LEADERSHIP
DEVELOPMENT
A BRAVE
NEW WORLD
BY TRACEY ROSEBURGH
Welcome to the VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) world where the new scarcity is talent, specifically leadership talent according to the PwC Global CEO survey and Oxford economics Global talent 2021, which state that the number one priority for CEOs is leadership. Yes, you read correctly, leadership came in ahead of meeting with customers, improving organizational efficiency, breaking into new markets and product innovation!
Companies now compete to survive and thrive based on their talent and the tech tonic forces that have come together from globalization, demographics, technology and a multi-generational workforce. These factors combined have shifted the supply, demand and expectations of talent across markets to create something of a perfect talent storm.
There has never been a more difficult nor a more exciting time to be in learning and development. As a profession we are now at a crossroads. We are in the spotlight and our context is a complex and challenging one. The stakes are high and the imperative to step up is critical for our leaders and our companies. We have reached a tipping point where we must each decide if we will be brave enough to challenge the orthodoxy of what we as a profession have been doing for the last few decades. Are we ready to be open to questioning what we think we know about leadership development, about learning and what it means to lead in today’s VUCA world?
If we consider the research the facts are sobering. According to the 2014 Corporate Learning Fact book, by Bersin by Deloitte, companies globally spent 130 billion US dollars worldwide on learning and development in 2013, with the largest bucket, an estimated 35%, going towards leadership and management development. Despite these high levels of investment, global leadership gaps continue to be the most pressing issues on the minds of CEOs, business and HR leaders. The most urgent priority is leadership development and succession management according a joint Mckinsey, Conference Board State of Human Capital 2012 study whose findings were echoed in the Deloitte 2014 Human Capital Trends, which puts leadership as the global and top regional priority across emerging as well as mature markets.
While human capital professionals, CEO’s and business leaders are clear on leadership development being the priority, both CEOs and human capital leaders are not as certain about how to actually tackle the issue. In fact, less than 40% of HC respondents express high confidence in their current approach or consider their efforts innovative.
This begs the question that if we are spending such vast amounts of time and other resources developing talent, then why is it that leadership shortages persist? What we do know is that satisfaction with training unfortunately does not translate into business impact.