Member Article

Who will lead your business in 2018?

The last five years have seen a period of unprecedented change for many UK organisations, writes Ian Symes, general manager, Right Management UK & Ireland.

While we are now entering a period of improved economic stability, it’s clear that the need for strong leadership to navigate organisations through permanent white water is becoming more critical than ever before.

In fact, our recent research, The Flux Report, revealed that leadership and management skills are the most important skills needed for employees in order to drive growth over the next five years. Our research also indicated a number of interesting conflicts that are emerging in organisations.

Nearly three quarters of HR decision makers expect leadership teams and board members to become younger by 2018 and to be promoted from within the business, but only a quarter of line managers see themselves working in a more senior role with their current employer in five years’ time. This begs the question – will organisations find themselves facing a leadership gap?

Talent gaps at the top of an organisation could be catastrophic, so how can businesses build a robust leadership pipeline?

Career development

Career development is key. 80 per cent of line managers that we surveyed in The Flux Report agreed that they have had to learn more and develop faster to succeed in their role than they did five years ago. But only 43 per cent have a clear idea of how they can progress in the next five years.

Businesses need to regularly speak to employees about where they’re currently at and where they see themselves in the future. Engaging with and developing leaders early on is crucial and having a more strategic workforce plan in place ensures that both the organisation’s and employees’ goals are aligned.

Talent management

A common challenge is that many organisations lack proper succession and development programmes. Regularly reviewing employees’ skill-sets through talent audits and reviews, and mapping these against future roles, is an effective way to identify strengths and gaps in the workforce. It also enables businesses to create meaningful operational and development plans that will both engage and develop high potential employees.

This targeted development needs to start early on in employees’ careers and organisations must look beyond those already in senior roles for this. More employees are expecting the future leaders of their organisation to come from within, so businesses need to recognise that their next leaders could be from a wide variety of backgrounds and roles within the organisation.

Accelerating leader development

Once potential leaders have been identified, leadership coaching can help to successfully move those employees into positions of greater responsibility. Coaching is also an effective way of preparing potential leaders for their new role, or to embed the learning of leadership programmes and training that are already underway. With its roots in psychotherapy, coaching has long been established as an effective tool for developing successful business leaders but it’s only in recent years that it has really taken off as a positive and proactive application at all levels of the workforce.

The leadership imperative is clear. If businesses are going to make the most of improved economic conditions, they need to put people at the heart of their plans. They need to provide their high potential employees with the support, structures and vision that they need to envisage a future role in the business.

Creating a robust leadership pipeline will secure the long-term sustainability of any organisation, but it can’t be done without effective coaching and development plans. In today’s fast-paced business world, trying to retrofit talent at the top simply isn’t a credible option.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Right Management .