subject: 4 Basic Strategies For Executive Stress Management [print this page] Companies, in general, are constantly looking to upgrade their management leadership bench strength. They are keen to attract executives with solid, blue chip experience and strong academic qualifications. In the developing markets such as China and Vietnam, this has led to an acute shortage of quality talent at the middle and senior-management level. Retention of these qualified professionals has become a major issue for many organizations.
Ann Cousin, from the Transearch International Paris office, says her recent client executive search engagement experience suggests a matrix of leadership skills are now expected of senior-management leaders across the Industrial and Manufacturing markets in Europe and beyond. These include:
1. Personal leadership Other than direct authority, personal leadership is definitely required now for nearly 100 percent of executive positions. The matrix configuration of many global organizations requires leaders to develop their own network and to initiate contacts with colleagues working in farflung time zones.
2. Culture fit There must be a deep synergy between the company or group's organizational culture and the behavior and attitude of senior managers.
3. Pressure to produce results More and more companies who change towards harder targets and processes say they want to get results, but they must be achieved "the right way" as a result of careful planning and strategic execution.
4. Personal fit Besides adapting to a harsher competitive environment and global pressures being felt at all stages of the manufacturing process, industrial leaders must have the right personal chemistry with their teams in order to obtain the desired results.
5. Well-rounded perspective Manufacturing and industrial innovators are building new businesses on leaders who bring a global attitude in terms of technical skills, as well as leadership, organization skills and cost controls.
As the rules of doing business within a fiercely competitive industrial and manufacturing environment continue to evolve, so too, do the requirements for world-class management leadership within these markets. In fact, the demands of corporate leadership have never been higher in the industrial and manufacturing markets. The new leadership challenge is to cope with an increasingly faster and 'flat' world, to benefit from ever faster changes by having the courage to exploit new opportunities by leading change instead of following.
