Oct

29

The Leadership Vacumm

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IBM just released a study they’re calling the Global Human Capital Study 2008 and it provides some interesting reading and highlights the raising importance of leadership in organisations. The study is the result of interviews conducted with 400 human resources executives from 40 countries. It suggests that companies are putting their growth strategies at risk if they cannot identify and develop the next generation of leaders.

 

IBMCapitalStudy

 

"A lack of leadership capability has become a significant barrier to growth for many organizations… Without sufficient leadership talent, who will set the direction? Who will paint the vision? Who will lead the change? It’s not only an HR issue. It is a business imperative…."

I could not agree more…. Leadership is the key to organisational success. The IBM research found that organisations cite leadership capability as one of their top workforce challenges. When asked "What do you see as the primary workforce-related issues facing the organization?" the participants responded as follows (the responses are reflected in percent):

 

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The report goes on to highlight the concerns that companies are having in developing future leaders….

"Not only are companies concerned with their current leadership capacity, they are confronted by their inability to develop future leadership talent …. Over 75 percent of companies indicate building leadership talent is a significant challenge. Companies in the Asia Pacific region are most concerned with their ability to develop future leaders (88 percent); followed by Latin America (74 percent); Europe, Middle East and Africa, (74 percent); Japan (73 percent) and North America (69 percent). The inability to rotate top leadership talent is also cited as an important issue."

 

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The implications…..?

 

"Companies are finding themselves with a leadership vacuum, with fewer individuals who have the knowledge and experience to guide others through necessary business transformations. Without leaders who can provide the direction, feedback and clarity needed to navigate in a more complex world, companies will struggle to achieve business goals."

The report is available for free from the IBM website after completing their registration form.

 

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4 Responses to “The Leadership Vacumm”

  1. Parking Lot » Blog Archive » Notes and links on October 30th, 2007 8:24

    [...] The leadership vacuum [...]

  2. The Leadership Vacuum | the art of leading on October 30th, 2007 15:07

    [...] of leadership for the growth and competitiveness of business organizations is not debatable. This post from The Practice of Leadership highlights that and is based on a study done by IBM. The Leadership [...]

  3. » IBM Introduces Center for CIO Leadership Development on the heels of their 2008 Global Human Capital Study Sustaining Change: 1-Focus . . . 1-Identity on October 31st, 2007 12:26

    [...] Another recent post  from The Practice of Leadership highlights the broader need for developing leaders on many levels and is based on comprehensive study recently published by IBM.  The report is available for free from the IBM website after completing their registration form, but an excellent summary with some quotes and graphs can be found at “The Leadership Vacuum” post. [...]

  4. Roberta Hill on October 31st, 2007 12:46

    I downloaded the 72 page report and quickly reviewed it. Your post is an excellent summary of the report with relevant analysis and is referenced in our recent post on the initiatives at IBM: http://1-focus.com/sustainingchange/?p=25
    “Unfortunately we continue to see poor alignment between the lack of leadership capability with the obvious (to us) inability to engage, motivate, collaborate, foster learning cultures etc. as identified needs in the survey.”

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