Christina Polito believes she has her executive MBA, taken at INSEAD last year, to thank for her subsequent promotion. The need to know more about what makes a good leader was a key factor in her choice of course. "I wanted to move into a senior management position, so it was important for me", she says.

Now a national director at LaSalle Investment Management, Polito says that what she learnt surprised her. "It's not so simple; people need to learn what works and what doesn't. We discussed, for example, the 'set up to fail'

syndrome, where leaders often make things worse when an employee has done something wrong. They treat them negatively, the person gets bitter and annoyed, and a cycle starts.

"That can define people and prevent them from changing. The right reaction, we found out, is to be helpful and supportive, and to work out why a mistake was made".

Polito thinks leadership is a particularly good subject for women to study. "Women are rising to positions in specific areas - you often get a woman as head of a department, for instance. But people still don't expect to see a woman in one of the top positions. They may not get much encouragement, so it's important for them to be given an opportunity, to learn that they can lead.


"In the past, it was enough to be good at your job - to be the best. You could then be promoted into managerial positions. But great leaders need more than the skills which brought them to the top, they need emotional intelligence. Now people are recognising that these soft skills are important, and that women have them."

Posted in Labels: IMPORTANCE OF SOFT SKILLS