Just read the Global Leadership Forecast 2014/2015 prepared by the learning consulting firm, DDI and The Conference Board. Fairly standard for me to seek and read such a study with my professional focus on Organizational Development and Learning. I point this out because I am not the target audience for this study.
In a perfect world, CEOs and other senior leaders far removed from the daily life within Human Resources will seek out, read and act on such a well written and actionable report. Along with marketing and financial reports, a study that addresses the #1 concern of CEOs should make the top of the reading stack.
In the study, CEOs report that “Human Capital” is their number one most critical challenge. The next four challenges to top the list are “Innovation”, “Operational Excellence”, and “Customer Relationships”. Effective leaders are critical to addressing any concern for how to get the best from the employees of any organization. The so-called “Human Capital” is at risk when leadership is ineffective and not well prepared for the uncertainty ahead. As the paper notes, the modern organizational business environment can be described as “volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous”.
Leadership is more important than ever.
I invite you to read the study yourself. The link can be found here at DDI’s website.
Another reason I enjoyed this report is the emphasis on improving our interactions with each other as critical for leadership development. Effective and consistent interactions for managers and employees lead to better coaching and development. Well intended interactions foster employee creativity and innovation (#2 on the CEO list of challenges).
Interaction taps into the power of we to address, the volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world of modern enterprise. Interaction is the how of leadership. Interaction is the heart of WeMoveTogether.
WeMoveTogether 