Europe's business brains: poorly led … and leaving

Purpose – The aim of this research is to discover the special characteristics of technical professionals and the leadership skills required to manage, engage and retain these people. It also sought to establish leaders' assessment of their success in leading this particular group of people. Design/methodology/approach – The survey took place over a six‐month period in 2005 and 2006. 898 leaders of technical professionals were surveyed by e‐mail. Leaders from more than 30 organizations in a wide range of industries across four continents representing more than ten functional areas took part. The objectives were to discover: what are the most challenging issues faced by leaders of technical professionals today? What skills and strategies do these leaders believe are most important for success in their jobs? How effective do they think they are? What characteristics are common to the technical professionals they lead? Findings – A very broad range of findings described in the article and full report – available on request. Originality/value – The findings of the report are entirely original and follow on from an earlier study conducted nearly 20 years ago. The paper is of value to leaders of technical professionals in many roles; IT, economics, finance, law, research etc. as they seek to understand the people they lead and to encourage high performance.