Catherine Nelson, global vice-president, leadership solutions with FranklinCovey, a global company specialising in performance improvement, has a pithy maxim she likes to pass on to anyone who is doubting their ability to grow into a leadership role. Quoting Barry Posner, widely regarded as one of the world’s foremost thinkers and educators in the field, Nelson tells them, “Great leaders are born – and so were you.”

While acknowledging that some people innately possess more of the leadership skill set, Nelson believes the essential qualities can be developed given the same sort of time and effort devoted to the acquisition of so called “hard” skills.

As part of the FranklinCovey On Leadership world tour, Nelson will be attempting to answer the question “What Sets Great Leaders Apart?” at the Kowloon Shangri-la on July 5.

At the event, she will share the results of FranklinCovey’s latest  research into the type of talent business unit leaders are looking for these days.

“They need people who can think big, who adapt quickly,” she explains. “They need people who can develop and execute strategy. They need people who can coach the next generation of leaders.”

While the advent of digital technology and evolving social attitudes are having a significant effect on leadership practices, the underlying principles of leadership effectiveness remain constant, Nelson notes.

“The more things change, the more certain things remain the same,” she says. “Being a leader who inspires trust is a timeless and universal quality. Being a model, in terms of character and integrity, always matters.”

Though it can seem there are myriad skills to master, Nelson believes there are really just four or five key leadership principles that can deliver 80 per cent of the hoped-for results.

“One centres on character and integrity. The second concerns vision, as leadership, by definition, means change. If you’re improving the status quo, that’s good, but that’s management not leadership. Every great leader needs a vision and a strategy about how to get there.”

Leaders also have to be able to execute flawlessly and achieve results through effectively mobilising their staff. “You’ve got to be able to empower people and communicate, as communication is such a critical leadership competency.”

Nelson does recognise, however, that developments in digital technology are driving major changes in leadership practices, and this is happening for a number of reasons.

“The first is the sheer pace of change. We’ve never seen change happening at the pace that it’s happening today. So for leaders, just keeping up with these changes can feel overwhelming, and keeping your business relevant in the face of this change is really very challenging.”

The advent of digital technology has made the nature of both the customer and the employee experience visible to a degree it never was before. This phenomenon can have a powerful effect on an organisation’s reputation.

“We now have ringside seats in all sorts of situations,” Nelson points out. She cites, by way of example, the ramifications of the recent smartphone video recording of the arrest of law-abiding black customers in a US branch of Starbucks. “Leaders have to deal with such issues, accept responsibility and proactively bring about necessary changes.”

In this new world, leaders have to make sure they are training, retaining and empowering staff at all levels.

“In most organisations, 90 per cent of the time it’s the lowest-paid employees who are engaging with the customers. So leaders have to empower and develop these people so they can be brand champions.”

Nelson says there is what she describes as a war for talent going on, and organisations with a traditional top-down, authoritarian leadership style are less likely to win it.

“The younger generations don’t want traditional bosses. They want coaches; they want people who are interested in their growth and development.”

This coaching role is increasingly valued within organisations, she says. “If you’re not developing the next level of leaders then you can’t really call yourself a leader.”

As they rise to higher and higher levels within an organisation, the skill set leaders need change. In her presentation on July 5, Nelson will explain the particular skills that first-level leaders, mid-to-senior-level leaders and, ultimately, executives, need. She says those attending should come away understanding where the leadership role is going, and how their organisations need to invest in these different levels of leadership.

She is particularly keen to underline the role of leaders in the development of a specific ethos within an organisation.

“I think one of the most important things for leaders to realise, right off the bat, is they are creating the culture within their organisation, every single day. What leaders value gets valued. What they tolerate gets tolerated. Way too many leaders are not consciously thinking about the culture they’re creating.”