According to one management expert, 75% of senior managers
don't have the necessary “soft skills” to be effective in
business today. This conclusion is based on psychological assessments
of more than 60 top-level executives in the past 36 months conducted by
Dr. Ken Siegel, management psychologist and author of the upcoming book,
“The Moron Manager Survival Guide: Becoming the Leader You're Not.”
According to Siegel, “It’s important to remember
that people are hired for technical skills. But, they are fired or demoted
because they lack the soft skills—empathy, openness and integrity—that
build trust and loyalty and that define good managers and leaders. I call
it Gentle Giant Syndrome, because these people have to appear to be solid
and dependable and loom large in their employees' minds, yet at the same
time be able to listen and empathize with their employees on a daily basis.
Especially in today’s climate, an inability to do that is a recipe for
disaster.”
He adds, “When you look at how skittish investors
are these days, it’s a safe assumption that employees are twice as nervous
about their futures. In this climate, effective leadership is doubly difficult.
Whether you're a C-level exec or a front-line manager, if you can't inspire
people to get up and want to go to work and actually produce something
while the world is falling down around them, then the chances that your
company is going to meet with success are very slim. In my experience,
the number of managers out there who are doing this effectively is horrifically
low.”
If you would like to sharpen your “soft skills”
or prepare for a leadership role, consider these AMA seminars:
For a listing of all of AMA’s seminars, click
here.
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