What are Singapore leaders lacking?

Singapore – Sixty per cent of the skills that form a company’s leadership strength will not be vital to the company in the coming years.

In a research survey conducted by The Center for Creative Leadership (CCL), it was found that leaders across Singapore, India and the USA collectively agreed that four of the most important leadership skills – leading people, strategic planning, inspiring commitment and managing change – are among the weakest competencies of present-day leaders, indicating the presence of a “leadership gap”.

The study, which was conducted from 2006 to 2008, posed several questions to more than 2,000 leaders from 15 companies in the IT and finance sectors in the aforementioned countries, with Singapore comprising of 43% of participants.

Respondents were asked to rate 20 leadership competencies in terms of how important each of those skills is for success in their organisations right now, and how important those skills will be for success over the next five years.

The research found that companies consistently viewed seven leadership skills to be the most important now and in the future: leading people, strategic planning, managing change, inspiring commitment, resourcefulness, “doing whatever it takes” and being a quick learner.

In Singapore, the most commonly identified leadership gaps are: decisiveness, managing change, strategic planning, employee development, inspiring commitment, leading people and work/life balance.

According to John Ryan, president of CCL, “The importance of the survey is that if organisations in Singapore want to have leaders who are prepared to deal with tomorrow’s leadership challenges, they will have to develop these skills which are considered gaps, or risk losing out in the future.”

Sorry, but higher education doesn’t mean higher salaries

Singapore – Most Singaporeans say they would pursue further education in order to advance their careers. The next most popular reasons cited are industry mobility and the need to avoid redundancy, followed by job requirements and company sponsorship.

A recent JobsCentral Learning Survey on private education institutions (PEI) found that among 7,761 respondents, 40% of respondents selected Singapore Institute of Management as their preferred PEI. SIM University came in
second with 33%, while Kaplan University placed third with 27%.

For survey respondents, recognition of the university certificate and the reputation of the PEI were the top two considerations when choosing private institutions. The third most important factor was course fees.

Respondents also said that wages should be commensurate with the employees’ higher qualifications.

Thirty per cent of respondents said they expect a salary increase of 20-29% upon obtaining the next level of academic qualification, while 22% expect an increase of 30-34%. In addition, the remaining 19% expect an increase of more than 50% upon obtaining their next academic qualification.

Lim Der Shing, CEO of JobsCentral said the results indicate the trend that many view higher education as a form of investment which should result in a higher income.

“However, in reality, employers are unlikely to raise the salaries of employees just because they have attained higher academic qualifications,” Lim said.

“Instead, these employees often have to prove that they are able to take on more responsibilities and contribute in new ways before being considered for an increment.

“The relevance of the academic qualification in relation to the job function is also a factor of consideration.”

Business studies was the preferred course for further education, with project management and computing the second and third most popular courses.

Other respondents also cited communications/media and hospitality/tourism as courses they would like to pursue.

The JobsCentral Learning Survey was conducted online from mid July to early August of 2009. Among the respondents, 39% held bachelor degrees and 34% held diplomas. Seventy-one per cent were currently employed and 45% were professionals or executives.

Source: The JobsCentral Learning Survey Report, JobsCentral