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The essential skills for the workplace today are clear communication, emotional intelligence, teamwork, problem-solving, adaptability and the ability to lead yourself and others, whether or not you have a management title. In the hybrid, technology-driven workplace that followed the pandemic, these leadership skills matter at every level of an organisation. BOTI’s leadership and management training courses help team leaders, managers and employees build them through practical, workplace-based training.
What Is Leadership as a 21st-Century Skill?
Much has changed about leadership in the 21st century. In the past, leadership was often seen as a way of controlling people and assigning roles to subordinates. Today it asks for more than management. The digital workplace demands a wider set of skills, and while the principles of good leadership remain, the way they are applied has changed significantly.
Leadership now sits at the centre of how organisations are run. Most roles call for some leadership qualities: taking ownership of your work, influencing colleagues and helping the team reach its goals. A 21st-century employee who shows these core leadership skills is far better placed to succeed in his or her responsibilities.
Before someone is seen as a leader, they usually show a few core abilities: working well in a team, committing to and focusing on their responsibilities, and a well-developed emotional quotient (EQ). These abilities are vital for managing yourself and others. That is why leadership is regarded as an essential skill, whether you work as an employee or run your own business. Formal qualifications open doors, but leadership qualities are what help people grow once they are in a role.
So what is leadership as a 21st-century skill? It is the ability to work with and through others to meet your obligations in a particular position. Leadership is vital to running an organisation well, and it is through good leadership that organisations improve service delivery and add value for their customers.
Leadership brings focus and keeps daily operations aligned with the organisation’s primary goals. The organisation’s mission should sit at the centre of every strategic decision made by team leaders, administrators and executive managers, and every team member who understands that mission can act on it.
Essential Skills for the Workplace
Leadership skills do not stand alone. They grow out of a set of essential workplace skills that every employee needs, from a first job to a senior role. These are the skills most often listed by South African employers when they plan training for their teams:
- Communication: writing clear emails and reports, speaking up in meetings and listening properly.
- Emotional intelligence: recognising and managing your own emotions and responding well to others.
- Teamwork and collaboration: sharing information, supporting colleagues and working across departments, in person or online.
- Problem-solving and decision-making: defining a problem, weighing options and acting on a decision.
- Time management and organisation: planning work, setting priorities and meeting deadlines. BOTI’s Essential Time Management Skills course covers this in depth.
- Adaptability: coping with change in systems, structures and ways of working.
- Digital skills: using office software, collaboration tools and, increasingly, AI tools responsibly.
For a one-day overview of these workplace skills, see BOTI’s 10 Soft Skills You Need course, or browse the full range of workplace essentials and personal effectiveness courses.
What are the 7 Core Skills of a Leader?
Many skills define a leader in the 21st century. A leader needs to guide people through a changing environment and through emotional challenges, including conflict and crises, without being harsh or insensitive.
Here are seven core skills that are important to any leader.
Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand, identify and manage emotions. Leaders deal with a wide range of emotions every day, including those of the people who report to them. Recognising these emotions helps a leader make clear judgements about the issues being raised.
Empathy
Empathy allows a leader to understand what others feel, professionally and personally. Not every decision is only about sales or business results. Business goals move forward when leaders understand people and respond to their situations with care.
Confidence
A leader needs to be decisive and assertive. Confidence gives leaders conviction in their decisions and in the company’s mission. It also helps them take criticism and face challenges without becoming discouraged.
Creativity
A leader must adapt to a changing business environment. That means thinking beyond the usual answers and solving challenges creatively.
Communication
A leader must communicate clearly so that others understand the goals. This includes expressing thoughts and expectations in meetings, emails, phone calls, online meetings and every other channel the team uses.
Inspiring
A leader keeps morale up and gives the team a sense of hope during difficult periods. A leader’s own actions also set the example that encourages others to work smarter and better.
Inclusivity
The seventh skill is inclusive decision-making. A leader’s decisions should take everyone in the organisation into account, so that every team member feels included and supported.
What is the Greatest Leadership Ability?
Many people would name emotional intelligence as the greatest leadership ability in the 21st century. People are often promoted because of their qualifications and technical know-how, but how well they lead depends heavily on emotional intelligence.
What is emotional intelligence?
Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand and manage your own emotions, and to recognise how those emotions affect the people around you. The idea was developed in the 1990s by researchers Peter Salovey and John Mayer, and was later popularised by Daniel Goleman.
Goleman stressed the importance of emotional intelligence in leadership. He argued that the most effective leaders share a high degree of emotional intelligence, and that while IQ and technical skills matter, they are not enough on their own to make someone an effective leader.
Over the years, emotional intelligence (EQ) has come to be seen as a core skill for leaders. A leader who cannot manage their own emotions will struggle to perform well in the role, however strong their technical ability.
People with well-developed emotional intelligence tend to stay calmer under pressure, resolve conflict more effectively and respond to team members with empathy. These are qualities employers look for when they appoint and develop leaders.
Emotional intelligence is usually described in four parts: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management. Each can be developed with practice and feedback. BOTI’s Mastering Emotional Intelligence course works through these areas over two days.
Emotional intelligence matters because leaders set the tone for how the organisation handles issues. When leaders lack it, employee engagement suffers. Even a person with excellent technical skills can struggle to manage a team without it, and developing it helps people progress in their careers on many fronts.
What are the Top Three Leadership Skills?
Leadership skills are many and varied, but three stand out for employees who want to progress in their careers. They help people lead, deliver projects, start initiatives, collaborate and develop others in the organisation. Someone with these three skills can guide others towards the organisation’s goals and help drive change.
Decisiveness
An effective leader makes decisions within the time available, and becomes more efficient at it with experience. Good decisions apply fairly to everyone in the team, and a leader should never show favouritism towards certain team members. Decisiveness also depends on research, evaluation, problem-solving and goal-setting, so that each decision achieves the intended outcome.
Problem-Solving
Every organisation faces challenges in its day-to-day work, and leaders are expected to deal with them. That means identifying the real cause of a problem, finding a workable solution and making sure enough resources are allocated to resolve it. A leader should be at the forefront of dealing with these issues rather than leaving them to others.
Ability to Teach and Mentor
Team members look to their leader for guidance on many issues, so a leader must be able to teach and mentor others competently. This is a skill in its own right: knowing when to explain, when to ask questions and when to let someone learn by doing. BOTI’s Coaching and Mentoring Course helps managers build it.
Leadership in the New Normal Post-Pandemic World
The coronavirus pandemic changed how organisations are managed, and some of those changes in the workplace have lasted. Hybrid work is now a normal part of working life for many organisations, and it calls for a different leadership approach.
The pandemic sped up trends that were already under way. As work becomes more digital, leaders face more complex decisions, and leadership in the new normal requires specific skills.
Leaders must communicate clearly and express their expectations and thinking. As employees work more independently, communication is what keeps the organisation pulling in one direction. It includes making first impressions, building relationships with co-workers and explaining the organisation’s goals. Good communication also strengthens relationships within the team and with clients, which benefits the organisation over the long term.
Leaders in the new normal must collaborate and set an example. Rather than only enforcing rules and stating expectations, the leader creates space for people to share and exchange information. This drives performance and helps the organisation keep its strongest people.
The new normal also asks leaders to respect employees’ family responsibilities, encourage learning and build common interests. The old command-and-control style of leadership works poorly in this environment. Employees usually perform better when their needs are understood and addressed.
In the post-pandemic workplace, leadership succeeds through collaboration, understanding and empathy. This style of leadership pays attention to health and family responsibilities, and encourages people to look out for each other and look after their own wellbeing.
Tips for Managers in the New Normal
- Agree with your team how, when and on which channels you will communicate, and stick to it.
- Measure results and outcomes rather than hours spent online or in the office.
- Hold short, regular one-on-one conversations with each team member, especially those working remotely.
- Make it safe for people to raise problems and mistakes early.
- Explain the reason behind every significant change before you ask people to adopt it.
- Set clear rules for using AI tools and handling personal information, in line with POPIA.
- Delegate meaningful work so that people can grow, and follow up with feedback.
Leadership Challenges in the New Normal
No leader is immune to the challenges of the new normal. Several common roadblocks make workplaces harder to manage than before.
Communicating Purpose and Value
Employees increasingly want to understand their purpose and value in the organisation. They want answers to questions such as why they are there, what the company’s vision is, where it is going and how they fit into its plans. A shared vision gives people direction. Hybrid work makes this harder, because people spend less time together and leaders have fewer informal chances to reinforce the message.
Fear of Causing Problems
Many people carry a higher level of anxiety since the pandemic, and some fear making mistakes. People also want to be seen as a valued part of the organisation, which can add to that anxiety. When team members fear causing problems, they stop asking questions and do not seek guidance when they are stuck. Leaders need to address this and help people feel confident as part of the team, by creating an environment where people can learn and grow. This supports the company’s long-term growth.
Overcoming Talent Shortage
Many organisations struggle to find and keep people with the skills they need. When experienced employees leave, they take knowledge with them, and gaps open up. Leaders are expected to prevent and close these knowledge gaps by developing people internally, sharing knowledge across the team and planning for succession, so that the company can stay focused on delivering results.
New Normal Leadership Styles
Since the pandemic, some traditional leadership styles have proved less effective. Much has changed in the workplace, and companies need leaders who can step up and find new ways of handling issues. The pandemic exposed weak leadership and showed how much organisations depend on leaders who can adapt.
Empathetic Leadership Approach
Before the pandemic, many leaders were judged by the long hours they spent in the office, which was often treated as a badge of honour. In the new normal, leaders succeed by focusing on people and helping them thrive. This means building a culture of wellbeing that supports engagement and productivity, with real attention to employees’ physical, emotional and mental health.
Change-Ready Leadership Approach
Many organisations now accept that change is constant and can arrive at any time. Leaders who are ready for change treat it as part of the job rather than an interruption, and they help the whole team adjust. BOTI’s Change Management: Formulate Recommendations for a Change Process course helps leaders plan and explain change.
Inclusive Leadership Approach
Inclusive leadership is important in the new normal. Effective leaders build inclusion and psychological safety, and see their role as enabling everyone in the team to contribute. Through this approach, everyone has a chance to grow and use their potential.
Continuous Learning Leadership Approach
Continuous learning is another core leadership trait. The pandemic pushed many organisations to adopt technologies they had previously put off. Leaders now need to create an environment where people keep learning, so that new technologies are adopted without long delays in service delivery.
Leadership Capacity in an Era of Change: The New Normal Leader
Leaders have always been valued for their ability to anticipate problems. Those who can see risks coming and prepare for them are better placed to protect their organisations. The pandemic caught many businesses off guard and brought significant changes to how organisations operate.
Through the pandemic, organisations had to consider how to strengthen leadership and remain sustainable. Leaders are now expected to adjust their management approach and help the organisation innovate to stay relevant.
Leaders also need to rebuild organisational culture, creating a culture of collaboration that can cope with constant change. Another part of the role is improving systems and operations through technology. Cloud-based tools, video meetings and collaboration platforms help teams organise their work and achieve more. Physical meetings and manual processes still have their place, but organisations that use technology well make work smoother for everyone.
Leadership capacity is also shown in how well an organisation adapts to new customer behaviour. During the pandemic, many transactions moved online and goods and services were delivered through digital platforms. Leaders need to keep track of how customers’ needs change and adjust the organisation’s systems to serve them well.
Ethical operation and sustainability are also part of leadership in the new normal. Leaders are increasingly expected to run their operations responsibly, including reducing their environmental impact.
Transformational Leadership in the New Normal
The pandemic showed that organisations must be ready for sudden disruption. Their main defence is the ability to adapt quickly, and that depends on leaders who are proactive and ready to bring change into the organisation.
Transformational leadership is well suited to this. Transformational leaders are agile thinkers with the foresight to pursue change and deliver results despite difficult conditions. They are also people-focused, paying attention to the issues that affect employees and customers, which makes it easier to deal with the challenges of the new normal.
Transformational leaders often guide people away from conventional thinking. This takes commitment, creativity, imagination and innovation. Where many people focus on short-term profits, transformational leaders look further ahead at future possibilities, read the changes around them and move the organisation into a stronger position with new approaches.
Such leaders aim to make a positive impact and centre their decisions on the wellbeing of the organisation, its employees and its customers. Each change they make is intended to benefit all stakeholders.
Conclusion
Leadership is an important ingredient in company growth, and few organisations get through serious challenges without effective leaders. In the new normal, leaders are expected to show empathy, commitment, decisiveness, trustworthiness, flexibility and emotional intelligence, among other qualities. These qualities support productivity and performance across the organisation. Leaders also do well when they have strong soft skills, which are built on emotional intelligence.
A leader should always lead by example, through actions, words and commitment to goals. Being able to communicate and explain ideas clearly is vital to achieving the organisation’s goals. A leader needs a clear plan for where to take the organisation, and if something needs to change, the change must be explained clearly to the team. People want to work where they are valued, and it is the leader’s responsibility to support and guide them.
Companies in the new normal need continuous development. Leaders should engage actively with employees to understand the issues affecting their daily work, and support them in building their skills, so that the organisation is ready for change. Leaders should also expect their own roles to keep evolving.
Leadership in the Age of AI: The New Leadership Skill
Any discussion of leadership in the new normal now has to include artificial intelligence. AI tools have become part of daily work in many organisations, and employees look to their leaders for direction: which tools should we use, what is safe, and how do we use this responsibly? Leaders who can answer those questions clearly help their teams adopt AI with confidence instead of leaving it to chance.
Good leadership in the age of AI does not require you to become a technologist. It calls for the same core leadership skills described above (vision, communication, change management and trust) applied to a new context. Effective leaders identify where AI genuinely adds value, set clear and responsible guidelines, including on data privacy and POPIA, and bring their teams along rather than letting anxiety or hype take over.
That is a learnable skill. BOTI’s AI for Managers and Leaders course gives leaders a practical, strategic grounding in it, and sits alongside a full range of AI training courses for every team in the business.
Ready to lead your team confidently into the AI era? Explore BOTI’s practical AI training courses or request a quote for a tailored training proposal. BOTI is rated 4.8 on Google from more than 770 reviews.
Frequently asked questions
What are the essential skills for the workplace?
The essential skills for the workplace are communication, emotional intelligence, teamwork, problem-solving and decision-making, time management, adaptability and digital skills, including using AI tools responsibly. Leadership ties them together: the ability to take ownership, influence others and keep work aligned with the organisation’s goals, whatever your job title.
How do you develop leadership skills?
Develop leadership skills by practising them on real work. Ask for feedback, take on a small project or team task, learn to delegate and give feedback, find a mentor, and reflect on what worked after each difficult conversation or decision. Structured training speeds this up because delegates practise the skills with guidance and then apply them back at work.
What leadership skills do managers need in the new normal?
Managers in the new normal need to lead hybrid and remote teams, communicate purpose clearly, build trust and psychological safety, manage change, look after team wellbeing and guide the responsible use of new technology such as AI. Emotional intelligence underpins all of these.
Does BOTI offer leadership training for employees?
Yes. BOTI runs leadership and management courses for team leaders, new managers and senior leaders, from one-day workshops to multi-day programmes. Training runs in-house at your premises, at BOTI’s venue in Sunningdale, Johannesburg, or live online.
If you want your team leaders and managers to build the skills described in this article, BOTI’s Leadership and People Management course is a practical two-day programme for people who lead others. Training runs in-house at your premises, at BOTI’s venue in Sunningdale, Johannesburg, or live online. This course is not accredited. It is delivered as a professional skills programme, and delegates receive a BOTI certificate of attendance. Call BOTI on 011 882 8853 or email [email protected].