08 May WHAT IS THE LEADERSHIP CONFLUENCE WE FACE RIGHT NOW?
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What is my latest book, Confluence, all about?
Here is a sneak peek into the early pages of the introduction …
‘You and I both know there are some great leaders, good examples of people doing leadership well, in our organisations around the world. But here is the thing. There are simply not enough of these good leaders.
The expectations of leadership have changed significantly. Particularly during the last six years. One key part of this changed expectation is the overt inclusion of the human element. In addition to all the traditional aspects of leadership—delivering outcomes, meeting financial requirements, developing strategy, decision-making, and so on—we now see this human aspect having significance. Everything from social impact and broader economic responsibility, to how we treat the people in our care and whom we serve.
I believe there is a growing recognition in the leadership space that any leader continuing to do things in the same old way is building in their own irrelevance. The world changes so quickly, and will continue to do so, that leaders must be aware of the changing expectations of leadership and continue to elevate the level of their leadership, to evolve their practice of leadership, or become irrelevant.
Leadership talent is a challenge. Many people have left the workforce in recent years. Some of whom have taken with them great leadership knowledge, skill, and capability.
People are making different choices around their careers, which means globally we do not have the same robustness in our leadership talent pipelines. Only about 11% of organisations describe themselves as having a robust leadership talent pipeline. Having people ready to step into the next leadership role across all the leadership roles in their organisation.
What is your leadership talent bench strength like?
I believe we are approaching a point of crisis. We do not have enough good leaders. We are not growing enough good leaders who can contribute to this higher level of expectation of what leadership really is, and the difference it makes to us all in our day-to-day work and lives. Let alone to our industries, our economies, and our society the world over.
You simply need to consider some of the conflicts, challenges, and problems that we face on a global scale. There is far too much. You see the news. You know what these issues are.
We are experiencing a growing crisis of leadership, not enough good leaders to keep the world on the right kind of trajectory for a promising future.
This brings me back to the responsibility of leadership. In particular, the responsibility of big leadership. Expanding our perspective on what it means to be a leader and the role we must play in cultivating good and great leadership.
We appoint people into leadership roles without preparing them. Then we throw them into the next more senior role without preparing them. If they are lucky, we give them a one-day course on leadership. We are not going big enough.
Our leaders, to realise their great potential as leaders, need more support. And we need a bigger pool of potential leaders. Our approach is small.
We see organisations with high potential talent earmarked and given extra opportunities too. Yet everybody in our employee and people pool has the potential to lead in some way. What if we were to focus on equipping more of our people with the universal leadership skills that will allow them to contribute as leaders?
Some of them will go into hierarchical leadership roles and be ready for that. More people, hopefully, will be ready and able to step into these roles. Creating more opportunity, more possibility.
To finish off this concept of the growing crisis of leadership. Continuing the current trajectory means we will have less equipped leaders, and fewer of them, who are able to make the kind of leadership contribution the world needs to create a world of possibility. A world where we are all proactively creating a future we want to be part of. There will be a gap between the leaders we need and the leaders we have.
It concerns me.
It concerns me that not enough leaders are stepping up to grow more leaders.
It concerns me that we are not considering more people as potential leaders.
It concerns me that we do not offer the right kind of initial and ongoing support for leaders.
And it concerns me that we continue to make the mistakes we have made historically, rather than doing different and more to support our people to, at the very minimum, lead self.’
If this snippet piques your interest, you will enjoy the rest of this book. It is a call to real leaders to raise their awareness, ponder the consequences, make a choice and act.
I’d love to know your thoughts.
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