In partnership with

The Science
The of
Making of a
Learning
Modern Leader:
Five ways to make your L&D
strategy more successful
Do your employees have the skills
to lead through change?
In partnership with Barbara Oakley
Distinguished professor of engineering and influential
researcher on the neuroscience of learning
The Making of a Modern Leader: Do your employees have the skills to lead through change?

Table of contents

The state of leadership today 3 Leading in a digital revolution 9 Drive impact with better 24
Respondent profile 5 1. Leading the organization 10 leadership today

The evolution of Leading in uncertain times 12

leadership over time 6
2. Leading teams 13
The history of leadership 7
3. Leading transformation 16
The anatomy of a modern leader 8
4. Leading oneself 18

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The Making of a Modern Leader: Do your employees have the skills to lead through change?

The state of
leadership today

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The Making of a Modern Leader: Do your employees have the skills to lead through change?

The pressure building over leadership skills development, coupled with the challenges in reporting soft
skills impact and the difficulty of finding targeted and easy-to-execute leadership programs, means L&D
leaders have to figure out how to scale leadership training quickly, at a reasonable cost.

Indeed, the skills of modern leadership, such as strategic thinking, emotional intelligence, resilience, and Through our Making of a Modern Leader research involving a global survey of

agility, have shifted significantly since the pandemic due to the changes brought about by remote work 1,000 people managers, with survey partner OnePoll, Coursera data from 100

and digital transformation, employee burnout, and economic uncertainty. million-plus learners, and insights from remote leadership champion GitLab,
this report unpacks:

This situation opens up several questions: What influence is leadership having on talent attraction and
retention? How do we make sure our teams have what they need to survive in uncertain times?
What leadership means today
On top of this, 60% of executives believe we should be moving toward a fractionalized working approach
where employees flow to tasks and projects based on their skills and interests rather than their traditional
job roles.1 With this, leadership requirements will only become more of a prerequisite for everyone. The four key areas of leadership to
focus on in your organization

The skills needed to connect, inspire,

and thrive in these areas
of executives believe we should be moving
60%
toward a fractionalized working approach

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The Making of a Modern Leader: Do your employees have the skills to lead through change?

Respondent profile
A total of 1,000 managers employed in the United Kingdom, the United States, India, Australia, Mexico,
France, Germany, and Saudi Arabia participated in the Making of a Modern Leader research. GitLab’s Darren Murph also
Nearly half of all respondents worked in either the financial services (12%), manufacturing and
participated in the analysis portion
construction (12%), e-commerce (11%), or healthcare (10%) industries. of this research. Murph is a pioneer
of and advocate for the title “head of
Managers constituted the largest share of respondents, making up 54% of the pool, with a further 15% in
the C-suite and 13% directors. More than half of all respondents worked in companies with up to 1,000
remote.” He authored GitLab’s “Remote
employees. Thirty-nine percent of the remaining respondents worked in companies of 1,000+ employees. Playbook,” which codifies GitLab’s
practices for working online. You can
learn his takeaways on Coursera in his
Sector Seniority How to Manage a Remote Team course.
Financial Services
12% 15% Darren Murph
Manufacturing
12% C-Suite
and Construction Head of Remote, GitLab
13% Directors
11% E-commerce
5% VPs
Healthcare
10%
Other
Other

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The Making of a Modern Leader: Do your employees have the skills to lead through change?

The evolution of
leadership over time

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The Making of a Modern Leader: Do your employees have the skills to lead through change?

The history of leadership

What does good leadership look like? It’s a challenge researchers have pondered for decades.

Here are the various leadership models we’ve seen over time2:

Experts today recognize that the

Leaders are born with innate traits, and leadership is not made or
1800s-1940s: Trait theory
trained. complexity of leadership requires
studying multiple behavioral,
Leaders are not born with particular characteristics but learn specific
1940s-1950s: Behavioral theory
leadership-related behaviors. situational, and cognitive dimensions.
For this reason, this study takes a close
Leaders align their leadership styles for specific contexts given the
1960s-1990s: Situational theories
impact of leader-follower dynamics. look at the impact of technological
innovation and other rapid
Leadership is the culmination of interactions between the leader,
1990s-2000s: Modern theories
their followers, and the situational context. socioeconomic changes on leadership.

Leaders are agile employees of any age or seniority level who motivate
Coursera’s take today: Leadership in
and inspire themselves and others. They set clear goals and ensure
a hybrid world
accountability from anywhere in the world.

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The Making of a Modern Leader: Do your employees have the skills to lead through change?

The anatomy of a modern leader

One goal of the research was to understand the evolution of leadership in the face of socioeconomic change and technological
disruptions. To answer this question, we started off by asking middle managers to select the most sought-after characteristics of
a leader before the pandemic versus today, as well as the characteristics they’d like future leaders to prioritize in the years ahead.

Here are the results:

Past: Current: Future:

Organized and accountable Confident decision-maker Emotionally intelligent
Persuasive Problem solver Agile and adaptable
Strong business acumen Effective communicator Inspirational
Critical thinker Strategic Trustworthy

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The Making of a Modern Leader: Do your employees have the skills to lead through change?

Leading in a
digital revolution

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The Making of a Modern Leader: Do your employees have the skills to lead through change?

1. Leading the organization

The impact of the digital revolution Hybrid, remote, and in-person challenges
Given the speed at which companies introduce technological
innovations, employees may get bogged down or even fall behind
without proper leadership. To unlock your business’s competitive edge, A hybrid model is the most common setup for most organizations today. Having 50% office capacity
empowering employees to leverage the right technology at the right at all times is what 41% of middle managers report in their organization. And more than a third of
time and place is important. them believe leadership has changed for the worse with the transition (34%). The biggest resulting
pitfalls, according to the research, are ignoring work-life boundaries (38%), neglecting team morale
The result of this is a new set of expectations, demands, and skills in four and company culture (37%), and communicating with credibility (30%).
key areas of leadership: leading an organization, leading teams, leading
transformation, and leading oneself — which we’ll discuss in the following To address this, leaders must acknowledge and respond to a new suite of workplace expectations
subsections. beyond the short-term response that emerged during the pandemic.

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The Making of a Modern Leader: Do your employees have the skills to lead through change?

Lead organizations with the right skills

What has worsened in remote/hybrid leadership? In today’s complex business environment, leaders need to grow the business, drive
culture across teams, and strategically plan for years into the future. With the added
Ignoring work/
38% difficulties of remote work and digital transformation projects, the Leadership Academy
life boundaries
from Coursera helps employees develop and grow these fast-evolving skill sets to
Neglecting team morale
37% ensure the organization’s success going forward.
and company culture

Communication
30%
with credibility

Prioritizing the wrong

29%
kind of things
Leader spotlight: Tom is a middle manager at a global organization. He is
Micromanagement 27%
looking to improve his strategic management skills. He could start with a short

Failing to evaluate Clip on Coursera, like Leadership vs Management, then take the follow-up
27%
the performance course, Stepping Up: Preparing Yourself for Leadership, followed by the hands-
on Guided Project, Program Change Management in ClickUp, to identify and
Little learning
26%
and growing classify the required components for change management. Going forward, he
could take a Specialization like Foundations of Management to understand
N/A- nothing
8% how the concepts he learned link to real-world scenarios.
has worsened

0% 25% 50%

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The Making of a Modern Leader: Do your employees have the skills to lead through change?

Leading in uncertain times

ʻʻ
The challenges leaders face are exacerbated during uncertain times — like now, with a recession looming — as
employees stress over their finances, worry about their job security, and question their purpose. Given these
uncertainties, our research shows leaders who prioritize empathy, compassion, and patience (29%), are visible
and open (26%), and are masters of change management (25%) are preferred.
Leaders must step up to
alleviate these concerns
by offering assurances
What should leaders master in challenging times? and flexibility. They must
invest in new systems and
They practice empathy, 29%
compassion, and patience ways of working which
They’re visible and
26%
prioritize equitable access
hold an open dialogue
to information and enable
They’re masters of
change management 25% more frictionless work.
They lead with
15% Darren Murph
kindness and respect
Head of Remote, GitLab
They’re im-
6%
perfectly human

0% 10% 20% 30%

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The Making of a Modern Leader: Do your employees have the skills to lead through change?

2. Leading teams
The rise of the middle manager and How can leaders best motivate teams?
individual contributor
Lead by example 57%

An underlying challenge of the remote and hybrid workplace is the intensity of leadership
Set clear goals 54%
expected from less experienced employees, particularly middle managers. From motivating
peers to maintaining company culture and driving business results, they’re on the frontline
Encourage teamwork 51%
with their teams while also answering to senior leadership on business results.

Middle managers in our research say that motivating teams and leading by example Empower team members 48%
are their top leadership priorities (57%), followed closely by setting clear goals (54%),
encouraging teamwork (51%), and empowering team members (48%). Give open and honest feedback to 48%
allow team members to grow

But because of the culmination of turbulent external factors and the pressures of leading
Give praise and reward 45%
without the requisite support or training, middle managers overseeing one to six people report
feeling more stressed and less productive than senior executives managing 15-plus employees.
Be optimistic and positive 44%
They are 46% less satisfied with their jobs and struggle more than twice as much to maintain a
sense of belonging3.
Provide a vision and purpose 43%

0% 50% 100%

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The Making of a Modern Leader: Do your employees have the skills to lead through change?

Lead teams with the right training

New managers are essential to organizations tasked with leading a team while continuing to bring in the revenue the business
needs to sustain itself. Without proper training, rising middle managers may struggle in their new roles, burn out, or hurt their
direct reports’ productivity and job satisfaction.
ʻʻ
Since we are remote,
there is a high
expectation to do your
work without direct
supervision. It means
Leader spotlight: Wendy was recently promoted to manager. She is now tasked to lead one other remote team
that every team
member. To step up to the challenge, she is watching a course Clip on Coursera, Recruiting and Managing Your
Team, while developing some team-based technology skills useful for team building and communication in a
member is responsible
hybrid world through the Building a Team in Microsoft Teams hands-on Guided Project. Later, Wendy plans to take for communication,
the Specialization Leadership Out of the Box to lead more effectively as she takes on more complex responsibilities. structuring decisions,
and managing their
workload individually.
Remote work also brings high expectations on every employee in the business to perform as a strong team player, regardless
Darren Murph
of whether they have direct reports. Everyone must be responsible for clear communication, workload management, and
structured decision-making. This is particularly challenging during a downturn, given that employees without direct reports
Head of Remote, GitLab

typically have little to no say on strategy but are subject to the many pivots and re-shuffles an organization may go through as it
tries to find its footing.

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The Making of a Modern Leader: Do your employees have the skills to lead through change?

What should leaders do to inspire employee

For this reason, employees at all levels urgently need leadership mentoring — 19%
learning in the workplace?
of managers say that leading by example and letting others see how you are learning
new skills is the best way to inspire learning in the workplace. Modeling learning is more Lead by example 19%
powerful than encouraging a more flexible workplace (16%), offering incentives and rewards
(16%), and creating a diverse organization with a myriad of perspectives and experiences Encourage flexibility 16%
for employees to learn from (15%). Mentoring is key to letting employees see their
leadership potential and imbuing their confidence to make their best contribution. Reward learning 16%

What’s interesting is that 70% of Fortune 500 companies offer mentoring programs open
Hire for diversity 15%
to all employees already, but there is little evidence of their effectiveness4. The cause?
When mentoring is optional, those who require it the most are likely to decline it.
Link learning to employee objectives 15%

Allocate time to learn 10%

Foster curiosity 9%

0% 25%

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The Making of a Modern Leader: Do your employees have the skills to lead through change?

3. Leading transformation
The role of tech and data on leadership
What should effective leaders prioritize today to
Connected with the new challenges of remote and hybrid work is the discrepancy between tech,
lead at their best?
data, and leadership skills. With the increasing pace of digital transformation in the workplace,
organizations rely more and more on tech and data subject matter experts to solve difficult Motivating a team 56%
business problems.
Encouraging employee development 44%
Here’s where it gets tricky: By promoting these technical leaders into managerial roles without
proper leadership training, organizations hurt their business goals and team morale. Leadership,
Learning and growing 39%
once again, is a must-have for everyone in the business.

To lead at their best, more than half of managers say motivating a team (56%), encouraging Setting priorities 33%

employee development (44%), and learning and growing (39%) must be prioritized. These are
learned soft skills that new leaders with technical backgrounds may be unfamiliar with. Handling conflict 31%

Supporting individual 31%

employees

0% 25% 50% 75%

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The Making of a Modern Leader: Do your employees have the skills to lead through change?

Case study: Visible Alpha

Aware of the importance of helping technology experts build soft skills alongside technical

Lead transformation by merging ones to upgrade their team’s leadership abilities, the innovative financial market analysis

technical and soft skills harmoniously software company, Visible Alpha, offers courses on Coursera in communication and team
management to new hires, as well as to those looking to move into leadership roles.

“We’ve found that Coursera is versatile enough to be useful for

Many employees with the right technical skills to transform their business employees, managers, and executives. Our learners like that the
lack the leadership skills to lead this transformation harmoniously content is from leading universities and institutions. Coursera’s rich
throughout the organization. The Leadership Academy from Coursera helps
catalog means we can find leadership and communications courses
employees ideate, experiment, and learn the key principles and practices
relevant to our company’s specific needs.”
necessary to inspire change in others and drive change in the organization.

-Alyssa Chen, HR Director at Visible Alpha.

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The Making of a Modern Leader: Do your employees have the skills to lead through change?

4. Leading oneself
The evolution of the competencies of a leader

As leadership theories have evolved, so has the way of expressing the key competencies involved
in leadership. Competencies like problem-solving, communication and conflict resolution have
always been core leadership attributes, but how we express them is drastically changing.

For example, while some leaders may seek to solve problems as quickly as possible for maximum
financial results, others may view problem-solving through the lens of how their solution can
create an impact beyond the bottom line.

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The Making of a Modern Leader: Do your employees have the skills to lead through change?

Four leadership styles and their leadership competencies manifested5

Focusing on tangible success, these leaders prioritize metrics Prioritizes efficient problem-solving, conflict resolution focused
The Classic Entrepreneur related to financial results, such as costs and quality. on financial return, and a competitive communication style.

Driven by human values, these cause-guided leaders hope to build Focuses on meaningful problem-solving, conflict resolution
The Modern Missionary something meaningful that makes a difference rather than strive aimed at making an impact, and inspirational communication.
for more profits and growth.

These leaders are adept at confronting difficult challenges and Prefers accurate, number-based problem-solving, conflict
The Problem Solver identifying new opportunities. However, rather than relying on resolution that relies on core expertise, and top-down
their team, they take charge and leverage their expertise. communication.

Humble and self-effacing, these leaders believe in uncovering the Focuses on joint problem-solving, open communication, and
The Solutions Finder talents of their colleagues and maximizing the collective genius of collaborative conflict resolution.
the organization.

Our research shows that while respondents have experienced a fairly even split of leadership styles throughout their
careers, the leadership style they find most appropriate for leading today is the Solutions Finder leadership style (31%).
of respondents find the Solutions
31% Finder leadership style most
This leadership style fits the skills-first (versus role-based) business mentality. Workers flow to tasks and projects based appropriate for leading today
on their skills and interests rather than their traditional job roles, uncovering the organization’s collective genius.

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The Making of a Modern Leader: Do your employees have the skills to lead through change?

It also sits well with the current employee demand for more autonomy. Recent research by Deloitte
Reflecting on oneself matters in leadership
shows that half of the employees surveyed were more likely to join and remain at organizations that
offer them agency and choice in how they apply their skills to work6.
For leaders to better define problems, determine long- and short-term solutions, and solve
It’s possible that the misalignment in leadership style needs (by business goals) and business wants inventively, they need a foundational understanding of how they operate as individuals and where
(by employee preferences) caused higher-than-normal attrition rates in recent years, as evidenced by they need to adapt to give the best of themselves to others.
the Great Resignation.

Indeed only 26% of employees surveyed by Deloitte in recent research strongly agree that their
employers treat them as whole individuals who offer diverse contributions based on their unique
portfolio of skills, yet this is what half of the employees prefer.

Leader spotlight: Rob recently joined the business. He is going through a tough period
outside of work, impacting his mood and people management skills. To navigate this
challenge, Rob started taking the following courses to reflect on himself and lead better:
first, the course Clip on Coursera, Why Emotions Matter: Physical and Mental Health;
of employees believe employers
26% then, a hands-on Guided Project, Assimilating into your New Job, to create a 30-60-90
are using their talent to their fullest
plan that set him up for success in his new role; and, finally, The Science of Well-Being
course to build more productive habits to be happy.

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The Making of a Modern Leader: Do your employees have the skills to lead through change?

ʻʻ
With socioeconomic uncertainties on the horizon,
leaders cannot afford to undermine credibility
and jeopardize their reputation by compensating
with overconfidence. Instead, they need to find
a way to reassure their teams and approach the
future with confidence using empathy and strong
storytelling, relying on concrete information and
particularly on strong data and strategies.
Darren Murph
Head of Remote, GitLab

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The Making of a Modern Leader: Do your employees have the skills to lead through change?

Leadership Academy
Leadership Academy “An important part of leadership development is the realization that there are

DevelopDevelop
employees
Leadership Academy
to lead
Develop employees without
to limits
lead without limits
“An important part of leadership development is the realization that there are
component skills that can be learned and mastered.”
component skills that can be learned and mastered.”
employees to lead without limits Matt Dearmon, Director of Leadership
Matt Dearmon, Director&ofProf.
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Sample SkillSets:
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The Making of a Modern Leader: Do your employees have the skills to lead through change?

Useful courses to develop a Solutions Finder leadership style

Lead Yourself Lead Teams

Simulation Skills: This is Your Brain on the Future How to Manage a Remote Team
(Institute of the Future) (GitLab)

Storytelling and influencing: Communicate with impact Building High-Performing Teams

(Macquarie University) (University of Pennsylvania)

The Growth Mindset Leadership focused on Human Flourishing

(University of California, Davis) (Tecnológico de Monterrey)

Lead Organizations Lead Transformation

Inclusive Leadership: The Power of Workplace Diversity Agile Leadership: Introduction to Change
(University of Colorado) (University of Colorado)

Six Sigma and the Organization Superbosses: Managing Talent & Leadership
(University System of Georgia) (Dartmouth College)

Organisational design: Know your organisation Collaborate on Files in Slack: Local & Google Drive Integrations
(Macquarie University) (Coursera Project Network)

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The Making of a Modern Leader: Do your employees have the skills to lead through change?

Drive impact
with better
leadership today

24
The Making of a Modern Leader: Do your employees have the skills to lead through change?

In the face of global socioeconomic uncertainty, technological disruptions, and a hybrid workplace, effective
leadership is more important and complex than ever. Our research shows a discrepancy between the types
of leaders employees need and those currently heading our teams and organizations — especially as hybrid
work requires more roles to step up to the plate.
Ready to power your organization with
Learning leaders should prioritize upskilling their workforce in leadership competencies that empower
the next generation of leaders and
technical experts to lead transformation, provide the business with a competitive edge and reduce talent
create high-performance teams?
attrition. Deploying ongoing, easy-to-access, soft skills training for all through affordable and scalable
Request a consultation today.
leadership programs, such as Leadership Academy from Coursera, could be the solution.

Above all, these programs should be flexible, cater to existing foundational knowledge, offer a mix of
learning formats, from short clips to full courses and specializations, and provide in-course assessments
and hands-on learning to help employees retain knowledge.

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The Making of a Modern Leader: Do your employees have the skills to lead through change?

Endnotes

1 The skills-based organization: A new operating model for work and the workforce. Deloitte. September 2022.

2 Leadership Theories and Styles. WGU. April 2020.

3 It’s Time to Free the Middle Manager. Harvard Business Review. May 2021.

4 Why Your Mentoring Program Should Be Mandatory. Harvard Business Review. October 2022.

5 The 4 Leadership Styles, and How to Identify Yours. Harvard Business Review. August 2016.

6 The skills-based organization: A new operating model for work and the workforce. Deloitte. September 2022.

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