The ever-changing external environment and the challenges and signals transmitted by the European Single Market have greatly contributed to the dynamism of SMEs in Europe. From the privileged place held by the entrepreneur in SMEs, the present study aims to investigate the role of managerial skills in the sustainable development of small and medium enterprises, focused on self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and interpersonal skills of entrepreneurs. The investigation method consisted of the

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... distribution of anonymous questionnaires to a representative sample of entrepreneurs, in the Mehedinți County, Romania. The collected data were centralized, processed, and assessed. The results of this analysis revealed, besides the emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills which have reached a suitable level, a low level of self-awareness. Therefore, this has been considered as a potential barrier towards sustainable development of SMEs in the analyzed region. However, the high level of emotional intelligence, accompanied by an increasing trend of interpersonal skills as the manager's experience in working with people increases, is a strong argument for the sustainable development of SMEs. The study comes to support the public policies concerning small and medium-sized entities by using a model of managerial skills testing for applicants. In this way, an increase of the transparency of financing decision and the effectiveness of financial support are ensured.