NTUC LearningHub reveals perception gap on learning between leaders and employees

Source: NTUC LearningHub. Infographic on the leadership gap uncovered by recent research.

Leaders today are expected to thrive in a dynamic and digitally driven workplace, while cultivating human-centric capabilities and competencies, said NTUC LearningHub. In research conducted by the organisation, over four in five business leaders (11% "very well", 72% "quite well") believe they demonstrate emotional intelligence well, whereas only half of employees believe their leaders possess the skill (2% "very well", 48% "quite well").

According to employees, emotional intelligence (31%) is in fact the top skill they believe their leaders are lacking, followed by effective communication (30%), and people development (30%).

Similarly, the majority of business leaders are confident in their ability to lead effectively and achieve organisational goals (13% "very confident", 73% "quite confident"). However, only half of employees are equally confident in their leaders’ capabilities (3% "very confident", 52% "quite confident").

This disconnect between the two groups is evident in how most business leaders believe they understand their employees’ needs (17% "very well", 72% "quite well") and meet their evolving expectations (11% "very well", 73% "quite well"). Yet, less than half of the employees share the same sentiment, where 46% agree leaders understand their needs “very well” or “quite well”, and 45% agree leaders meet their evolving expectations “very well” or “quite well”.

These are some of the key findings from NTUC LearningHub’s Leadership and Coaching Report, which investigates the essential skills and competencies that future leaders must cultivate. The research also explored the role of coaching in driving individual and organisational growth across all levels and roles.

Based on a survey involving 150 business leaders and 300 full-time working professionals, the report also examines how organisations can develop and sustain strong leadership pipelines by leveraging people-centric approaches and emotional intelligence to build resilient, high-performing teams.

More than nine in ten business leaders (41% "very important", 51% "quite important"), as well as employees (32% "very important", 56% "quite important") view emotional intelligence as important in leadership.

Business leaders cited the ability to communicate more effectively (55%), make better decisions (55%), be more flexible and adaptable to changes (53%), build strong relationships with employees (51%), and motivate employees more effectively (50%) as the top reasons why they perceive emotional intelligence as important for leaders. While employees voiced similar sentiments, they also highlight the ability to better manage and resolve conflicts (65%) and react to challenges or highly pressurising situations calmly (58%) as other key reasons.

The perception divide also shows up in leadership styles where business leaders are most likely to apply democratic leadership (40%), followed by situational leadership (39%), and laissez-faire (hands-off) leadership (31%). Meanwhile, employees ranked situational leadership (44%) as their most preferred leadership style above democratic leadership (43%) and transformational leadership style (41%).

Business leaders have to contend with keeping their teams engaged and motivated (38%) as a consequence, managing relationships with employees (35%), and balancing performance with employee wellbeing (29%) in today’s workplace. This is also accompanied by other challenges cited such as developing future leaders (29%) and adapting to change and uncertainty (28%).

On the other hand, three in five business leaders (60%) acknowledge gaps in their leadership abilities and have identified areas for improvement. However, fewer than half of business leaders (44%) have participated in relevant training to enhance their leadership skills in the past year, with two in five (39%) rarely attending training. Lack of time (48%), high workload (47%), and lack of motivation (31%) are among the top challenges business leaders face when participating in leadership training programmes.

Paradoxically, roughly four in 10 business leaders (38%) express a desire for more frequent training to develop their leadership skills. Three in four business leaders (9% very effective, 67% quite effective) also believe that the leadership training they received was effective in developing their abilities.

Jeremy Ong, CEO, NTUC LearningHub said: “The apparent disconnect between leaders and employees highlights an urgent need for leadership to evolve in tandem with workforce expectations. As leadership expectations broaden beyond formal roles, organisations are looking to cultivate a culture where more employees feel empowered to take initiative, make decisions, and contribute to team direction.

"Technical skills alone are no longer enough today, as a more balanced and human-centric approach towards leadership has become a key competency that will enable leaders to adopt the right leadership approach, connect meaningfully with their team, sustain employee engagement, and ultimately drive organisational success. Therefore, it is important for leaders to continuously improve themselves through learning and development as a strategic imperative to bridge existing skills gaps and nurture future emotionally intelligent and visionary leaders.” Details

Download the Leadership and Coaching Report at www.ntuclearninghub.com/media/research-reports/2025/leadership-coaching

More information about the courses, training, and grants can be found at www.ntuclearninghub.com.

KPMG sees holes in global corporate responsibility reports

Carbon reporting from the world's largest companies lacks consistency, making it almost impossible for stakeholders to compare one company's performance easily and accurately with another's, according to the 2015 edition of the KPMG Survey of Corporate Responsibility Reporting*.

Professionals at KPMG member firms reviewed the carbon information published by the world's largest 250 companies in annual financial and corporate responsibility reports. They found that although four out of five of the companies discuss carbon in these reports, the type and quality of information published varies dramatically. For example, only half the G250 (53%) state carbon reduction targets in their company reports and, of these, two thirds provide no rationale to explain why those targets were selected.

The type of emissions reported also varies considerably, KPMG said. While a majority of reporting companies report on emissions from their own operations (84%) and from purchased power (79%), only half report on emissions in their supply chains. Even fewer, less than one in ten (7%), includes information on emissions resulting from the use and disposal of their products and services.

Around half (51%) of the companies that do discuss carbon in their company reports refer readers to further detailed information in alternative sources such as the CDP database** for investors. The other half does not.

Wim Bartels, a partner with KPMG in the Netherlands and KPMG's Global Head of Sustainability Reporting & Assurance, is the lead author of KPMG's survey. He said: "All stakeholders should be able to access good quality, comparable information on a company's carbon performance quickly and easily from the company's annual financial or corporate responsibility reports. That is simply not the case today.

"There is a clear need for improvement and global reporting guidelines on carbon could help to address this problem. It should not be left to companies alone to figure this out; industry bodies, regulators, standard setters, investors and others all have a role to play."

KPMG's study follows a recent proposal to the G20 by the Financial Stability Board for a task force to develop consistent climate-related disclosures for companies to help lenders, insurers, investors and other stakeholders to understand material risks¹. The Climate Standards Disclosure Board (CDSB) has also introduced a voluntary framework aimed at helping companies include investor-relevant climate information in mainstream financial reporting².

The KPMG study includes guidelines on data, targets and communication that KPMG member firms believe companies should follow when publishing carbon information in annual financial and corporate responsibility reports.

KPMG's researchers devised a scoring methodology based on these guidelines which they used to assess the quality of reporting from each of the 250 largest companies. Key findings include:

• One in five large companies in high carbon sectors such as mining, construction and chemicals does not report on carbon in its annual financial or corporate responsibility reports
• European companies have a higher quality of reporting than companies elsewhere in the world
• Companies in the transport & leisure sector produce the highest quality reporting by sector, and oil & gas companies the lowest
• Only half the companies that report on carbon in their annual financial or corporate responsibility reports explain how cutting carbon benefits their business

The KPMG Survey of Corporate Responsibility Reporting includes a view of global trends in corporate responsibility (CR) reporting based on analyses of reports from 4,500 companies across 45 countries. It shows that the rate of CR reporting is now higher in Asia Pacific than it is in Europe or the Americas. Nearly eight in 10 (79%) companies in Asia Pacific report on CR.

The highest rates of CR reporting are now found in emerging economies such as India, Indonesia, Malaysia and South Africa. These high rates are often driven by regulation, either from governments or stock exchanges.

The research also shows that it is now standard business practice to include CR information in the annual financial report – more than half (56%) of the 4,500 companies studied do this.

Interested?

Download the report

*The KPMG Survey of Corporate Responsibility Reporting is now in its 9th edition and was first published in 1993. Research is carried out by professionals in KPMG member firms and is based on publicly available information published by companies in their corporate responsibility reports, annual financial reports and websites.

In the 2015 edition, the sample of the world's 250 largest companies is based on the 2014 Fortune 500 listing³. Global trends in CR reporting are based on a study of reporting from the top 100 companies by revenue in each of the 45 countries.

**The CDP database is the largest collection globally of self-reported climate change, water and forest-risk data.
1 Source: http://www.financialstabilityboard.org/wp-content/uploads/Disclosure-task-force-on-climate-related-risks.pdf Retrieved 17 November 2015
2 http://www.cdsb.net/what-we-do/reporting-frameworks/climate-change Retrieved 19 November 2015
3 http://fortune.com/global500/2014/