Who is leading your leaders?

One of the key challenges facing organisations throughout 2017 is their leadership capability. During the financial crisis, many CEOs, quite rightly, stripped back their spending and leadership development as it was considered to be a ‘nice to have’.

Fast forward to today and we are now faced with the reality of this lack of investment in our people. Our current leaders are retiring and, due to the lack of focus on succession planning, our organisations have a gaping hole in capability.

As a result, organisations are beginning to look externally. Time and time again we are asked by clients to help them attract mid to senior level managers, who will ideally go on to develop and become future leaders of the business. These are often candidates who are currently operational and are looking to take that first strategic role, enjoying full ownership of their business area.

With the lack of internal development, it is not hard to see why this ‘future leader’ is in short supply. This coupled with the ongoing ‘war for talent’, makes recruiting these individuals extremely difficult and costly. Is it not time to take ownership of our middle management community and develop our own leaders?