Leadership development imperative to employee engagement and performance

The ability of managers to empower their workers depends on a wide variety of factors, but nearly all of them route back to leadership skills. Certainly, there are problem employees, and some may be discouraged by low compensation. However, the ability of managers to motivate their workers is a critical skill that organizations can no longer afford to overlook.

Despite suffering engagement levels and a tepid job market, leadership skills are surprisingly sparse. The problem is such that executives worldwide are now focusing on developing leadership skills as a top organizational goal.

A report released this week by the Korn/Ferry Institute found three-quarters of surveyed executives across a variety of industries and countries are unsure whether their senior management teams possess the right set of skills to generate growth for their companies.

More than half of respondents – 52 percent – agree that they need to recruit or acquire new talent or invest in more leadership development programs for their executives. Nearly one-quarter of executices – 23 percent – went even further, claiming a complete overhaul of their senior talent is in line.

“As the global economy moves to more stable ground, it's increasingly important for organizations to consider how their leadership and talent strategies support their business strategies,” says Ana Dutra, CEO of Korn/Ferry Leadership and Talent Consulting. 

To provide an example of how leadership talent is critical to employee empowerment and operational performance, nearly three-quarters of respondents – 73 percent – said they have been forced to postpone or abandon strategic initiatives within the past two years because of a lack of internal talent. Some of these cancelled plans included prospective mergers and acquisitions, product launches and market expansion pushes.

Dutra argues that executives need to ask themselves some difficult questions regarding their talent development and recruiting efforts, not merely in regards to employee engagement and productivity, but in overall process improvement as well.

“Do organizations have the right leaders in the right roles?” Dutra asks. “Are they looking to the future and rigorously identifying and developing their next-generation leadership pipeline? These are strategic C-suite issues. Our survey shows there is significant work to be done in leadership-skills development.”