Welcome: What’s wrong with competence?

Words_Ann Francke OBE

CMI's ‘Management Transformed’ study, released in November and featuring input from more than 2,300 managers and leaders, gives us a roadmap for how to approach management in 2021 and beyond. The key findings are listed on the opening page of this magazine. Communications skills, employee wellbeing and building a sense of belonging are among the priorities.

It’s incredibly important that managers continue to focus on the human aspect of their role as we get beyond COVID-19. Some people – including ethnic minorities, young people and women, particularly those with children – have been hit disproportionately hard by this crisis, and they’ll need the support of managers and leaders. We must put these groups at the centre of the ‘build back’ programmes. Of course it’s right that we plug technical skills gaps – in artificial intelligence, analytics, healthcare and so on – but if we don’t have the management and leadership skills, we won’t realise the opportunities these skills bring and we won’t build back national productivity.

‘Management Transformed’ showed that managers need to build trust and work collaboratively, and the UK also needs to be a trusted nation post-Brexit, especially in its relationship with its EU partners. Brexit is adding to the uncertainty for CMI members post-COVID, and managing through this uncertainty is going to require the very skills highlighted in ‘Management Transformed’.

At least it looks as though we’ll have a more collaborative approach from the US in future thanks to the election of Joe Biden. His promises to be an administration that seeks to build partnerships and rejoin global institutions. As someone who is able to vote in both the UK and the US, I’m thrilled to see the return of grown-up, inclusive and collaborative leadership. It will be good to have a US government working with others rather than alienating everyone except its social media followers. It’s a welcome return to a government that respects the rule of law too. As our research shows, when you have people’s trust, you’ll have greater productivity too.

The election of Kamala Harris as vice president is a historic moment. Not only is there now a female VP but also a woman of colour – a double first! Some people have levelled criticism at Biden for filling his cabinet with tried and trusted officials, but I think he is combining new ideas with experience. He’s also appointing people with the capacity to heal and people with a track record of competence; Janet Yellen as Treasury Secretary, for example. The question I’d ask is: what’s wrong with competence?

So as we look ahead to 2021, we must make sure that we don’t go back to factory settings. Management does need to transform, with a human approach and with employees’ real, human concerns at the fore. As the cover of this edition says, it’s time to Be More You.

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