(P) Comment: The top 3 key skills to be developed by the current leaders

Insights from the perspective of an Executive Head-Hunter in Romania

In our profession we speak daily with senior management, our clients, and candidates. Of course, COVID and its implications are still a hot topic: what are the considerations, the plans, and the required changes for coming out of this situation even stronger.

We decided to put the learnings on a wider base and were sending out a questionnaire, to over 300 CEOs, Managing Directors, and Human Resources Managers, making a full study from the results:

These are the top 3 skills to be developed by the current leaders:

• Leading Change
• Entrepreneurial spirit
• Emotional Intelligence!

A crisis like COVID-19 gives an incentive to think about the skills leaders must develop to not only grow the organization further but also to sustain it in a challenging environment.

55% of our clients are seeing “Leading Through Change” as the most important skill needed. Most of us have been forced to practice it right now. But most of the measures and actions were implemented in a very short time and be should be assessed as soon as the crises is over. Not to play the blame game, but to learn for the future. Looking to the future, regardless of what it brings, skills can always be improved upon. What you cannot measure you cannot manage as Peter Drucker said.

“Entrepreneurial spirit”, “innovation” and “critical thinking” are demanded too. Regardless of whether these skills are in demand, it is more important to have a balanced view of the skills against the demands and requirements of the organization alongside the wider and local geo-economics.

“Inspiring others” and “collaborative” are also rated as important skills. Especially for coaching others, building trust, creating, and developing teams.

Our TRANSEARCH Orxestra® Method enables us to assess the fit of the soft skills of our candidates focusing on role specific competencies, either for Executive Search or Management Evaluation. Let us talk about it.

Dr. Johannes Burghold, Managing Partner TRANSEARCH Romania Executive Search and Regional VP Eastern Europe.

The complete study can be downloaded from here.