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The New Leadership Frontier

Written by: G.J. Miller

Article Overview: The next decade is expected to present three major challenges for leaders. • Skills shortages • Employee Retention • Innovation Skills Shortages • In 2006, 9 out of 10 U.S. Manufacturers polled indicated they could not find enough skilled workers to fill the jobs needed to run their shops. • 64% of HR Professionals polled indicated recruiting is their leading challenge and they expect that to continue • Three-fifths of the new jobs in this century will need skills that only one-fifth of today’s workers have • Nearly 3 out of 10 employers worldwide said they would have hired more workers last year but were unable to find qualified applicants

The New Leadership Frontier

The evolution of populations is impacting the global workforce. Both developing and developed countries are experiencing talent shortages as their workforces evolve. Rapid growth in developing nations and retiring baby boomers are creating talent shortages.

Leadership will require strategic planning to acquire skill sets for just in time staffing, creativity in job design and unique sourcing strategies.

Retention
39% of respondents to a 2006 Watson Wyatt survey identified retention of qualified workers as a major issue for their organization.

Studies have shown that people leave organizations more often because of poor management and leadership than for any other reason – including pay.

Skills to motivate and reward individuals and teams will be more critical than ever. Hiring for culture fit and leading in a way that makes people want to follow is the best way to keep people!

Innovation
Innovation will be a pre-requisite for success and therefore even more of a corporate priority than the results from the AMA/HRI Innovation Survey indicated in 2006. Survey respondents believe innovation will be more important over the next decade – and yet they say organizations are only moderately good at it.

And current data implies that the majority of innovation efforts fail to meet or exceed return-on-investment goals. Why?

Successful innovation does not just happen. Tone at the top or leadership will continue to be the key driver in creating and sustaining a culture for innovation. The biggest barriers are:

• Insufficient resources
• No formal process or organizational consensus on how to evaluate new ideas; which ones to select or pursue and when to terminate projects

Leaders will need to:

o Have the ability to select the right ideas
o Develop sound strategies
o Design suitable organization structures
o Reward appropriate risk taking
o Focus on Customer long term needs
o Foster teamwork, communication, collaboration
o Balance company controls with freedom to innovate
o Value diversity
o Measure success

Future leaders must shape the organization, its culture, and philosophies in a way that allows creativity and innovation to thrive.

Unfortunately, too often leaders have the opposite effect in organizations. If not properly selected, developed and motivated, they can disrupt innovations by creating bureaucracy, squashing new ideas or withholding autonomy from team(s).

Becoming a good leader in the next decade will not be easy. Organizations must start now to develop high potentials. Selection and retention programs and succession plans really need to take these future skill requirements into account.

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Article Tags: baby boomers, corporate priority, developed countries, developing nations, global workforce, hri, innovation efforts, insufficient resources, investment goals, organization structures, organization studies, organizational consensus, poor management, return on investment, skill sets, sound strategies, successful innovation, survey respondents, watson wyatt, workforces



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