✏ Six-Figure Leadership: Preparing Future Leaders

Amazing how a headline can catch you, right? Unfortunately, this blog isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme; in fact, it’s quite the opposite. If you’re in the game to lead, it’s a long one. Unfortunately, time is not on our side right now. We are facing serious leadership talent gaps. There simply aren’t enough effective and experienced leaders out there to keep up with the innovation and growth of the business sector. The concern is that we are too slow in our actions to proactively address the need to foster leadership from within our organizations. Why do this matter so much?

Leadership is the key to maintaining a competitive edge; it is a critical component of creativity, organizational development and productivity.

Senior leadership does not devote enough attention to build and empower leaders. Many current leaders lack the skill to build and sustain a healthy corporate culture because they are underqualified. If not addressed, these statistics will pose a threat to the future of leadership and success in business. And without a solid foundation of leadership, we are setting ourselves up to fail.

“As we look ahead into the next century,
leaders will be those who empower others.”
– Bill Gates

So let’s look at those six-figures I referenced earlier — a half-dozen statistics that aspiring leaders need to understand as they advance in their careers.

36% of organizations say their leadership development practices are still below average or poor, as surveyed in Brandon Hall Group’s State of Leadership Development Study (https://trainingmag.com/study-shows-leadership-development-rated-below-average-or-poor-more-one-third-organizations)
43% of those asked the question, “What phrase best describes your current leadership development programs?” answered either “inconsistent” (31%) – good in parts, but requiring significant improvement in some areas, and “underperforming” (12%) – basic and requiring significant improvement, according to the Harvard Business “The State of Leadership Development” Research Report (2016), (https://www.harvardbusiness.org/sites/default/files/19770_CL_StateOfLeadership_Report_July2016.pdf)
In 2014, the Washington Post verified that approximately 10,000 baby boomers were retiring every day; that equates to 4 million baby boomers retiring per year, and it is already proving to have a massive impact on organizations. One serious challenge that businesses are facing today because of the mass boomer exodus is a decay of organizational knowledge. (https://www.washingtonpost.com.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2014/07/24/d0-10000-baby-boomers-retire-every-day/?utm_term.478836e156f)
60% of employees don’t understand their organization’s goals. Most managers and executives work hard, but hard work isn’t the same as leading the way. Harvard Business Review, McKinsey and Gallup all cite how managers spend their time as the root cause of these terrible employee statistics – too much time spent on low-level tasks such as getting and reporting facts, and not enough spent on communicating goals, holding people accountable, and providing coaching and feedback. (https://www.workboard.com/blog/leadership-leap-year.php)
84% of organizations anticipate a shortfall of leaders in the next 5 years. This may be a result of another statistic contained within the Hall Study that says 91% of millennials plan to stay at their current job for fewer than 3 years, according to Brandon Hall’s “State of Leadership Development 2015: Time to Act is Now (https://www.harvardbusiness.org/sites/default/files/19770_CL_StateOfLeadership_Report_July2016.pdf)
Let’s stick with millennials: 63% of millennials feel their leadership skills are not being fully developed by their employers. Meeting millennial learning needs with your training programs will not only help to develop and build your internal leadership pipeline; it will also help to increase millennial engagement and retention for the future. (https://blog.elucidat.com/5-stats-corporate-leadership/) (https://www.hrpa.ca/Documents/Public/Thought-Leadership/HRPOA-Millennials)

Implementation systems take time to develop.
We need to start now to ensure we are
properly preparing for future leaders.

Most companies feel as if they have sufficient training programs, but it stops there. There are no developmental procedures in place to follow and train as these leaders expand in tenure. If we know that our employees are going to learn from experience, mentorship and coaching, why don’t we apply the same principle to leadership?

Are organizations empowering their employees to feel confident that developmental opportunities are within to promote a high-trust, transparent environment where people do want to advance? Have potential leaders been identified? Are there succession plans for critical roles? What does the road map look like for future leaders and what do they need to accomplish to get there? One company I know has such a proactive culture of growth and promotion that if they are in a role overseeing a department for more than 2 years without moving up, that is a red flag.

Implementation systems that set set future leaders up for success take time to develop. It’s vital that we start today to ensure we are properly preparing for tomorrow’s leaders.

“Connect the dots between individual roles,
and the goals of the organization.
When people see that connection, they get a lot of energy out of work.
They feel the importance, dignity, and meaning in their job.”
– Ken Blanchard

Humbled to lead,

#chargeup #chargeuptoday #lessonsinleadership #payitforward #leadership #lead #process #strongleader #patience #leadershipjourney #resilience #failure #success #moveforward #areyouready #leadandfollow #sixfigures #millennials #seniorleadership #stateofleadership

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