America’s Leadership Shortage = Your Opportunity!
Senior leaders are retiring at a rate that has made it impossible for companies across all industries to replace them with seasoned, trained and fully capable leaders. The best strategy is to groom talent from within: Not by pushing young talent into the water so that they can learn how to swim or sink, but by creating and implementing thoughtful and systematic processes of succession planning and leadership development.
Only 4% of U.S. employers report having confidence that their leadership pipeline will cover most of their management needs, a statistic that ranks far below most other countries. So why isn’t there a strong sense of urgency?
HR and Training Development professionals report that the main obstacle they face when it comes to leadership development in their organizations is “balancing long-term and short-term business requirements.” Indeed, “leadership development” is historically treated as an “important but not urgent” issue and is thus sidelined in favor of more pressing problems.
But as boomers retire and vacancies multiply, leadership development and succession planning will switch from back-burner to front-burner issues. Companies that are ahead of the game are already reaping the benefits—after SAP deployed a multi-year leadership development program, it started noticing increases in employee engagement, company trust scores, and ultimately its net operating profit.
The clock is ticking for organizations to address the looming leadership deficit and prepare the next generation of leaders.
Taking Action
America is in the midst of a serious and ever-increasing shortage of qualified leaders in all types of professions, industries and organizations. If you’re a member of Generations X and Y and desire to serve in a leadership role, there’s a high probability that you’re going to be provided with the opportunity to do so. What’s about to happen is a veritable “Gold Rush” of opportunity for those seeking to serve in leadership roles.
The obvious question is…”Will you be ready to lead?”
-Mike Ettore
