The Other Side of Leadership Development

Business leaders increasingly need to be well-rounded, able to balance hard-edged analytical skills with solid relationship skills. Of the two, though, the latter can be more difficult to develop. After all, the methods of teaching relationship skills are often less direct and more intuitive.

Complementary skills

The ability to develop an excellent strategy is the single most crucial leadership competency both today and 10 years into the future, according to a global survey conducted by the Human Resource Institute on behalf of the American Management Association. But the survey shows that communication skills are a very close second, followed by other “soft” skills, such as the ability to develop other leaders and foster creativity and innovation. Along a similar vein, Godfrey Owen, deputy chief executive with Brathay, a UK people- development consultancy, says that strategic leadership requires a number of other competencies, including aptitudes such as empathy and humility (Pollitt, 2005).

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