Czaro Strategic Communications

Businesses are fighting for their survival. Many organizations have refused to accept their fate for months and years, and for others time is finally catching up to them.

Companies are struggling with attracting, retaining and developing top talent. And there’s no end in sight.

Rather than devoting their time to fending off the troubled economy or the volatile stock market, organizations should be combating their internal leadership crises.

Ken Blanchard is a world-renown author and expert on organizational leadership. His organization recently asked 1,400 executives about the biggest mistakes leaders are making in the workplace today. The responses fell in five distinct areas:

• 82% agreed that managers fail to provide appropriate feedback such as praise or direction.
• 81% indicated that leaders don’t listen to their direct reports.
• 76% stated that leaders fail to set clear goals and objectives
• 76% stressed that leaders use inappropriate leadership styles for tasks, situations or dealing with people.
• 64% felt that management does a poor job developing potential leaders.

Based on these findings, it’s clear that many managers don’t have basic, critical leadership skills. However, their businesses can right their ships by embracing training, coaching and mentoring.

Many organizations have cut budgets and downsized their workforce. As a result, training and development programs have been scaled back or eliminated. Companies need to reverse that trend and prepare tomorrow’s leaders, because the Baby Boomer generation has started to retire from the workplace. Gen X’ers, 25- to 45- year olds, will take the place of Boomers in public and private organizations, which poses a problem.

Gen X’ers, for the most part, haven’t been equipped with the leadership skills needed to assume the responsibility being passed to them. Compound that with Gen X’ers having an average three-to-five year lifespan at an organization, and you get today’s reality: not many Gen X’ers at the executive or upper management levels.

Companies throughout the country – in every industry – have found out the hard way what happens when you don’t have a succession plan. When leaders leave, companies end up treading water for weeks, months and even years.

And you know what happens when you get tired of treading water. If you want to get a leg up on your competition – swim for shore.