From Stability to Strategy: The New Face of Leadership
Leadership is shifting across South Yorkshire and East Riding-often in places you would not expect. From HR to IT to Sales, businesses are quietly rebalancing their senior teams. Here is what the latest data reveals about where change is happening and why it matters.
From Stability to Strategy: The New Face of Leadership
Leadership is shifting across South Yorkshire and East Riding-often in places you would not expect. From HR to IT to Sales, businesses are quietly rebalancing their senior teams. Here is what the latest data reveals about where change is happening and why it matters.
Leadership in Motion: What the Numbers Say About Change, Stability, and Opportunity in Our Region
Subtle but significant shifts are happening at the top of businesses in South Yorkshire and East Riding.
Leadership is moving and functions are realigning in response to new pressures. When you step back and examine the data both in terms of volume and proportion, a story of transformation, renewal, and emerging pressure points begins to unfold.
Leadership Movement in Context
We analysed 12 months of leadership role changes across South Yorkshire and East Riding and compared them to the number of active leadership positions in each function. The results reveal where the real movement is happening.
What is striking is that leadership turnover isn’t just high in revenue-generating roles, it is higher still in enabling functions like HR and IT, reflecting the strategic weight these functions carry.
Year-on-Year Comparison: Are Things Speeding Up or Settling Down?
We then compared this year’s data to the previous 12 months; here is how it looks:
What This Tells Us
Businesses Are Quietly Rebalancing
We often focus on CEO or commercial hires, but it is the backbone functions - HR, IT, Ops that show the greatest movement proportionally. This suggests businesses are actively reshaping how they deliver, operate, and lead people.
Growth Is Back on the Agenda
The rise in Sales and Commercial hires reflects renewed ambition to grow despite economic uncertainty. Organisations want sharper focus on customer strategy, revenue enablement, and sales leadership.
People Strategy Has Shot Up the Agenda
HR leadership moves doubled year-on-year. This indicates increased investment in culture, retention, and workforce strategy a shift fuelled by hybrid work, generational turnover, and competitive talent markets.
Stability at the Top, but for How Long?
CEO turnover was just 9.3%, and almost flat year-on-year. But is that a sign of control or of reluctance to evolve? For scaling or maturing businesses, stability can sometimes mask stagnation.
What It Means for Businesses
If you’re building or restructuring a senior team, the message is clear:
- Leadership capability is becoming a competitive advantage.
- Strategic functions like HR and IT are where value is created, not just supported.
- Growth won’t be delivered by legacy structures. If your business is changing, your leadership needs to change with it.
- The market is active. There’s a talent pool that’s mobile, experienced, and ready to take on new challenges.
What This Means for Candidates
For ambitious leaders, the current wave of leadership change points to where demand is shifting, where value is being created, and where your competitive edge could lie.
So, what sets standout leaders apart right now?
Strategic adaptability- Leaders who can flex across commercial, operational, and digital priorities, often outside their traditional functional silos are in highest demand.
Tech fluency- Not just in IT roles: data-led decision making, automation awareness, and digital-first thinking are now expected across the C-suite.
People and culture impact- The rise in HR leadership moves tells a story; businesses are putting culture, change leadership, and organisational resilience front and centre.
Commercial edge- Whether you are in sales, operations, or finance, the leaders who understand growth levers, margin pressure, and customer insight are setting themselves apart.
Now is the moment to ask:
- Where is your value growing?
- Are you positioned to lead through transformation?
- How does your story align with where businesses are heading?
The market is moving. Make sure you’re not standing still.
At Pratap Executive, we work with growth-focused businesses, investors, and Boards to build senior teams that match their ambition. If you’re preparing for scale, succession, or transformation, we would love to talk.
For more details on any of the details discussed, or to find out how we can help your business with their Executive Search needs, please contact:
07512 318 768
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