Excellent leadership can take an organization to the next level. It can also ensure employee loyalty, teamwork and an overarching commitment to shared business goals. Leadership styles differ and personality plays a role. But, you can cultivate specific traits and skills to become the kind of leader your employees respond to.

We’ll explore five traits employees prefer in their leaders. We’ll also share the behaviors and tendencies to avoid at all costs if you want to maintain employee respect.

I’ve always been ambitious. I want to give my full effort to the work in front of me and I want to do well. That drive led me to want to grow in my career. And it led me to my first leadership role.

I had spent years performing well, delivering results, and earning trust. When the promotion came, it felt affirming. I had worked hard for it. I knew the new position would be harder. But what I didn’t anticipate was how disorienting the transition would feel.

Leadership expectations are shifting fast. The skills that defined strong leadership just a few years ago are no longer enough. By 2026, leaders are operating in environments shaped by constant change, rising complexity, and higher expectations around well being, transparency, and trust. Adapting to this is no longer optional. It is part of the job.

Not long ago, leadership rewarded certainty. Leaders were expected to have answers, make fast decisions, and project confidence, especially in uncertain moments.

Workplace stress is at an all-time high, and it’s not staying at the office. Employees are bringing their fears and frustrations into their home lives, and it’s not healthy for family dynamics or the businesses they work for, a clinical psychologist says.

The latest Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) data shows that more than 80 percent of U.S. workers currently experience workplace stress. And more than half of these employees say these stressors are impacting their home lives. People said their chief work-related worries remain job security in an uncertain economy and concerns over their job performance.

Workplaces invest a lot of resources focusing on employee resilience. They try to hire for it through skillfully crafted interview questions. They pay trainers to teach employees how to bounce back from stress and crisis. Executives even use the term as a rallying cry during corporate townhalls, to encourage employees to push through challenging times.

However, the reality is that there are two facets of a truly resilient workplace. Employee resilience, yes. But organizational resilience is even more important.

Everyone struggles with procrastination at some time or another. Whether you're navigating the distractions of a home office, the interruptions of a bustling workplace, or the shifting dynamics of a hybrid schedule, procrastination can turn any work environment into a time management challenge if you're not careful.

But what if you could stop putting things off? What if you could count on yourself to plan your work and work your plan, no matter how overwhelmed or undermotivated you're feeling?

We often hear that leadership is about vision, strategy, and results. While that’s true, the leaders who truly stand out today are the ones who also lead with heart. That’s where emotional intelligence in leadership becomes a game-changer.

Simply put, emotional intelligence in leadership is about understanding and managing emotions—both your own and those of the people around you. It’s about leading with empathy, staying calm under pressure, and creating trust across teams.

Name many of the top traits that come to mind when you think about a successful CEO and words like strategic, emotionally intelligent, and flexible may fit the bill.

But according to experts, one of the biggest indicators of success for CEOs—first-time leaders and veterans alike— is their ability to build a following, and fast. That’s become a critical factor in CEO searches in recent months as more employees are “job hugging” and staying put, while the rate of CEO turnover continues to rise, thanks to pressure to perform amid market volatility and geopolitical uncertainty.

I was 16 years old when I got my first “real” job at a local Jack-in-the-Box. It was not a great gig, for sure, working over a hot grill and dealing with rude, demanding customers. But I was saved from misery by my work buddies—friends who’d crack jokes, commiserate, and pitch in if I fell behind.

Since then, having a work buddy has always been important to me, which is why I’ve cultivated friendships throughout my work career. Those special friends have helped me maintain my focus and commitment to the job and increase my sense of safety and belonging.

Leadership grows clearer when you grasp how influence vs authority shapes the way people respond to your direction. Many leaders feel the push to deliver strong outcomes and recognize that real commitment rises when they build trust, connection, and shared purpose with their teams.

In the Maxwell Leadership Podcast episode “Leader Change: From Position to Influence,” Perry Holley and Chris Goede explain how leadership strengthens when influence sets the tone for the relationship.

Leadership is fundamentally an ability to create synergy or an aligned mission; it’s developing stewardship where people feel strong enough to disagree, brave enough to fail, and supported enough to grow. Leadership is about creating a space where people feel safe, appreciated, and can see a glimpse of the future. Good leaders create careers, not just jobs.

At the start of every new year, many of us think about how to make our lives better going forward. Perhaps we want to lose weight or stop drinking or stay off of our cell phones. If only we had more willpower, the thinking goes, we could meet our goals and become happier and healthier people.

But a new study suggests that we could have that backwards. Instead of self-control or willpower leading us toward greater well-being in the future, greater well-being increases our ability to have more self-control for meeting our goals.

At the Greater Good Science Center, one of the online courses we offer is Mindfulness and Resilience to Stress at Work.
This course includes articles, videos, interactive surveys, and activities and exercises that learners can do to strengthen skills that enhance and sustain their happiness at work. Featured as “Learning by Doing” sections of the courses, these activities include things like engaging in a variety of self-reflection and mindfulness practices.

One of the nicest things about the holiday season is that you’re able to sneak in some me time. That gives founders a chance to unplug and catch up on their reading.

The right book for you depends on your interests, your tastes, and your mood. But with so many options on shelves, where should you start? Inc. surveyed an assortment of founders and business leaders and dug through dozens of lists to find recommendations of some of the best business books around today. If nothing in your backlog of books is calling to you today, any of these could be a good place to start.

Most professionals spend years working toward a promotion. It is seen as the ultimate marker of progress, a clear sign that your efforts have been recognized. Yet for many employees, the moment of moving up does not feel like success. It feels like a setback. A promotion that is supposed to bring pride can instead bring exhaustion, isolation, or even regret.

The truth is that not every career step forward is designed with the individual in mind. Organizational needs often outweigh personal fit. When the two collide, what looks like opportunity can feel more like a punishment.

“Three words—continue building legacy.” That was the unequivocal response of Richard Ferry, one of our firm’s pioneering founders, when I asked him a few weeks ago, “Do you have any advice for me?”

His words have stayed with me ever since—particularly now, as we end the first week of the twelfth month of another year coming to a close. It’s a natural time to become more reflective—not only about what’s behind us, but also what lies ahead. Whether our thoughts go to milestones met, challenges overcome, or opportunities awaiting us, we inevitably arrive at what matters most.

Most businesses still treat this invisible force as a soft skill — when, in truth, it has become the most powerful competitive advantage.

In an age where artificial intelligence writes emails, predicts consumer behavior and even paints portraits, the one advantage still exclusively human is emotional intelligence. Yet most businesses still treat it as a soft skill — when, in truth, it has become the most powerful form of competitive intelligence.

That morning, the manager reminded himself to wish Joe, his subordinate, a happy birthday. But the workday started with a crisis, and the manager spent the day in meetings, only coming up for air at 6 PM. Two days later, when he stopped by Joe’s desk with a small gift, Joe thanked him—but he was actually a little bothered: How could his boss entirely forget his 40th?

Most leaders would not even register such a misstep as a significant problem. But according to new research, even seemingly mild slights by managers can lead to shocking results—such as a 50% increase in employee absenteeism or a drop of two working hours per month.

Walk into any boardroom right now and you’ll hear some version of the same update: We’ve launched pilots. We’re training employees on GenAI. We’re exploring use cases. All of that is fine. None of it tells you whether AI is actually changing the trajectory of the business. Boards don’t need more AI demos. Boards need better questions. Here are ten questions boards should use to move AI from “interesting” to “material.”

Gary Burnison is CEO of Korn Ferry and the author of Love, Hope & Leadership: A Special Edition.

My favorite college professor taught geology, with a true passion for taking ancient rock formations and bringing them to life. Obsessively scrawling notes and diagrams on the blackboard, he practically consumed chalk—covering his clothes, hands, face, and mouth. And every time he said the words “metamorphic rock” or “tectonic shifts,” a sea of white dust showered the first row of students.