The Leadership Gap

Here's an article from the SHRM (Society of Human Resources Management) newsletter called, Leadership Gap Poses Biggest Talent Crisis, Executives Say. Here's a snippet:

Among the findings:

• Gaps in the leadership pipeline (51 percent), creating a performance-driven culture (46 percent) and difficulty filling key positions (38 percent) are the top three talent challenges that respondents cited.

• Just over 80 percent said leadership development is the talent management process most needing improvement and the function that best defines talent management.

• Nearly 70 percent said talent management strategy is the responsibility of groups other than HR, such as the CEO, top management, and/or line-of-business executives.

• Only 23 percent said the pending retirement of key workers is a talent challenge.

I think the source is somewhat dubious (like the tobacco companies doing research on affects of smoking) but agree that filling management roles will be a major challenge because of the boomers but also because more people have do desire to take on management jobs. Why?

Life's too short. Companies have messed up the very roles that can most improve results. The jobs are mucky mucked all up and not set up for success. Oh, and for some, there's this matter called fairness and equity (see David's nice rant here). I see this in many industries, not just tech - also health care, travel, and government. I am guessing it is pretty common across industries.

All that said, it's still the best work if set up well.