Soft Skill Needs of Managers & Leaders
I’ve always stood by the belief that strong people skills (a far reaching topic in itself) are critical to the success of any manager or leader, whether they’re a Project Manager or CEO. Certainly there are those who exist without those skills, but their success and longevity are often minimal, as we shall see below.
According to some HR specialists, 2009 is the year of the socially skilled diplomatic character who approaches tasks with a “together we can” attitude, as opposed to the authoritarian “I want” approach.
The change that many have already embraced is from strict hierarchical vertical structures to more horizontal networks. The old manager was expected to organise, direct, set objectives, communicate clearly and enforce the hierarchy. Today’s manager needs to be a coach and an inspirational leader.
The new manager is expected to have or cultivate ‘soft skills’, relational and emotional, be a superb communicator and able to realise the best from the people that he or she manages. The need for strong communication skills has become paramount since to coach and inspire, one needs to be a convincing communicator. What now counts for at least the other 50% are social skills, assets of character, ethical and spiritual skills, which are difficult to teach and usually more naturally acquired through one’s upbringing or early education.
The latest Global Leadership Forecast is the largest research study of its kind (by leaderships experts DDI) and it examines leadership development practices among organisations in every industry and major economy across the globe. It taps the views of not only HR professionals, but also leaders up and down the management hierarchy and across all major job functions.
1,493 HR Professionals and 12,208 Leaders from 76 countries participated in the study and surveys were created in 11 languages.
HR professionals indicated that, on average, 37 percent of those who fill leadership positions fail. These leaders left their positions and/or failed to achieve their position’s objectives.
Reasons that leaders fail survey
19% Leadership/Interpersonal skills
19% Strategic or visionary skills
12% Business management skills
9% Personality/Personal style
8% Technical/Professional knowledge
6% Experience
5% Motivational fit
2% Other
The survey revealed that basic skills are leaders’ primary downfall. When asked about the primary reason that leaders fail, leaders ranked a lack of leadership skills (such as facilitating change, building a team, coaching) and interpersonal skills (such as building relationships, networking, communication) at the top of their list.
These threatening and dispiriting comments show a lack of even the most elementary principles of good leadership behavior.
Running a close second as the primary reason that leaders fail was a lack of strategic or visionary skills; inadequate business management skills was a distant third. Thus, the top three reasons for leadership failure were all skills; personality or personal style, technical knowledge, experience, and motivational fit were ranked considerably lower. Management level was unrelated to the leaders’ ranks, and HR professionals in the matched sample also agreed with leaders on the rankings.
In one respect, the fact that the top three reasons for failure were all skills is encouraging because skills can be developed. Multiple research studies have shown that well-crafted training can produce observable improvement in leadership and interpersonal skills (DDI, 2007). By contrast, the qualities causing failure at the bottom of Figure 7 are either so personally ingrained that they are extremely difficult to change (personality, motivational fit) or take a long time to develop (technical/professional knowledge, experience).
Download the full survey from DDI’s web site here
