ENGLAND football boss Sven-Goran Eriksson took a short break from the soccer merry-go-round yesterday to help inspire people in the business world.

The super-cool Swede's "consensual" style of leadership is taking over in the UK workplace, according to the latest research.

He was in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, yesterday to give a masterclass in "how to get the most out of your people" to delegates at the annual conference of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

According to research by recruitment group Reed, the past three years have seen a big swing away from the autocratic leadership style that used to dominate the UK workplace.

Such a style is now only followed by about 13 per cent of organisations, down from almost half at the end of the millennium.

Reed chief executive James Reed said: "While the late 1990s boom allowed charismatic business stars to ride the crest of economic success, the more challenging environment of the past three years has called for a more considered approach.

"Our research shows there has been a sea-change in the workplace, from an autocratic leadership to a much more democratic one."