Management has been out of fashion for longer than leg warmers. Managers are dismissed as the permafrost who prevent change and the excuse for why important messages from the big corporate leader don’t reach the front line (not that the message was unintelligible, unpalatable or, most common of all in our experience, irrelevant).

And yet, for the most pressing challenges facing business today, managers provide an immediate and sustainable answer.

Mind Gym’s meta-analysis, embracing over 10 million data points, reveals the seven key talents that differentiate the best managers from the rest.