80% Indian companies will face shortage of leaders

As Boomers leave the work force, there are not enough Gen-Xers to take their place, a report has revealed.

There is an alarming trend happening across all organisations and industries, particularly in the US, as Baby Boomers (Gen Xers born between 1946 to 1964) are retiring en masse, TEDx speaker Jeff Orr pointed in the 'Leadership Hiring Trends 2019' report.

A leadership gap widening in organisations is becoming a real challenge as Boomers leave the work force and there are not enough Gen-Xers to take their place, Orr added.

Leadership Hiring Trends 2019 (external link) produced by Mercer and Mettl, a talent assessment firm is a compilation of expert insights and survey results collected from more than 500 respondents working in 200+ organisations in the world.

The report is meant to provide insights on the leadership trends, challenges and best practices that organisations of different sizes follow in different regions and
industries, across the globe.

According to the report, 84% organisations rate leadership as an urgent issue that needs to be tackled.

86% organisations globally (including India) anticipate a shortfall in leaders in the next three years.

The report states that majority of organisations (80%) are currently facing a leadership talent shortage.

While most organisations struggle to develop a team of effective leaders, those that do manage to create strong leadership face the risk of attrition.

The challenges

Thirty per cent organisations that participated in the report highlighted the inability/reluctance of their senior management to recognise 'leadership development' as a critical business imperative. 

"Hiring for a CEO or a position in a foreign country might take much longer than a role that is less nuanced or senior," Scott Miller, CMO at FranklinCovey said in the report.

"The less senior the role, the less time it takes. The more senior the role is, the longer your search may be and the more discernment you should employ. Getting the hiring wrong for senior leadership roles is immensely costly, damaging to the culture and the most difficult to unwind without damage to the organization," Miller added.

According to Rachael Harris of Patina Solutions, the biggest challenge faced when hiring leadership is competition.

"Good talent is in high demand, so some of our candidates have a lot of options. When some clients delay a decision, the candidate may have taken another position and is no longer available."

What makes a good leader

The Leadership Development Trends 2019 report also revealed certain traits respondents looked for in a leader.

• 23% of respondents felt that the ability to drive business growth is the hallmark of a successful leader.
• 11 per cent of surveyed organisations identified successful leaders as those who possess the ability to negotiate and build partnerships.
• 8% organisations reported that the ability to lead people and the ability to align personal vision with the organisational objective as the must-have qualities in a leader.

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