Solving The Global Leadership Crisis?

If you don't believe there's a global leadership crisis then where have you been?

If you care to Google "leadership articles" you'll see - About 574,000,000 results (0.56 seconds) - so you might think today's leaders would be well equipped to handle anything. All you need is to start reading and then, of course, taking action and using your new-found knowledge. But any leader of any repute will know, it's all about taking action and not what you know.

"Leadership is about Doing"

And these leaders, few though they may be, have the Can Do Attitude to do it.

So to those leaders of today that want to be better, this article will help you understand what may be blocking your progress.

Now let's go spread the net beyond you - what about your team, friends and colleagues? Maybe they should know what's blocking them in the leadership stakes?

And further still... what about your children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews? Are they being prepared for their future apart from academic or vocational qualifications?

Tomorrow's Leaders - what they will see

This short article aims to put a few things in perspective and give some hope to the leaders of the future - the students of today - that if they listen and take action today, it won't happen to them or their friends.

But let's get some context for them. Chris Pearse in a Forbes article on 7 Nov 2018 said

 'A startling 86% of respondents to the Survey on the Global Agenda agree that we have a leadership crisis in the world today.'

There is an alarmingly weak correspondence between power and competency. Those in power are not necessarily up to the job of discharging their responsibilities to the benefit of those they lead.

As you'll read in the article competency isn't just technical but more importantly, it's the soft skills, empathy, emotional intelligence etc that are fundamental but all too often missing from a manager's or leader's personal toolkit.

Another Forbes contributor Rasmus Hougaard who together with Jacqueline Carter, and a global research team from Potential Project, conducted a two-year study on 35,000 leaders, to unravel the state of leadership in organizations. The full alarming article is here. In it, he quotes

A 2016 Gallup poll found that only 18% of managers demonstrate a high level of talent for managing others – meaning a shocking 82% of managers aren’t very good at leading people.

For those of an older generation, you may wonder why Peter Drucker's. Ken Blanchard's or Brian Tracey's leadership insights are so sparse? Today just Google Leadership Experts and - 407,000,000 results (0.55 seconds) - so lots to choose from eh?

But to inject some hope of a solution for today's management David K. Williams from Forbes interviewed me in 2017 (article here) and knew from his wide experiences that:

• Can-Do people are eager to expand and grow, and perpetually deliver.
• The Attitude of Won’t-Do’s is contagious, destroying engagement and culture and dragging backwards on company growth.

Tomorrow's Leaders - a solution

If you carefully read David Williams article you might think

"can this be expanded from a business context into other contexts?"

The simple, short answer is yes and he wrote about in another Forbes article in 2018.

Of course, solutions need some proof - so here's 1 randomly chosen from a recent batch of graduates who are now doing their Masters.

The bottom line for tomorrow's leaders is that technical qualifications are no longer enough. It's a fact and if nothing else should be completely understood by every 16 year old across the globe!

You must have more in your toolkit! For instance, STEM skills (or as I prefer STEAM to include the Arts) are discussed extensively in many schools as being important but are not "taught" as it's assumed they are learnt. We teach maths for 14 years yet what school curriculum has included the teaching of the 10 STEM skills? This YouTube video explains more ...

How Can You Help?

As they say, sharing is caring - so just by sharing this article you will let others know the truth and that there's the hope of a solution for today's and tomorrow's leaders.

Of course, we want to help everyone in leadership positions today and their succession plans. Sharing this will go a long way to doing that! Raising their awareness is a massive step to solving the crisis.

However, if you want to help young people at school, college, university and those that are struggling with employment then there's more you can do:

• Keep informed here www.yp2grow.com
• Become an Ambassador, Partner or Affiliate
• or an idea of your own!

Before I close... for a moment just imagine your organisation with no leadership crisis and a fully engaged workforce from CSuite to shop floor - what would the performance be like? Add to that succession planning with an endless line of Can Do candidates? What if you really believed that were possible?

Whatever you decide to do, even if you don't believe it, it's always your choice.

So what's yours?

All the best

Neville Gaunt

#leadership #behaviouralwaste #youngpeople #STEMskills #attitude #CanYouHandleTheTruth