Global Leadership Monitor H1 2023—Australia

← H1 - 2023 | Regional Reports

As we’re all now very aware, the business landscape can change in a heartbeat. Today’s leaders face a complex web of competing threats to organizational health. So, how can you ensure you’re prepared to face what’s next?

We recently surveyed 79 Australian board directors, CEOs, C-suite leaders, and next-generation leaders across various industries to find the answers.

Here, we reveal the top external threats keeping Australian leaders up at night, how prepared they are to face these challenges, and the actions you can take to build organizational resilience.

01 The availability of key talent and skills is the top concern for Australia’s leaders

Our research showed that 67% of leaders in Australia see the availability of key talent and skills as their number one concern in 2023.

There is also a wide range of secondary, competing threats bubbling under the surface, which leaders cannot afford to ignore, such as uncertain economic growth (56%), and technological change (54%). These have experienced sharp increases in the last year and are concerns that leaders should be mindful of.

Figure 1a. Top external factors impacting businesses in the year ahead

^{Source: Russell Reynolds Associates’ H1 2023 Global Leadership Monitor, n = 79 Australian leaders}

Figure 1b. Year-over-year comparison of top external factors impacting businesses

^{Source: Russell Reynolds Associates’ H1 2021 Global Leadership Monitor, n = 141 Australian leaders; H1 2022 Global Leadership Monitor, n = 132 Australian leaders; H2 2022 Global Leadership Monitor, n = 101 Australian leaders; H1 2023 Global Leadership Monitor, n = 79 Australian leaders}

02 Leadership preparedness varies hugely across organizational threats

Unfortunately, our research shows business leaders in Australia are not ready to face existing and emerging threats.

While leaders are generally prepared to face uncertain economic growth (64%), they are less likely to be ready to address the availability of key talent and skills (55%), despite this being a top-of-mind threat.

Looking ahead, it’s also important leaders don’t take their eye off the ball when it comes to tech disruption. While it’s a rapidly growing concern, only 49% of leaders feel prepared to face this issue.

Figure 2. Leadership preparedness to address external factors by priority

^{Source: Russell Reynolds Associates’ H1 2023 Global Leadership Monitor, n = 79 Australia leaders | Note: only showing attributes where n > 10}

03 Australian leaders’ overall preparedness score is higher than the global average—but there’s still work to be done

Being prepared to face one key issue is not enough. To be resilient, leaders will need to demonstrate high levels of preparedness across the full range of issues they face.

When we look at aggregate preparedness—how prepared leaders say their leadership teams are in the top five issues they identified—we found that 62% of leaders in Australia feel prepared to face the top five external threats, above the global average (55%).

Figure 3. Leadership preparedness by country

^{Source: Russell Reynolds Associates’ H1 2023 Global Leadership Monitor, n = 1,523 CEOs, C-level leaders, next generation leaders, and non-executive board directors}

Leadership levers to strengthen organizational resilience

The good news is that our research revealed that there are some critical steps leaders can take to secure organizational resilience.

To find out what these levers are and what you can do as a leader to ensure organizational resilience, visit: Leadership levers that drive organizational resilience

Authors

Joy Tan and Tom Handcock of RRA’s Center for Leadership Insight conducted the research and authored this report.

The authors wish to thank the leaders from RRA’s network who completed the H1 2023 Global Leadership Monitor. Their responses to the survey have contributed greatly to our understanding of leadership in 2023 and beyond.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE TEAM

2023 Global Leadership Monitor

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