WeChat, the Chinese social media app,
to roll out their competency models --
educating their leaders, increasing their
leadership literacy, and creating engaging conversations about how the behaviors in the model define future success.
Others are mandating the use of the
competencies and finding that initially
skeptical leaders are embracing them
once they understand how competencies can improve day-to-day operations.
• Addressing the quality of young leaders
who are promoted very quickly and yet
remain immature in their skill set is an
active challenge for the leaders we talked
to. What takes a western leader up to six
years to achieve, many Chinese leaders
are able to achieve in two or three years.
Young leaders are receiving simulation
assessment feedback or development
learning or both tailored to the way Chinese leaders want and need to learn.
Clearly, Chinese auto makers are ag-
gressively preparing their operations and
talent for M4.0. But what constraints
or hurdles will they need to overcome
when it comes to talent in order to build
and sustain growth? At DDI, one of our
core competencies is executive and senior
leader “day in the life” behavioral assess-
ment centers, similar to those mentioned
above as being key tools to improve leader
quality for M4.0. We consolidated the last
two years of our senior leader assessment
data for China to look at trends and gaps
relative to M4.0 key competencies. In this
analysis, we found a clear strength and two
critical gaps, outlined below.
Strength: Drive for Execution. First,
in figure 1 below shown in blue, it is clear
that the passion for results and executional competencies are strengths of Chinese
leaders. But, these competencies alone are
not enough to carry Chinese leaders in to
and through M4.0 or China 2025.
Gap: Employee Engagement Skills. Similar to manufacturing leaders the world
over, the findings below in the orange circle
indicate that Chinese leaders received low
scores on groups of competencies relat-ing to “engagement” and “involvement.”
Competencies like coaching, leading
................... ................... ................... ................... ................... ................... ...................
Many Chi-
nese manu-
facturing
companies
are com-
pletely over-
hauling their
competency
models to in-
clude a more
futuristic fo-
cus on Manu-
facturing 4.0.
Cultivating NetworksInfluence Coachingand
DevelopingOthers Empowerment/ Delegation LeadingChangeEstablishing StrategicDirection Entrepreneurship DrivingExecution BuildingOrganizational Talent FinancialAcumen BusinessSavvy CustomerFocusOperational DecisionMaking PassionforResults
1.4
1.5
1.6
1.7
1.8
1.9
2.0
2.1
Innovation Lags in China
Chinese Manufacturing Industry Executive Assessment Data (2014-2016)
Engagement Gaps
Innovation
Gaps
Execution Strengths