This article originally published in 2011 references an earlier survey.

Senior executives routinely evaluate the performance of others in the organization and often point out areas of improvement that must be addressed.  A  survey that allowed company stakeholders to assess the skills of senior executives provided some sobering findings.  The verdict: most companies feel their executives need improvement.

What Employees Really Think About Leadership

Specifically, the survey by the outplacement and executive coaching firm, ClearRock, finds that two-thirds (67%) of companies feel senior executives need to improve their leadership skills. This includes the usual areas of strategic planning and visioning. Stakeholders do not stop here in their assessment of senior executives however.

Many of the top ten skills that companies feel leaders need now are people-skills. In the eyes of company stakeholders, communications, interpersonal effectiveness, team building, and motivation are all areas where senior-level executives need to improve. Communications are particularly problematic as respondents reported that senior leaders either did not communicate well or they did not communicate at all. Communications ranked among the top three of the skills that senior executives most need to improve.

Finally, as noted in Training & Development Magazine, employee engagement has been declining steadily for years. Employees are unclear of the overall direction of the company and of how their individual performance contributes to the overall success of the organization. As the economy emerges from the Great Recession, the lack of clarity that employees feel and the perceived gap in the leadership skills of senior executives are serious problems for organizations.