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War rages for best new management talent

Baby boomers are reaching retirement age and leaving behind a skills gap

According to human resources (HR) Consulting firms, companies in the West, including Slovakia, will feel a shortage of talented managers in the near future. A recent survey found that half the companies in the Fortune 500 list will lose 50 percent of their management in six to 10 years. Only 25 percent of these firms are confident of replacing those lost. HR experts therefore stress the need to plan ahead.

The reason for the potential manager shortage is that many current managers born during the post-war baby boom years are getting close to retirement age. The trend is accentuated by the low birth rate in the developed world. Also, companies have paid little attention to management succession. In Slovakia, the lack of managers is also connected to the transformation of the economy.

Another factor is that the qualities needed to be a top manager are changing, which makes the process of seeking and finding the right people even more difficult. A good top manager in today's business environment must not only be a good business professional but also have the personality of a leader.

Managers must be able to listen and be aware of the impact their behavior has on a company, its employees, their families and its partners. Experts agree that although it is possible to train a good manager, natural talent is a prerequisite.

HR experts therefore anticipate that companies will lean heavily on executive search consultants to find them the right people: talented and experienced managers who have the right "cultural fit".

"Executive search consulting will grow above the demands of the current global economy," said executive search analyst Joseph Daniel McCool at a recent conference entitled The. 2005 CEE Executive Search Forum in Bratislava, organized by" The Amrop Jenewein Group.

The Slovak Spectator asked experts in the HR and executive search field if the situation is really critical and what sorts of personalities make good modem managers.

The Slovak Spectator (TSS): Organizations in the area of human resources warn that the competition for highly qualified employees and good managers in companies will rise. Do you agree with that? Do you think that Slovakia will experience a lack of highly qualified people for executive positions? What are the reasons for the current state of things in Slovakia and developed countries in the West?

Radomír Mako (RM), managing partner in Amrop Jenewein Group: The war for leaders and talents will become more and more intense in the future. According to one study 50 percent of Fortune 500 companies anticipate losing half of their top management staff in the coming five to 10 years. The loss will be because the baby boom generation is moving towards retirement age.

This, coupled with the significant drop in the birth rate, will cause a great vacuum in human capital in many Western, countries. It will have a tremendous impact on many organizations. The Fortune 500 studies found that only a quarter of respondents were confident that their organizations would be able to fill the vacuum.

The intense demand for managers in Slovakia has been caused mainly by the transformation of the economy and accession into the EU, as well as global trends. Courageous reforms and foreign investments have created a vast demand for high quality human resources, which is reflected in the field of executive search. In response to the new dynamics of the private sector the demand for highly qualified and capable people has also increased in the public sector.

TSS: What role should an executive search consultancy play in this situation?

RM: The role should be a significant one. In Slovakia, doing an executive search is now known as the most effective way of identifying and attracting leaders and talents. It has been like hat in other countries for some time. The proof is there: Many candidates chosen by this method are now success-fully operating in top managerial positions. They have an optimal combination of personal and pro¬fessional characteristics and they have significantly helped their companies to reach or maintain the best positions in various fields of the economy. Executive search consultancy has a great future in Slovakia. Companies sometimes underestimate the complexity of the management succession process. Failure to identify and develop future leaders within the company and being unwilling to acknowledge the idea that one day the current managers will have to be replaced are the main factors why many organizations will be even more dependent on the professional advice of external executive search consultants.

TSS: A good manager should also be a good leader. What characteristics should a leader in the 21st century have?

RM: International surveys and our long-term local experience shows that people who manage to create a balance between their personal talents, professional knowledge and professional managerial skills are the most effective personalities. A leader must also be a strategist, one who doesn't reduce the strategy to techniques and methods. Those are helpful but they can never replace intuition. The art of strategy includes an ability to anticipate developments. A manager must have a developed sense of risk to be a good strategist. Leaders have to be able to take charge of an opportunity and have the courage to take advantage of the moment. They must also have other characteristics such as trust-worthiness, an ability to listen and to motivate.

Recently the characteristics of a leader have changed slightly and a new definition of leader-ship is being mooted. For exam-ple, in the US, following the recent wave of scandals, many organizations do not want to rely on open charismatic managers with excellent communication skills. Today, emotional intelligence (EQ) is preferred. Thanks to EQ, top managers better understand the seriousness of their role and how their behavior impacts not only the good-will of an organization but also its value, its employees and their families, suppliers and so on.

Modesty, humility and a global perspective are important characteristics for 21st century leaders. From this point of view it is expected that the future will belong to Europeans and Asians. American, leaders will be disadvantaged on the market because they speak only English, they usually lack experience of work out-side the US and they have gender or cultural prejudices.

TSS: Do you think it is possible to train a good manager or do you have to be born with such characteristics?

RM: Everybody has a certain amount of innate natural talent. However, no one is perfect and thus in the process of identification and assessment of managers some weaknesses and areas that need improvement are revealed. That makes it necessary to choose appropriate further training for the individual.

For example, mentoring or coaching is a proven technique. The process of management coaching is a form of expert consultancy to achieve ambitious goals, implement new strategic plans with the aim of increasing the effectiveness and competitiveness of an organization.

Coaching is realized in the form of individual interaction between a qualified and experienced coach and a manager in a confidential atmosphere through open discussion, mutual professional inspiration, case studies, concrete tasks, direct constructive feedback and assistance in proposing and setting up concrete plans.