Leader decisions part 4: How good should Leaders’ VUCA skills be?

Since I published the first article in this series, “How good are Leader’s VUCA skills?” several readers have asked how the average VUCA skills reported there relate to desirable levels. This is a difficult question to answer. Companies vary— in their size, the nature of their work, the diversity of their customers, and the layers of their management structures. All of these things have an impact on the VUCA skills required of leaders occupying particular roles. Consequently, a reasonably accurate answer for one organization would not necessarily be accurate for a different organization.

For more, see Part 1, Part 2, & Part 3.

So, be forewarned, the figure below is nothing more than a rough guide. It’s designed to give you a general idea of the level of skill we’d like to see in different management layers, given the level of skill that’s required to handle the increasing complexity of challenges faced in successive layers.

If you are a Certified Lectical Coach or Consultant, you can use the management layer we have assigned to an individual test-taker to get a somewhat more refined sense of the desirable level of skill required in their role.

Both average scores and ideal scores are represented in the figure below. Existing averages are faded out. As you can see, there’s a bit of a difference between desirable starting values for the four different VUCA skill categories. This is because they are somewhat interdependent. For example, collaborative capacity is composed of skills required in all three of the other VUCA skill categories.

You will also notice that at the top of the management hierarchy, the desirable level of skill is the same for all four VUCA skills, which at this point have become so interconnected that it’s difficult to differentiate them from one another.

The management layers in the table above correspond VERY roughly to the following categories:

• Layer 1: supervisory
• Layer 2: mid-level
• Layer 3: upper level
• Layer 4: senior level
• Layer 5: executive
• Layer 6: corporate CEO
• Layer 7: multinational CEO

What’s the best way to develop VUCA skills?

1. Create an environment that’s supportive of learning.
2. Ensure that employees have skills for learning optimally from everyday experience.

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