Leadership skills: Conclusions and future directions

Mumford, Zaccaro, Harding, Jacobs, and Fleishman have argued that leadership can be understood in terms of knowledge, problem-solving skills, solution construction skills, and social judgment needed to solve organizational problems. In this article, we review the results obtained in a series of investigations intended to examine this proposition. We begin by reviewing the central implications of this skills-based model of leader performance. The strengths and limitations of the available evidence bearing on this model are discussed along with some potential directions for future research. Research directions are considered with respect to model development and refinement, linkages to other models of leadership, and potential practical applications. It is argued that this kind of skills-based model may provide a viable new perspective for understanding leader performance-one particularly appropriate for the dynamic, knowledge-based industries of the twenty-first century.