New research has raised the alarm on the limitations of today’s leaders and uncovered a significant leadership gap, or shortfall, between the skills leaders have mastered and those that will be essential for future success. In fact, a recent Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) leadership gap analysis of 2,339 managers in 24 organizations across three countries found the six key skill sets that are among the weakest for current leaders—inspiring commitment, leading employees, strategic planning, change management, employee development, and self-awareness—are the most important skills leaders will need for future organizational success.
Though CCL’s findings relate to organizations broadly, the insight can serve as a starting point for instituting cohesive development programs that align training and recruitment efforts with future organizational needs. To do so, it’s critical that organizations undergo an internal needs assessment, which will paint a clear picture of leadership behavior and how it relates to business strategy.
By following the steps below, organizations can conduct a gap analysis that will help bridge the gap between current leadership talent and future leadership needs:
Review your organization’s strategy. What’s your organization’s core purpose? What are its goals and objectives? Perform a SWOT analysis to determine organizational strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. How will these change in five years? What is your organization’s competitive advantage and its position in the marketplace? Answers to these questions can help you see the connection between business strategy and what’s needed from leadership.
Identify competencies needed to drive the successful execution of organizational strategy. If your organization has an existing competency model, now is a good time to review it. Are there competencies that can be eliminated? Are any missing? Have you covered key competencies in your model that might point to leaders’ needed development?
If you don’t have a competency model, create one. Hold conversations with your HR executives and leadership experts about the skills, behaviors, and perspectives considered important for leadership success in your organization. Compile a list, then check your list for robustness. Do you have a balance of “managing people” competencies (e.g., inspiring others, building relationships, delegating), “leading the organization” competencies (strategic planning, leading change, global perspective), and personal characteristics (e.g., self-awareness, perseverance, intelligence)? Do you have competencies that will be required for future success? If you doubt your competency list, don’t worry. There are many publicly available competency models that you can use, like this one from the Society for Human Resource Management.
Review and finalize your competency list. All of your leaders likely will generate lengthy lists. Review their lists for competencies with similar meanings. Choose the competency that most reflects the kind of behaviors you want your leaders to have. Try to eliminate competencies that are less important in favor of those leaders need to master. Confirm the competencies you’ve identified to be most important to fulfilling your organizational purpose, goals, and objectives. Put a check next to the skills your leaders must have in place to maintain success five years from now.
Decide which managers to survey. Determine how many and which areas of the organization to survey. Competencies considered most important for success in a single function, such as HR or finance, might not represent views of success in other parts of the business or across the organization as a whole.
The general rule is the larger the survey group, the more accurate the results will be for the whole. Ideally, this means surveying all managers in your organization. If this is not within your timeline or budget, determine a size that will equally represent managers in all functional areas. This sample size table from The Research Advisors can help you determine appropriate scope.
Collect your managers’ opinions. Ask managers to rate the importance of each leadership competency for organizational success now and over the next five years. Then ask them to rate the amount of competency people at their level currently demonstrate and what they need to demonstrate to be maximally effective.
Comparing results of the survey will provide a picture of the competencies your leaders need but may not have. Look for ways to connect the survey’s result to events, historical perspectives, culture, values, talent management practices, and strategic perspectives. Can you identify patterns or themes? For competencies that stand out, ask managers to describe specific behaviors that reflect effectiveness in your organization.
Leadership training and development is key to closing the leadership gap. However, other strategies and tools include:
- Providing your leaders with challenging assignments that help grow their competencies.
- Establishing developmental relationships with mentors, coaches, and exemplary leaders.
- Expanding knowledge through research, workshops, Webinars, Webcasts, and developmental programs.
- Encouraging leaders to reflect on their experiences and what they’ve learned.
- Soliciting ongoing feedback.
- Securing commitment from key stakeholders.
Building leadership capacity has become an organizational necessity. To meet this need, you must have a grasp of the leadership competencies critical for future organizational success and an understanding of the state of your leadership bench. Following the process outlined here is the first step in helping your organization build its leadership capacity and in closing potentially harmful leadership gaps.
Jean Brittain Leslie is a senior fellow with the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) and author of “The Leadership Gap: What You Need and Still Don’t Have When It Comes to Leadership Talent.”
