Character is key: Leadership excellence in the public sector

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The public sector finds itself in a period of unprecedented disruption, navigating a series of shocks, including economic uncertainty, geopolitical instability, and the reform of energy systems. It seems this turbulence is set to intensify, with nearly 80 percent of public sector leaders anticipating greater disruption from 2025 to 2030. This is a striking finding, given that many respondents pointed out that the past five-year period was highly disruptive, citing the COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical conflict, political volatility, and the rising impacts of climate change as the most challenging issues.

The overall trends included: Tightening budgetary constraints.  Limitations in the ability to attract and retain talent.  When looking five years ahead, leaders envisaged three trends rising to greater prominence:  The impact of disruptive technologies such as AI and automation.  Citizens’ rising expectations and declining trust in governments.  Escalation of geopolitical risk.  Crucially, the best leaders match this visionary quality with the capacity to drive execution: The majority of respondents cited leaders’ ability to get things done as a top indicator of excellence. A complimentary trait—the capacity to uplift departmental culture and health—speaks to leaders’ essential role in mobilizing and nurturing their teams in an environment of disruption.  Perhaps the most striking finding of the research, however, is that these elements of leadership excellence are underpinned by character, values, and integrity.

We also asked respondents to tell us how they allocated their time across the key elements of leadership excellence. Reflecting the primacy of this practice, leaders allocated the greatest share of their time to setting their organization’s direction, vision, and strategy—with 65 percent of respondents saying this was either their first or second priority in terms of time allocation.  Other major focus areas for leaders—with roughly equal time allocated to each—are navigating the government, mobilizing the organization, and nurturing culture and talent. However, leaders’ rating of their effectiveness differed significantly across these practices.  Two essential leadership practices see much less time allocated to them the respondents: managing personal time and resources effectively, and orchestrating external parties.

The best public sector leaders are masters of both the art and science of steering large organizations—or “turning the tanker”—to deliver impact amid complexity.