Management and leadership: Skills and practices in an SME

Leadership skills – motivating and influencing others and delegating work.

Entrepreneurship skills – identifying customer needs, technical or market opportunities,
and pursuing opportunities.

Technical skills – expertise in a technical or functional area, developing technically
superior solutions.

Organisational skills – organising resources, coordinating tasks.

Strategy formalisation - the extent to which there are formal processes in place for
planning and setting strategy.

Strategy responsiveness - the extent to which strategic planning is adaptive in response
to new information from a wide variety of sources including employees.

Strategy centralisation - the extent to which strategic planning is conducted by a small
group or an individual.

Human Resource Management best practices – selective staffing, investments in
training, variable compensation, employee ownership, performance management,
information sharing, and employee participation in decision-making.


Source: Leadership and Management Skills in SMEs: Measuring Associations with
Management Practices and Performance