16/09/2011 A leadership crisis in the making?
A recent survey from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) paints a rather worrying picture for the development of our next generation of leaders.
According to the CIPD survey of 367 leaders and 56 UK HR professionals, six in 10 leaders and HR professionals aren’t particularly enamored with their company’s leadership development programmes, and around two in 10 think that they are downright
ineffective. Hopefully those in question will do something to sort out the problem before it is too late, particularly given that only a third of UK leaders and one in five HR professionals rate the quality of leadership within their organisation as ‘high’.
These findings certainly make a clear case for more leadership development and show that more needs to be done to ensure that leaders and future leaders are getting the right training – training that is relevant to the individual and businesses’ needs. The recession has no doubt had a significant bearing, but it is in hard times such as these, that leadership needs to come to the fore.
What leaders rate as important skills and qualities among their peers in the next three years also makes for interesting reading. These were driving and managing change (69 per cent), making difficult decisions (34 per cent) and executing organisation strategy (32 per cent). Three drivers of leadership quality were also highlighted in the findings – leadership development, talent management and management culture.
While money remains tight at the moment for most organisations, investing in developing leadership talent now will not only pay dividends in the short-term, but will go a long way to safeguarding businesses in the future. Those companies that put their efforts into shaping employees into the next generation’s Sir Terry Leahy, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs will be heavily rewarded.
