Talking Point: Leadership battle
Despite being widely acknowledged as a key driver of economic growth, the UK is still very much behind many of its international counterparts in terms of leadership and management skills.
Further cuts announced in the government’s spending review will have piled more pressure on organisations and companies to curb their expenditure even further, so there is a real danger this gap could widen.
Amidst the cut backs and efficiency savings, organisations still need the best people working for them to stimulate growth. Many are now no longer in a strong enough position to bring in high powered senior personnel, so instead of finding them, they need to develop their own.
Leaders are certainly needed now more than ever. A recent report conducted by the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) found that nearly 95 per cent of HR professionals believe their senior managers lack essential leadership qualities.
Some of the organisations we work with, in both the public and private sector, have had to scale back their spending by up to 40 per cent. They do, however, still recognise that developing skills is crucial for growth and innovation.
Effective investment in leadership and management will, after all better equip business people to deal with new challenges and lead to effective leaders being developed to improve organisation performance, an environment that accepts and embraces change to ensure greater efficiencies and new skills in organisation to provide a competitive edge
Our clients have found it extremely valuable working with us to design and deliver leadership and management programmes which focus directly on their needs.
This approach has led to our clients reporting a positive impact in the way their leaders plan, their decision-making and also increased levels of engagement in problem solving.
Developing the leaders of tomorrow should be of utmost importance in this economic climate and we should all be acting now before it is too late.
Larraine Boorman is managing director of Coventry-based consultancy Acua
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