Confidence in Leadership is Plummeting on a Global Scale

Confidence in leaders is at a 10-year-low, according to the 2008-2009 Global Leadership Forecast, a bi-annual study conducted by Development Dimensions International (DDI). Since 1999, when the Leadership Forecast first measured organizations' perceptions of their leaders, HR confidence in leaders has declined steadily, with only 35 percent citing high confidence in the most recent survey. "This deterioration of confidence is a sign that leaders aren't meeting the needs of the organization," said Louis Liu, managing director for Greater China at DDI, a global human resource consulting firm. "Every business leader needs to take note of this if they want to grow their organization."

DDI conducts the Leadership Forecast to measure the impact of leadership development programs around the world. More than 13,700 leaders and HR professionals from 76 countries participated this year.

Leaders are dissatisfied with their development. Only half of leaders are satisfied with getting the development they need, which is a key obstacle to leadership confidence. Leaders want more opportunities to learn on the job, but senior management seldom takes responsibility for making this happen. "Great leadership doesn't happen by accident-organizations need to start listening to their leaders and make the right development investments if they want different results than they're getting now," Liu said.

CEOs aren't sending the right messages to leaders. Innovation and global acumen represent two large gaps in leaders' and CEOs' priorities, according to research from the Global Leadership Forecast and a recent DDI/Economist Intelligence Unit study. Leaders don't feel they're respected for innovation or the ability to work across cultures-while CEOs rated these high on their list of what is needed. "The message isn't clear if CEOs think these are the traits they need in the next five years, but leaders don't think these are respected," said Liu. "Leaders are focused on the bottom line because that is the message they are hearing loud and clear."

China leads most of the world in succession planning. Globally, only half of organizations have succession plans for their leadership team, and Chinese organizations were higher than the global sample. They were particularly focused department-level leaders, perhaps as a starting point to groom those expected to rise to the top of the organization.

"Organizations will have empty seats in key leadership roles if they don't begin planning for their future leadership," Liu said. But having succession plans isn't the whole story-HR professionals indicated that one in three succession candidates fail. "These aren't good odds for programs that are supposed to increase success," Liu said. "Organizations need to look at how they're developing those individuals and identify why the failure rate is so high."

Leaders who cross borders are unprepared. As organizations expand their global footprint, 12 percent of all leaders have some multinational responsibilities. But these leaders are ill-prepared for the roles ahead of them, as 38 percent multinational leaders consider their development for this role poor or fair.

"We're sending leaders into key roles in rapidly growing industries and geographies without the tools they need," Liu said. "They're facing new cultures and ambiguous environments without much preparation."

Source: Development Dimensions International (DDI); www.ddiworld.com.

Reprinted with permission. © CCH 

Confidence in leaders is at a 10-year-low, according to the 2008-2009 Global Leadership Forecast.