Is Four-C crucial for SUCCESS in the 21st century workplace?
Understanding the Indian Business Environment
Introduction
The modern workplace is full of challenges. Gone are the days, when an employee used to receive a set list of deliverables and instructions for execution. A contemporary workplace demands skills that make an individual exuberate confidence, efficiency, professionalism and most importantly productivity. In order to do so, an individual should be able to build relationships and networks, communicate effectively with confidence, explore opportunities and exercise good judgment. A close look at the competency framework of any 21st century company is likely to reveal these elements of leadership in some form or the other. The nomenclature of these elements may vary; the essence remains the same.
Organisations globally have adopted a core competency framework that includes four elements, collectively known as the Four-Cs of the workplace - Collaboration, Communication, Creativity and Critical Thinking. These skills (the four- Cs) will become even more important to organisations in the future, according to a new survey conducted by American Management Association (AMA).
The American Management Association defines these skills as follows:
- Collaboration and team-building – The ability to work effectively with others including those from diverse groups and with opposing points of view.
- Effective Communication – The ability to synthesize and transmit your ideas both in written and oral formats.
- Creativity and Innovation – The ability to see what’s NOT there and make it happen.
- Critical thinking and problem solving – The ability to make decisions, solve problems and take actions as appropriate.
Considering that employees in India operate in a multifaceted, globalised and fast-paced business environment, we felt that the concept of Four-C has application and importance for the Indian business context. We conducted a pilot survey to gauge the perceptions of Indian executives on the concept of Four-C and how engrained it is across an employee’s life cycle in organisations, with a special focus on leadership and succession planning. In an effort to assess how “top of mind” these skills and competencies are, we surveyed managers and other professionals primarily from the human resource, marketing & communications and sales functions in our member and customer companies. Our survey focused on the importance of the Four-Cs in their respective organizations, today and in the future.
Key Findings of the survey
- 82% respondents felt Communication skills are considered ‘very important’ during recruitment process in their organisation.
- Critical Thinking skills are more important than Creativity or Collaboration during Recruitment and Learning & Development programs in organisations.
- With an increase in managerial level, all the Four-C skills become indispensable for effective leadership
- 80% of the executives rated their top-level managers as exceptional in Critical Thinking and problem solving.
The Four-C Survey in Detail:
WHAT WE ASKED: How important according to you are the Four-Cs given the challenges and dynamics of the 21st century workplace?
Respondents were required to answer this question on a 5-point scale starting from ‘not important’ to ‘very important’. Almost all (>97%) of the respondents saw each of the Four-C skills as being ‘important’ or ‘quite important’ or ‘very important’ in the contemporary workplace. This indicates that all components of the Four-C skillset (namely Collaboration, Communication, Creativity and Critical Thinking) a highly regarded skill set in the West also has wide acceptance in India.
Specifically speaking, Critical Thinking and Communication skills were seen as ‘very important’ by more respondents as compared to Collaboration and Creativity.
While Communication skills have always been given their due importance, it was interesting to see a trend towards acceptance of Critical Thinking as an important workplace skill. The Indian corporate seems to have a consensus that Critical Thinking skills are important for succeeding in the 21st century work place.
Critical Thinking, refers to higher order thinking, comprises three components encapsulated in Pearson Talent Assessment’s Red Model of Critical Thinking.
- R-Recognize Assumptions
- E-Evaluate Arguments
- D-Draw Conclusions
WHAT WE ASKED: What level of importance is assigned to the following skills and competencies (the Four-Cs), during recruitment process in your organisation?
| Collaboration |
50.00% |
| Communication |
82.40% |
| Creativity |
46.60% |
| Critical Thinking |
63.50% |
|
|
WHAT WE ASKED: What level of importance is assigned to the following skills and competencies (the Four-Cs), during learning and development programs in your organisation?
| Collaboration |
63.50% |
| Communication |
76.70% |
| Creativity |
58.30% |
| Critical Thinking |
67.10% |
|
|
According to the survey results, respondents indicated these skills and competencies have been articulated within their organisations as important during various programs and processes like succession planning, recruitment and learning & development programs. Here again, slightly more number of respondents said that Communication Skills (76.70) and Critical Thinking (67.10) were being considered ‘quite important’ or ‘very important’ during important processes and programs in the organisation (as against Creativity and Collaboration).
Since Communication skills and Critical Thinking skills repeatedly emerge on top of the list, a question comes to mind - are their effective ways of assessing these skills?
While Pearson Talent Assessment’s Versant English Test is India’s most widely used, fully-automated test of English language in the country, Pearson Talent Assessment provides its clients a unique tool that assesses and addresses Critical Thinking, Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal II. While most professionals sub-consciously apply Critical Thinking, this tool helps one understand the process of Critical Thinking at the same time understand their strengths and weaknesses in their Critical Thinking process. Given the importance of Critical Thinking and its strong correlation to job performance this tool helps professionals leverage their strengths and work on their weaknesses.
Today, the organisations seek individuals who can communicate well and demonstrate higher order thinking abilities. Critical Thinking and Communication skills are the top skills according to the respondents to perform well at contemporary workplace. One easily comes across job-openings asking for individuals with “High level Critical Thinking skills required”. Learn more about Critical Thinking at www.thinkwatson.com
WHAT WE ASKED: How would you rate people in different levels of management on Four-C skills?
The above graph shows how many respondents rated people in different levels of management as these skills bring above average or exceptional.
The findings of this survey suggest that as an individual moves up the ladder and attains greater experience, all the four skills and competencies change their status from “good to have” to “must have”. Considering the future business landscape such as greater ambiguity and uncertainty in business environment, global competition, and successful motivation of teams – collaborative leadership and pressure to demonstrate return on investment, it is imperative that leaders should be identified on the skills and qualities that will become critical for the times ahead.
According to Dr. Sunitha Murthy, Product Development Leader, Pearson Talent Assessment, “You may assess aptitude for lower and middle level but when it comes to top notch you want to understand if the person would be able to make decisions without any biases, differentiate between a fact and an opinion and draw conclusion from the sea of information he has.” Simply put, you want to assess if the candidate has Critical Thinking skills.”
Coming to the details, when asked, how equipped are the current top-level managers in these competencies, a whopping number of executives said their top management employees were above average in effective communication skills (87.2%), collaboration and team building (77.5%) and creativity and innovation (70%). Interestingly, 80% of the executives rated their top-level managers as exceptional in critical thinking and problem solving. Similarly, mid-level managers were considered as above average across these four skills and competencies. In comparison with top and middle-level managers, lesser number of executives quoted their entry-level managers in communication (55%), creativity (31.5%) and above average in critical thinking (42%) and collaboration (39.2%) as above average.
A clear difference in the level of Four-C skills between the top level and the others suggests that reign of Four-C skillset has arrived. The companies have accepted these and these are well articulated in different programs and processes in the organisations. Individuals at the top level possess these and it acts as a differentiating factor for Leadership roles when compared to other levels of management.
Some final thoughts…
“It is a generally accepted fact that communication skills are the most important skills required to bridge the employability gap at the entry level of employment. However, as one moves above the entry level, employers today increasingly assess candidates for qualities that will help them differentiate between average to good performers and future leaders. For example, organisations are now assessing graduates from top B-Schools for critical thinking, besides other skills and abilities. Many organisations use the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal while recruiting individuals from leading B-schools or for filling their top-level positions. Critical thinking is clearly high on the priority list, when it comes to filling an important and challenging position.”
– Saurabh Singh, National Head, Talent Assessment, Pearson Talent Assessment.
Respondents’ Profile:
Respondents were in managerial positions for a minimum of three years and represented the following functions:
| Administration |
5.50% |
| Finance |
2.70% |
| Human Resource |
23.30% |
| General Management |
8.20% |
| Marketing and Communications |
17.80% |
| Operations |
8.20% |
| Sales |
15.10% |
| Systems / IT |
11.00% |
| Other |
8.20% |
|
Contact us, for further information on the survey.
