward and gain competitive advantage, Gartner urged leaders to embrace human-centric leadership, which is defined by authenticity, which allows true self-expression among themselves and their teams; empathy, defined as showing genuine concern for employee wellbeing; and adaptivity, which enables flexibility and supports the unique needs of each team member. 

READ: Redefining the role of HR leadership in reshaping work

“These shifts are not creating entirely new responsibilities, but they require leaders to achieve their core responsibilities in different ways,” explained Whittle. “The new dynamic is not simply a leader-to-employee relationship, but a human-to-human one.”