Why Are Important Skills, like Accountability and Resilience, on the Decline for Leaders?
By Lori Moffatt, Managing Director, Waterstone Culture Institute
One of the game changers for organizations looking to recruit high-performance executives is a focus on recruiting and developing leaders who possess both the technical skills to succeed in the role, and the human skills to inspire and lead people.
In today’s evolving workplace, these human skills are increasingly valued over technical skills among high-performing leaders. Human skills like inspiring and leading people have become crucial amid significant workforce shifts. McKinsey’s 2021 Global Survey on reskilling revealed a strong focus on developing leadership, critical-thinking, decision-making, and project-management skills. However, identifying, measuring, and maintaining these skills can be challenging.
At the Waterstone Culture Institute, we use evidence and research-based leadership assessments and surveys to help clients identify and understand critical human skills in their leaders, including conflict management, decision-making, influence, goal orientation, personal accountability, and resiliency.
In our leadership development work over the last six months, there has been a noticeable decline in the number of leaders who score high on personal accountability and resiliency. What accounts for this change, and why is it important?
Accountability and resilience defined
Personal accountability: the ability to self-evaluate and take responsibility for actions, recognize mistakes and utilize feedback to improve, accept responsibility for outcomes, and seeks to learn from mistakes.
Resilience: the ability to overcome setbacks and remain optimistic in adversity, to utilize feedback and criticism to improve, to swiftly navigate the emotions of stressful events, and to seek out unique opportunities in challenges.
Reasons for a decline in these skills
- Increased complexity and rapid change: Leaders face a fast-paced and complex business environment, leading to burnout and reduced resilience.
- Technology and remote work: Digital communication and remote work can create detachment, making it harder to build strong relationships and maintain accountability.
- Lack of development and training: An insufficient focus on soft skills development in leadership programs, with more emphasis on technical skills and short-term results.
- Cultural shifts: Societal changes and evolving workplace cultures may dilute personal accountability in favor of collective responsibility.
Strategies for increasing accountability and resilience
1. Get clear on roles and responsibilities
Establish clear organizational priorities and accountabilities and maintain clarity around job responsibilities. Ensure alignment within the leadership team to build skills across the organization, and leverage metrics to prevent a loss of focus across the team.
2. Open and transparent communication
Promote regular feedback loops to keep team members accountable, connected, and motivated.Ensure transparent communication about purpose, goals, achievements, challenges, and opportunities, and be agile in your communication style to maintain resilience. Remember, remote and hybrid employees may require different communication methods to in-office team members!
3. Training and development
Offer regular training on soft skills such as resilience, stress management, effective communication, and emotional intelligence.Encouraging continuous learning and providing opportunities for employees to grow and adapt to new challenges can help strengthen the accountability and resilience of the whole team.
Waterstone Culture Institute: Your Partner in Leadership Development
At the Waterstone Culture Institute, we help teams and leaders develop the necessary skills and behaviors to drive culture change through research-based development programs, including the Soft Skills Competencies assessment. This powerful tool examines 25 unique personal skills critical in today’s workplace, aiding in recruitment, coaching, mentoring, and development. Book a call with our team today to learn more about how we can support your leadership development journey.