By Jonathan Kwok

SINGAPORE business and other leaders excel at picking up new skills quickly and at adapting to new and difficult situations, a new study has found.

Civil servants were singled out for special praise as among the world's best.

It also found that these skills of managers in both the public and private sectors are coming in extremely handy as Singapore rides out the recent economic downturn.

The survey was carried out by a United States-based training and research organisation, the Centre for Creative Leadership (CCL).

'Many organisations have changed their strategies to adapt to the crisis by, for example, cutting back on training costs,' said CCL programmes and promotions manager Jane Koo.

'Singaporean leaders and their companies are quick to change to adapt to the situation at hand, and this could also be seen during the H1N1 scare, when many firms quickly put in place contingency plans to prevent the spread of the disease,' Ms Koo added.

The study, conducted between January 2006 and December 2007, polled about 950 Singapore managers from multinational corporations, small and medium-sized enterprises, statutory boards and Government-linked companies.

Those polled were leaders from middle management right up to top executives.

They were asked to grade the competencies of other leaders in the same organisation, a method CCL says cuts bias as 'people are better at judging others than judging themselves'.

Explaining the study's findings, Mr Sureish Nathan, managing director of CCL's Asian operations, said: 'From its inception, Singapore has positioned itself with an outward perspective. The need to change and assimilate is always there for a global city that rides the global challenges and regional tides. In line with this, local leaders have learnt to be quick to change as well.'

Special praise was reserved for the leaders in Singapore's public service, whom CCL president John Ryan described as 'among the best leaders that (he has) found across the world'.

'They are among the best educated and most professional people in public service that I find...Your civil servants are not only very solid leaders, they have also been through very good developmental programmes, and have had good experience being rotated among various agencies,' he said.

'By the time they get into a position to lead others or to lead an organisation, they are quite professional.'

There was some criticism, however. The survey cited some key gaps in leadership that Mr Ryan said could seriously undermine the performance and growth of local organisations if left unaddressed.

Critically, Singapore leaders fall short when it comes to inspiring commitment among their charges, directing and motivating people, as well as in coaching employees to develop in their careers.

Mr Nathan put these leadership gaps down to cultural factors. 'Asian culture tends to be more directive, with an emphasis on respect for authority. Engagement and participation are thus limited on the part of the employees,' he said.

'Of course, this runs counter to inspiring commitment and motivating employees...Although there is no immediate problem arising from this, this means that some companies will not harness the full potential of employees, who will perform better if you engage them fully.'

Commenting on the results, human resources consultancy firm Towers Perrin said another crucial factor to have helped Singapore businesses stay relatively unscathed amid the economic crisis was the risk management ability of their top staff.

'Some of my clients are very explicit about the level of risks that they are willing to take in their businesses, and they will not take excessive business risks. It is a conscious decision,' said Mr Michael Drawhorn, managing principal of Towers Perrin's Singapore and Malaysia operations. 'Because of that leadership style for many Singaporean businesses, that prevented Singapore from taking as deep a dive during the economic downturn, when compared to foreign companies or leaders that were willing to take on more risks,' he added.

He agreed with Mr Nathan that the 'Asian culture' could prevent some Singapore leaders from engaging their employees, leading to problems.

'Leaders have to have a culture set-up where they encourage challenge. I do work with some organisations in Singapore where it's more of a top-down approach to leadership, and culturally, sometimes people don't challenge their leaders as much as we might see outside of an Asian context.'

Adverse effects of such an authoritarian style can include the stifling of dissenting and diverse opinions, which should be taken into consideration when making business decisions, as well as difficulty in attracting and retaining highly talented individuals, Mr Drawhorn said.

Mr Sean Lee, chief executive of shipping company Marco Polo Marine, felt that external pressure, especially from the emerging markets, is forcing Singapore leaders to learn to be resourceful in order to stay ahead of the competition.

It is this same pressure that is forcing managers here to become less rigid in the way they interact with their employees, so that they can attract the right talent, Mr Lee said.

'It is overly harsh, and not very true, to say that Singapore leaders are bad at managing and engaging people. You do find many leaders who are very creative in engaging their employees,' he said.

Strengths and weaknesses

According to the Centre for Creative Leadership's survey, Singapore leaders have the following strengths and weaknesses:

Strengths:

• Quick learners
• Resourceful
• Show perseverance under difficult situations
• Culturally adaptable
• Respect individual differences

Weaknesses:

• Leading people
• Inspiring commitment
• Employee development
• Balancing personal life and work
• Putting people at ease

This article was first published in The Straits Times.