The perceived importance of VUCA-driven skills for 21 st century leader success and the extent of integration of those skills into leadership development programs.

摘要

The 21st Century Leader must thrive in an environment of unprecedented volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA). In order for leaders to be effective, new skills are necessary. This study measured to what extent business leaders perceive 10 new leadership skills identified as Maker Instinct, Clarity, Dilemma Flipping, Immersive Learning Ability, Bio-Empathy, Constructive Depolarizing, Quiet Transparency, Rapid Prototyping, Smart-Mob Organizing, and Commons Creating as important. The study measured perceived importance relative to addressing (a) strategic priorities, and (b) immediate pressing problems, and measured the extent the 10 new leadership skills are integrated into leadership development programs. Results verify all skills are perceived important at some level, and seven types of VUCA challenges and business priorities emerged as driving the overall perceived importance of the skills. Clarity and Dilemma Flipping respectively are perceived as most important for addressing both strategic priorities and immediate pressing problems. The order of importance for the remaining skills differs based on the context of (a) addressing strategic priorities and (b) addressing immediate pressing problems. Descriptive analysis revealed differences between industries and organization size; however, inferential statistical results revealed no significant difference between industry demographics or organization size and perceived importance of each skill. All 10 leadership skills are currently integrated into leadership development programs; however, the extent to which each skill is integrated differs by skill, and less than 20% of the respondents indicate any one skill is fully integrated. Results confirm the current extent of integration compared to the expected integration in the future varies by skill, with the majority of responses revealing the same or more integration in the future.