Competence means possessing the required skills, including client knowledge to excel in a given context. According to the global ‘Cracking the Code of Excellence’ study, the five most important skills that C-level executives and senior managers of Fortune Global 500 and Forbes Global 2000 companies look for in investment banks are:

☐ Technical skills. Technical skills are the specific, practical skills and knowledge required to perform certain tasks.

☐ Interpersonal skills. Building, maintaining, and leveraging relationships with clients and various ‘significant others’ is vital. Competence in this area includes skills like empathy, teamwork, conflict resolution, and networking.

☐ Problem-solving skills. Competence involves the capability to analyze complex and changing situations and develop effective solutions. Critical thinking, creativity, and collaborative and decision-making skills play a significant role in problem-solving.

☐ Ethical skills. Upholding ethical principles, adhering to industry norms and regulations, and maintaining professional integrity are essential components of competence, particularly in investment banking.

☐ Cultural and diversity awareness. In today’s globalized inclusive world, the ability to work effectively in diverse multi- and microcultural environments, respecting and understanding different cultural norms and perspectives, is essential.

Clients dislike rhetoric not backed by the right actions. The right behavior, not talk, is competence. Competence also involves showing respect for the client and being a friendly provider of products and services. Competence is the beginning, the middle, and the end of an effective client relationship.

However, it takes more than competent people to win a client’s business. The behavior of employees should be guided by the right — collaborative — values, norms, and routines. Values trump value. What clients quite often experience is ‘cultural schizophrenia’ — investment bank management verbally (and publicly) declares it wants one kind of culture (a collaborative culture), but creates routines and behaviors, including (financial) incentive systems, that send a clear message to their employees supporting a different kind of culture (a competitive one).

PS. This post, like many other recent and upcoming posts on corporate, investment, and commercial (SME) banking, is based on the research series ‘Cracking the Code of Excellence’. ‘Cracking the Code of Excellence’ explores the reputations of corporate, investment, and commercial banks across the Middle East, Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Oceania, seen through the lens of a large dataset of C-suite executives and senior managers from Fortune Global 500 and Forbes Global 2000 companies. Part one of this series, a study on the corporate reputations of the best wholesale banks in the Gulf region, has just been published. For more details, visit www.pieterklaasjagersma.com/reports.