L. Duksaitė: How does a manager stay relevant in the labour market?
Is there a fashion for competences, or do the fundamental requirements for managers remain the same year after year?
Laura Duksaitė-Iškauskienė shared this at the American Chamber of Commerce’ s Leadership Conference “What will business choose: to lead or to adapt?”.
- Laura notes that those managers who have a craft remain relevant. They have excellent knowledge of a field – that is, not only general managerial experience, but also specific knowledge of a particular area.
- On the wave are also those managers who have valuable experience of economic cycles: who know what it means to survive a crisis, how to get a company out of a hole, how to work in the face of a force majeur (Covid or war), who have led a business through both a growing and a slowing economy.
- Managers who join boards as independent board members are valued: this means that they not only share their experience and best practices, but also bring this knowledge and contacts back to their market by working with top professionals there.
- Practical experience is undeniably essential, but so is theoretical development, so updated or additional knowledge gained in academic institutions is valued. It also reflects a value-based attitude to periodic learning. Whether it’s a new ISM module or a Coursera course.
- Contextual knowledge is another thing that is intangible, but important. And not just in your own field – but more broadly. That’s why CFOs should choose sales conferences instead of finance conferences, for example, and vice versa. This prevents them from boiling in their own circle and in their own juices.
- And, of course, a wide range of contacts. Contacts are just as important as expertise. The importance of contacts and the loss of local context is particularly acute for executives posted abroad. The second time they feel it is when they come back to Lithuania to manage again a few years later. (Laura shared this in this post).
For more moments from the conference, see our LinkedIn.
