..truly have the right profile for leadership positions.

Among 1153 PSAQ respondents[1], 556 have leadership positions.

54.4% of these managers actually have the right profile for leadership roles.

“People Management” is one of the personal and professional style factors measured in PSAQ.  In summary, the factor measures the combination of the willingness to lead, and the self-assurance one experiences in a management role through motivating others.

Over the years I have personally interviewed over 1.000 professionals, and discussed their profile using PSAQ.  Albeit a bold statement, I can say with great confidence that professionals who do not score high on the “People Management” factor fall in to one of the following categories:

• Better suited in none-managerial functions;
• Still need to grow into the managerial position;
• Should take advantage of Coaching or Management Training[2]

The position itself predicts, to a large extend, the score of “People Management” factor. The possibility of a high score is largely determined by whether or not you already occupy a leadership role. Why am I stating the obvious?  As we can see in table below, managers almost always score higher than non-managers.  However the point of the analysis is in order for managers to function effectively as a leader, he/she needs to have a higher than average score in this factor.

54% of managers have the “People Management” profile; only 21% of none-managers and professional in early career score high in this factor.

It might look counter intuitive, but there is a logic why a large proportion of managers indicate that they are actually not fully satisfied or comfortable in the leadership role.

People come to be in a managerial function for many reasons:

• Sometimes a specific group of professionals by definition are lead by someone with a certain qualification, for example project managers in construction project are almost always led by an engineer, who is not necessarily ready to take up the leadership role.
• Excellent researchers or experts often become the heads of departments due to their expertise, when they actually prefer to concentrate in their chosen subjects.  This is not necessarily a problem if the organization structure is there to support them.
• Naturally, the majority of managers are in their positions because they are suitable for the job and they want to be in leadership roles.

As usual, a subject matter is never finished, and I certainly have not fully characterized the matter at hand.  All commons and additions are welcomed.

In the next steps I will look at the influence of other factors (age, education…) on both the position one holds and whether one possesses a “people management profile.”