Global Leadership Monitor H1 2023—UK

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The business landscape is constantly evolving. For today’s leaders the problem is more complicated than solving one external concern at a time in isolation. We now have multiple, often opposing external threats competing for attention.

Whilst there’s no definitive playbook to help UK leaders navigate today’s complex business landscape, it’s important to have a pulse on what external threats are of the highest concern for UK leaders and how prepared they are to face these challenges, so that UK leaders can take necessary action to build organizational resilience and emerge stronger from trying times.

To get to the heart of these issues, we recently surveyed 174 UK board directors, CEOs, C-suite leaders, and next-generation leaders across various industries to find the answers.

01 The availability of key talent and skills is the top concern for UK leaders

Our research showed that 73% of leaders in the UK see the availability of key talent and skills as their number one concern in 2023. Uncertain economic growth isn’t far behind and is the second most concerning threat for UK leaders (68%) and an area that leaders should monitor closely as this has increased by 22% in the last year.

There is also a wide range of secondary, competing threats bubbling under the surface, which leaders cannot afford to ignore. In particular, our research showed concerns about technological change (44%), geopolitical uncertainty (42%), and increased regulation (40%).

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

^{Source: Russell Reynolds Associates’ H1 2023 Global Leadership Monitor, n = 174 UK leaders}

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

^{Source: Russell Reynolds Associates’ H1 2021 Global Leadership Monitor, n = 212 UK leaders; H1 2022 Global Leadership Monitor, n = 195 UK leaders; H2 2022 Global Leadership Monitor, n = 224 UK leaders; H1 2023 Global Leadership Monitor, n = 174 UK leaders}

02 Leadership preparedness varies hugely across organizational threats 

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

While leaders are generally prepared to face uncertain economic growth (68%), they are less likely to be ready to address the availability of key talent and skills (48%), despite this being the number one threat for UK leaders. 

Looking ahead, it’s also important leaders don’t take their eye off the ball when it comes to geopolitical uncertainty. While it’s a top-five concern for UK leaders, less than half (47%) of leaders feel prepared to face this issue.

Figure 2. Leadership preparedness to address external factor by priority

^{Source: Russell Reynolds Associates’ H1 2023 Global Leadership Monitor, n = 174 UK leaders | Note: only showing attributes where n > 10}

03 UK 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 59% of leaders in the UK feel prepared to face the top five external threats, above the global average (55%) and above the regional average in Europe (53%).

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}

Figure 4. Leadership preparedness by region

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

UK CEOs deprioritizing workforce reductions

Despite economic growth being a top-two threat for UK leaders, the majority (61%) of UK CEOs do not expect to make cuts to staff numbers in the near term. In fact, our research identified that across the last six months, almost three-quarters (72%) of UK CEOs stated that there has been an increased investment in retaining critical talent.

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.

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2023 Global Leadership Monitor

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