Leadership

To date, many companies have focused their selection criteria and training programs on hard skills (e.g. technical expertise, industry knowledge, education) and the assessment of personality traits. Topics including competencies like stress management, empathy, and political/social acumen were never measure in the selection process or focused on in the training and development programs. In reality, these are the critical success factors that should not be dismissed, and have a direct impact on the bottom line1.

Joanne Fernandez is hard working, confident, high performer, ambitious with a strong drive to succeed. However, time again she has indicated her non-inclination for politically infused environment. She preferred to spend more time with clients, to avoid bureaucrats. She was so good, that she was usually right. It was hard to argue with her, and this created some resentment and led to conflicts. Although, she was confident of her abilities, but perhaps resisted trusting others or was craving for all the credit. This was evident when she did not delegate the study to anyone, leading to non-completion of study.

On the other hand Roger does not seem to be extremely technically talented or ambitious, but he has strong conceptual and human skills. He has developed a reputation as an excellent mediator and was able to handle the sometimes-oversized egos and trustees and seniors. His past experience in military has exposed to different rules and regulations, and led him to be thoughtful and disciplined in all the tasks he undertook. He may not be strong recruiter, but he trusted him team members to do their job and kept the team motivated. He was also fast learner as demonstrated by his role in the legal department.

Although the position of Executive Director, required technical skills, but it needs someone who is strong mediator, skillful of conflict management and managing different stakeholders in highly politically driven environment.