Business Growth & Strategy

Confidence, leadership and talent management: top resources from 2023

As we head towards the start of a new year, let’s look back at 2023. Have you been happy with how things have gone? Is there anything you would change if you did it all again? Is there anything you plan on doing differently next year? 

Over the last 12 months, we’ve been working hard to give our members the best possible chance of taking their business to new heights. As well as our Vistage groups, we’ve hosted various events, interviewed a range of experts in all different fields, and published our regular economic updates and Confidence Index reports. 

If you’re looking for some inspiration for 2024, read on. We’ve compiled some of our top content from 2023 to prepare you for the year ahead. 

Confidence and the economy

Every quarter, we survey over 200 top-performing UK business leaders about their views on both the economy and their own business prospects going forward – and 2023 has been a mixed bag. 

In January, we published our Q4 2022 results which revealed staff retention as a major challenge for business leaders. 

In Q2, it was refreshing to see that respondents were positive about the growth of their businesses. However, despite positive sentiment about where AI is headed, very few had made steps towards employing these technologies themselves. 

In Q3, despite overall confidence falling, our survey revealed that SME CEOs continue to be confident in their businesses’ growth prospects. To make this happen, many are focusing on strategic planning – including acquisition and exit plans – over the coming 12 months. 

Levelling up leadership

Even the very best business leaders still have room for improvement – and this year we’ve covered all sorts of topics. 

Knowing that accountability can often be challenging, Vistage Speaker Greg Bustin shared his three top accountability tips for CEOs. We’ve looked at the characteristics of an entrepreneur, the traits of an effective executive, and ways to overcome decision fatigue.

Brad Waldron shared the seven habits of highly effective people, while Amanda Madorno gave her tips for increasing emotional intelligence. We’ve explored the grey area between leadership and management and shared the five tenets of great decision-making.

We’ve learned some empowering lessons from three trail-blazing women in leadership, as well as sharing 15 qualities and characteristics that make a great business leader.

See all of our insights into business leadership here.

Top talent management

It’s hard to succeed without a great team behind you: your people are one of your biggest assets. So how can you be sure that you’re hiring the right ones, managing them in the right way, and ensuring that you retain your top talent? 

Vistage Speaker Jeff Grout’s take on building a high performance team is well worth a read. This year, we’ve also considered interview tips to make your company stand out from the competition, as well as the key things your business needs to be doing to win the race for talent.

Of course, it’s not just about attracting talent – it’s about retaining staff, too. Diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) are a big part of this. Some employers are still struggling with the post-COVID changes in working patterns and environments, so we published this report on The Hybrid Gap.

We spoke to three CEOs to discover how they use wages and compensation to drive retention. While remuneration is important, it’s not the be-all-and-end-all, as we shared in our report, Managing Workforce Velocity. Here, we provide four recommendations for retaining top talent, accompanied by the expert perspectives of various Vistage thought leaders.  

We’ve shared tips on creating the ideal employee experience and ways to increase employee engagement, as well as how to future-proof your talent going forward.

Read more of our talent management blogs here.

Going forward…

So, what’s on the horizon for 2024? Our primary focus in the last days of 2023 is on our events calendar for next year. 

We’ve already started to pull together a strong events programme for 2024, designed to help you climb even higher over the next 12 months. 

These events include topics such as coaching to maximise performance and results, how to make a game-changing impact, and harnessing the power of ChatGPT/AI. 

We’re passionate about giving our members the tools, advice and support they need to succeed. What will give you the best chance of reaching new peaks in 2024? 
To learn more about upcoming Vistage events from January 2024 onwards, click here.

Category: Business Growth & Strategy

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About the Author: Vistage UK Staff

Vistage is the world’s largest executive coaching organisation for small and medium sized businesses.
For more than 60 years we’ve been helping MDs, CEOs, business owners and key executives solve their toughest challenges

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