Are You Prepared For The Leadership Drought?

By Andrew L. Thorn

A serious evaporation of leadership talent is plaguing the corporate world. The unavailability of enough qualified people to fill rising leadership vacancies is significantly impacting the ability to achieve business goals. Leaders who know how to lead are in short supply.

 The gap is widening between the leadership skills possessed by the employees of today's organizations and those needed to successfully lead through the complex challenges of tomorrow. Many organizations hope they can remain competitive despite escalating turnover. Others hope fortune will smile upon them and influence the "peak performers" now employed by their competitors to come and fill the leadership void. Leadership development takes time, patience and persistence. Those that do it effectively enjoy a significant competitive advantage. Those that don't are certain to face disastrous consequences.

Creators of corporate strategy understand the impact of leadership on performance and profitability, yet leadership development initiatives often remain on the periphery of an organization's strategic agenda. Despite a huge investment of over 50 billion dollars by US Corporations in 2005, very few leadership development initiatives lived up to the promise of delivering a leadership base ready to take the helm.

It has never been more important than it is right now to accelerate your leadership development strategies. Montgomery Wards is just one recent example of how failure to provide trusted leadership resulted in the demise of an industry giant. Many industry leaders are teetering on the edge of extinction. How will you survive this epidemic?

In the pages that follow, credible research data confirms the emerging leadership drought. In addition, the successful characteristics and pitfalls found in most leadership development programs are identified. Careful alignment of training initiatives with organizational goals will insure your development strategies flourish during the crisis ahead.