Skills senior executives most need: leadership, strategic thinking and communications
Two-thirds of companies feel that senior-level executives need to improve their leadership skills, while more than half say that senior management must sharpen their strategic thinking and communications abilities, according to a survey by ClearRock, an outplacement and executive coaching firm headquartered in Boston.
Almost half of companies say senior managers must improve their team-building, vision, and motivational capabilities, according to the survey of more than 100 organizations with operations throughout the U.S. by ClearRock. However, employers are supplying their senior-level management with plenty of help, including outside and in-house coaching and training. Three-quarters of surveyed companies provide their senior-level leaders with outside coaching; almost half give them outside training and education, and about 4 in 10 coach them within the organization.
Companies want their senior-level executives to succeed in a more intensely competitive environment. Employers are hiring outside coaches to help senior managers further develop their leadership, strategic thinking, communications, motivational and employee engagement skills to better run the business side while keeping employees engaged in their jobs in a tough economy, said Annie Stevens, managing partner for ClearRock.
Strategic thinking is critical in determining how to best capitalize on business conditions and differentiate from the competition. Communications skills are essential to building teamwork and engaging, motivating, and managing others. Leadership strengths enable leaders to tie everything together and move the organization forward, said Greg Gostanian, managing partner for ClearRock.
The skills that senior-level executives most need to improve, according to the survey, are:
- Leadership (67 percent);
- Communications (53 percent);
- Strategic thinking (53 percent);
- Building teamwork (47 percent);
- Vision (47 percent);
- Motivating people (46 percent);
- Engaging others (42 percent);
- Managing others (38 percent);
- Decisiveness (33 percent);
- Interpersonal abilities (32 percent);
- Creativity (24 percent); and
- Managing their own expectations (18 percent).
The ways that organizations are helping senior executives build these skills include:
- Outside coaching (74 percent);
- Outside training and education (48 percent);
- In-house coaching (38 percent);
- Assigning them to project teams (29 percent); and
- Pairing them with mentors (20 percent).
Source: ClearRock; www.clearrock.com.
Reprinted with permission. © CCH
(Submitted Nov. 2009)
<p>To succeed in intensely competitive environments, leadership skills enable leaders to tie everything together and move organizations forward.</p>
Skills senior executives most need: leadership, strategic thinking and communications
/training_performance/skills_senior_executives_most_need_leadership_strategic_thinking_and_communications.aspx