Leadership Gap

IBM recently released a Human Capital Study 2008, a survey of 400 leading HR Executives in 40 different countries (it is a good study, if you have time to review it, just go to their website and download). IBM does some terrific studies.

I found the figure below rather interesting (among many discussing the leadership gap).

Figure 9. Which are the most significant capability-building challenges facing your organization today?

Building leadership talent ~80%
Fostering a culture that supports learning and development ~40%
Rotating leadership talent across business units/geographies ~38%
Passing on knowledge from older to younger employees ~30%
Forecasting skills needed in the near future ~28%
Cross-training individuals needed in other parts of the organization ~27%
Rapidly getting new employees up to speed ~25%
Developing basic skills across the employee base ~18%
Measuring the effectiveness of learning and development activities ~15%

Please note that Leadership talent was the issue in two of the top three challenges. As I have said before, leadership is a key competency and it is extremely important that you retain your leaders and spend considerable time building leadership talent. This is critical for the future success of your organization. Leaders do not grow on trees, they are made one at a time.

If you are a leader, this is a great opportunity for you. If you want to be a leader, spend time investing in yourself . . . skills, career, interesting projects, also try to find a role whereby you can lead which will gain experience and hopefully with a solid track record, you can continue to take on larger leadership roles.