Inflexible Work Kills Senior Leader Credibility

Courtesy of DDI

Companies That Embrace Flexibility Are Winning the Talent War

As a growing number of organizations call their workforces back to the office, CEOs need to prepare for trust in their leadership to decline.

In our study, 36% of CEOs report that flexible work is common and supported in their companies. When flexible work is common and supported, leaders are nearly 5X more likely to say that they trust their senior leaders. Leaders are also 2.9X more likely to perceive their senior leaders as high quality, compared to organizations without flexible work.

Furthermore, CEOs that support flexible work reported that they were more prepared to tackle some of the biggest challenges companies face. For instance, companies with CEOs that support flexible work are 3.3X more likely to feel prepared to engage and retain talent than those that do not support flexible work. They are also 2.6X more likely to feel prepared to hire the right people.

CEOs need the right mindset and skill set to make flexible work successful. Some of the key capabilities connected to successful flexible work environments are:

• Building partnerships rooted in trust: Having strong partnerships with others can help CEOs understand whether flexibility is desired or needed.

• Managing change effectively: CEOs that manage change well may be more open to flexible work

becoming a “new normal.”

• Thinking strategically about talent: CEOs that think strategically may consider the long-term talent implications of greater workplace flexibility.

When CEOs were effective in these three skills, they were 2.7X more likely to report that their company supports flexible work than companies with CEOs who are not effective in these skills.

For organizations that have the option, flexible work can be an effective strategy to avoid losing talent as well as to fortify perceptions of leadership across the workforce.

Source: DDI CEO Leadership Report 2023