Addressing Today’s Leadership Skill Gaps

PAT D’AMICO

FOUNDER AND CEO, ABOUT-FACE DEVELOPMENT, LLC CERTIFIED EXECUTIVE COACH, UC BERKELEY

"I'm confident our leaders know how to lead." These words uttered far too often sum up one of the biggest reality gaps facing businesses today.

Over the past 3 decades, while employed by companies such as Johnson & Johnson and Medtronic and startups, I had the opportunity to experience, design, and deliver numerous leadership development programs. Today, as a leadership/management development consultant and Executive Coach, I work with Fortune 500 companies developing and delivering programs to advance their leadership/management skills.

Some of the things I’ve learned (and continue to observe) have brought me to the following conclusions regarding gaps in leadership/management development and how organizations can address them:

1. Leadership/Management Development is NOT a Nice-to-Have Arguably, more than any other factor overall, organizational success hinges on the abilities of its leaders to drive employees to meet performance objectives and goals. The World Economic Forum survey on Global Agenda revealed that 86% of almost 2,000 respondents agree there is a leadership crisis in the world today. These skills are not innate; they must be developed, guided, and honed. While organizations will state that leadership/management development is a top priority, few offer even the most basic development in this area. I am no longer shocked by its often-total absence. The reality is that when it comes to training, companies almost always prioritize areas such as job, product, services, and process training. When I press them to understand why they do not focus on leadership/management development, most commonly they reply with answers such as "We don't have the budget, "We can't afford the time away from their jobs," and the most disturbing, "It's a nice-to-have." There is some irony here in that I am usually being engaged to assess why the organization is not achieving its objectives. My subsequent discovery is often a lack of management competence.

*Organizations need to accept that leadership/ management competence is a critical driver of success, and commitment to its development is a top priority.

2. Leadership/Management Skills CANNOT be Developed with a Fire Hose A recent Korn Ferry survey revealed that more than half of the business executives rated their leadership development efforts as "fair to very poor." The 2018 Harvard report on the State of Leadership Development stated that only 5% of business leaders believed their programs were "Best in Class." If this data sounds concerning, it should be. One of the primary reasons for this is that today’s corporate leadership/management development programs violate many, including some of the most basic things we know about human learning and development. One of these is attempting critical skill development with a fire hose/blitz approach. What does that look like? Leaders (often only the new ones) are brought in a couple times a year for 1-2 days,