Leadership - Most Companies Are Lousy At Developing It..........

Most companies…and their CEOs…are “lousy” at leadership development, says a Fortune magazine article. A feature story appearing in the January 25 edition of Fortune magazine claims that, “Top talent has never been more valuable, nor competition for it more fierce.” This article claims that the competition for top managerial performers makes it imperative that companies get, “serious about growing their own leaders.” Here are some other excerpts from this article:

  

• “Even amid today's massive new supplies of talent, there isn't nearly enough of the very best stuff. Even in China, where you can hire factory workers by the million, companies can't find enough managers. ‘They're constantly getting stolen away,’ says Tom Johnson, former CEO of Chesapeake Corp., a packaging maker with a plant in China. ‘Labor is abundant, but management is scarce.’”


• “The No. 1 skill companies seek in managers is ‘ability to motivate and engage others.’ Ranking a close second is ability to communicate, a trait Neff's clients also increasingly want. How many people with those qualities are you likely to find if you just go out looking? The depressing answer -- not many -- is why many companies are getting serious about growing their own leaders.”


• “Most companies aren’t very good at leadership development.”


• “Companies increasingly realize their pipeline is broken: In that survey from Right (Management Consultants), 77 percent of companies say they don't have enough successors to their current senior managers. Yet they have a miserable time doing much about it.”


• “Sponsorship from the top is key. Not many bosses will match the 70 percent of his time that Jack Welch says he put into development when he was running GE… When a company says it's getting serious about management development, I say great -- just let me see the CEO's calendar"

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