Leadership Crisis: The Federal Government and Beyond

Is your organization prepared?
Bill Valdez wants to know, Is the Federal Government in the Midst of a Leadership Crisis? Using data from a survey conducted by the Senior Executives Association (SEA) in collaboration with Deloitte, he argues that a government-wide strategy to nurture the next generation of leaders doesn't exist. They are ill-prepared to address what the report refers to as a retirement tsunami. 
Consider these statistics:[1]

• 22% of senior government executives surveyed indicate their agencies are prepared to retain top talent.
• 26% of senior executives report their agencies possess the infrastructure to identify skills gaps and develop existing and future leaders.

The federal government isn’t alone in struggling to fill the leadership pipeline. Other research paints a similar picture nationally and globally:

• 89% of business and HR leaders surveyed rated strengthening, re-engineering, and improving organizational leadership as an important priority.[2]
• 56% of surveyed executives report their companies aren’t prepared to meet leadership needs.[3]
• 86% of global experts indicated that a leadership crisis exists.[4]  
• 7% of respondents characterized their leadership development as best in class (align with strategy, receive executive support, built a strong talent pipeline, and demonstrate impact on success).[5]

​Warning Signs[6]
What are the potential warning signs that your organization might be facing a leadership crisis?

1. Emerging leaders lack critical thinking skills. Critical thinking, as defined by Michael Scriven and Richard Paul, “is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action.”[7] An online study conducted in 2017 highlighted the lack of critical thinking skills millennials demonstrate, and millennials echo that finding. An article by Nick Kastner and Evie Somogyi lists critical thinking among those skills that employers seek, but millennials don’t possess. The business professionals interviewed for this study noted that “problem solving is important in a fairly complex world,” and went on to say that today’s employees need to “see an issue and adapt quickly.”​[8] We can vouch for this reality. When talking with business leaders, we repeatedly hear the same concern: the lack of critical thinking skills slows down the speed of business and can cost a company not only profit, but also its reputation. Choosing to invest in and implement a robust critical skills development program that links to demonstrated results may cost upfront, but the alternative is something leaders cannot afford.
2. Your organization devalues learning from failure. Do your employees and leaders alike hide mistakes rather than learning from them and sharing that learning across the organization? A simple, yet effective cultural shift begins to occur when leaders share lessons learned in public (e.g., all-hands meetings, monthly company meetings, staff meetings) and private spaces (e.g., coaching sessions, individual staff meetings) and include time for discussion and application across teams.
3. The search for talent is continuous. What’s turnover like? Is your talent pipeline constantly churning? How are you filling your talent pipeline? Are you looking for talent outside the organization only? This warning sign speaks to growing your own talent. Relying on sourcing from outside the organization keeps teams stuck in the learning curve rather than producing great results. Yes, there's value in gaining fresh, outside perspectives to enhance your teams. However, a lopsided approach drawing heavily upon outside sourcing negatively impacts business goals. A plethora of research exists on what retains employees: if they don’t feel that they’re learning and developing professionally or that they are not challenged, they’ll go looking for that elsewhere. Valuable business knowledge leaves with them.
4. Existing leadership lacks diversity. Whether it’s race, gender, perspectives, or ideas, diversity is your company’s calling card. Lacking diversity in any of these areas speaks volumes to the inclusivity of your culture and how the company will fare not only in the present, but also the future. A study conducted by sociologist, Cedric Herring demonstrates that diversity makes good business sense: "companies reporting the highest levels of racial diversity brought in nearly 15 times more sales revenue on average than those with the lowest levels of racial diversity. Gender diversity accounted for a difference of $599.1 million in average sales revenue: organizations with the lowest rates of gender diversity had average sales revenues of $45.2 million, compared with averages of $644.3 million for businesses with the most gender diversity."[9]
5. Rising stars begin to fail. We commonly hear, “She was our star salesperson so we promoted her, and it has been a disaster.” Set your stars up for success by providing opportunities to learn and develop new skills applicable to not only their current role, but roles in which they’re interested. Career pathing programs achieve this by outlining competencies and skills, guiding managers to support specific development, assigning stretch goals, and assessing readiness.

​Recommendations for Leadership Development
Consider the following when creating a leadership development program: 

​Leadership development may seem daunting and overwhelming, especially if an organization finds itself in the same predicament as the federal government. Ignoring the problem, relying on Talent Acquisition to continually feed the pipeline, or succumbing to paralysis is a choice that most organizations cannot afford. Invite partners across the organization to begin the discussion, create a call to action rooted in data, conduct analysis, sketch a framework and strategy, and identify actionable and achievable steps to get the ball rolling.

---

References

[1] Valdez, B., Dye, D., & Womack, K. (n.d.). Survey of federal government executives. Retrieved February 01, 2018, from https://seniorexecs.org/989-survey-of-federal-government-executives

[2] Bersin, J., Geller, J., Wakefield, N., & Walsh, B. (2016, February 29). Introduction—The new organization. Retrieved January 17, 2018, from https://www2.deloitte.com/insights/us/en/focus/human-capital-trends/2016/human-capital-trends-introduction.html

[3] Bersin, Introduction—The new organization.

[4] Shahid, S. (2014). Outlook on the global agenda (Rep.). Retrieved January 17, 2018, from World Economic Forum website: http://www3.weforum.org/docs/GAC14/WEF_GAC14_OutlookGlobalAgenda_Report.pdf

[5] The state of leadership development (Rep.). (2016). Retrieved January 17, 2018, from Harvard Business Publishing website: https://www.harvardbusiness.org/sites/default/files/19770_CL_StateOfLeadership_Report_July2016.pdf

[6] Hairston Blade, V. (2017, September 18). 10 warning signs that your leadership pipeline is at risk. Retrieved January 17, 2018, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2017/07/05/10-warning-signs-that-your-leadership-pipeline-is-at-risk/#6e8886a37c73

[7] (n.d.). Retrieved January 17, 2018, from https://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/defining-critical-thinking/766

[8] Kastner, N., & Somogyi, E. (2017, February 22). 5 skills employers are seeking but millennials are lacking (through the eyes of a millennial). Retrieved February 01, 2018, from http://blog.ung.edu/mba/5-skills-employers-are-seeking-but-millennials-are-lacking-through-the-eyes-of-a-millennial/

[9] American Sociological Association. (2009, March 31). Research links diversity with increased sales revenue and profits, more customers[Press release]. Retrieved May 21, 2018, from https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-03/asa-rld033009.php