Romanian employees mainly appreciate the leaders who offer feedback, establish clear goals, lead by example, and help them build self-confidence, according to a research conducted by HR training company Ascendis.

The Romanians were asked to answer the question What are the qualities of the ideal leader? by assessing eight leadership skills: guidance, shaping values, management that delivers results, performance management, manager mentality, building working relationships, building trust, and communication.

When it comes to the leader’s capacity to guide their employees, 63% of respondents said they mainly appreciate their manager’s ability to give feedback and help them consolidate their knowledge, and 23.5% would like their bosses to know how to explain and demonstrate a situation or a job task.

“The Romanians are more concerned with professional development than other Europeans. I came to this conclusion after interacting with more than 150,000 students in the past ten years,” said Marius Opris, partner Ascendis. “The need of self-confidence is a basic need. We are more productive when we feel appreciated. The new generations appreciate even more these qualities when it comes to their bosses.”

The managers’ ability to shape values comes second in the top of qualities a boss should have. Half of the respondents said that the leader’s ability to build confidence for success was the most important aspect, and 21% said that was important for the manager to make the subordinates want to make efforts.

Romanians also admire managers who delivers results. Some 53% of respondents prefer leaders who set goals that involve the maximum use of capacity, 23% believe that the ideal leader meets the objectives set, and 18% see the boss who indicates the opportunities as ideal.

The leaders’ ability to communicate got the lowest score from the employees who were asked to portray the ideal leader. However, in this category, 30% of employees mainly appreciated the leaders who make sure that everyone understands what to do in a job task, and 25% said they like the bosses who organize communication.

“This response shows that the Romanian employees would choose a pragmatic manager, focused on results, to the detriment of a sociable and communicative one. This is a clear sign of maturity. We also notice that people have very clear expectations from their bosses,” said Marius Opris.

In the performance management category, the employees gave the highest scores to the leaders’ ability to establish collaborative development plans (37% of respondents) and create performance objectives (28%). Meanwhile, in the manager mentality category, the employees said that they mainly appreciated the leaders who engage employees (32%), support a positive thinking (25%), and inspire trust (17%).

When it comes to building working relationships, the employees want a leader who develops his own ideas and the ideas of others (47%), the research shows. In the building trust category, most employees (41%) said they appreciate the leaders who are acting with integrity.

The research was conducted on some 500 people who attended the Ascendis courses organized between November 2015 and March 2016.

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Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com

(Photo: Bossulica the Cat, the first cat manager in Romania)