Indian companies are worried about shortage of ‘Leaders’

Indian companies are worried about shortage of ‘Leaders’

Dr. Balasubramanian – Thought Leader/Transformation Coach CEO www.visionunlimited.in   Mobile - 9840027810

Indian companies have more ‘Managers’ and a very few ‘Leaders’. Has anyone thought about this?

India lacks the educational institutions it desires, from the initial years to the post-college level. Thus, even though thousands of Indian university graduates enter the workforce every year, they are often not “industry ready” or equipped in the skills of global business. This has contributed to a scarcity of top-notch candidates and a budding talent war for those few with appropriate skill sets.

Instead of developing and implementing a clear succession plan, executives have been spreading their tenure, lacking confidence that the next level of management is up to the task of leading. The ultimate result of this is lack of qualified successors.  Senior leaders are deferring retirement.

Many Indian executives recognize the challenges, but are uncertain as to what steps to take to overcome them. First and foremost, they need to take a fresh, holistic look at their leadership development practices. Their goal should be to develop a sustainable leadership pipeline throughout the organizational pyramid: a well-rounded leadership team to supplement the required skills at the top, a team of successor right behind them, a strong bench of high-potential individuals identified and developed in the middle, and a cadre of young, industry-ready talent. The pipeline should also include progression opportunities for technical specialists.

This is no small task, and will call for executives and managers to embrace the idea that training young recruits is an essential part of their routine, and will provide the incentives for them to contribute to the organization. Companies will need to invest in reproducing and executing specific interventions that have been successful at global companies, instead of generic initiatives. This means making talent management a key component of HR strategy, and making HR a key participant in the firm’s decision-making processes.

By taking these steps, companies can fill their immediate gaps while building the enterprise capabilities necessary to ensure that they thrive in the long run. But only in companies whose leaders endorse this approach wholeheartedly, and where it can become deep-rooted in the company’s culture, will such changes take hold. Talent is India’s greatest opportunity, but it is also one of its biggest challenges. The same is true for more and more businesses in other developing regions around the world. In each of them, it falls to today’s executives to ensure strong leadership for generations to come.  A forecast in a recent in-depth analysis of India’s top 500 companies that by 2017, 15 to 18 per cent of leadership positions in those companies will be unfilled—or will be filled by people underprepared for the jobs. This implies that companies will be missing almost one of every five leaders they need, putting both potential growth opportunities and the endurance of existing business operations at risk

In addition to workers’ changing expectations from employers, skills needed on the job are changing faster than ever. Organizations are quickly falling behind on developing the right skills across all levels. There’s an urgent need for organizations to re-evaluate their learning programs and treat leadership development as a long-term investment, rather than a discretionary training spend item when times are favourable

It is significant to develop leadership traits among the Managers in the event of technology changes and challenges happening around globally. Planning, strategizing, innovative and proactive thinking are the key elements to be developed among the existing talents.

In India, organizational culture ranked several places ahead of engagement at 88 per cent in terms of importance. More than 8 in 10 organizations in India see culture as being ‘important’ or ‘very important’. Yet only 35 per cent of organizations believe they understand their culture well and only 22 per cent believe they are ‘very ready’ to change it, the Deloitte recent report says.

Development must start deeper in the pipeline and not be an exclusive privilege for senior executives. These leaders need to make it a part of the culture, by not just participating in their own learning but also supporting others' development. Identifying leaders of the future must start early, and organizations must provide those critical business experiences from which these individuals will make mistakes and learn. With roles and responsibilities becoming increasingly complex, development and associated feedback need to be provided consistently over time, across all levels in the organization.

Leadership development should not live in a vacuum; it needs to be directly connected to real business challenges, opportunities, projects and perspectives. There is tremendous value in embedding leadership development programs within organizations, bringing people together to work on the same issues, and aligning programs on what the organization is attempting to accomplish. At the same time, leadership development should be looked upon as a journey, not a series of one-time events. For each individual leader, there should be a continuous stream of touch points, large and small, and a blend of things such as workshops, coaching, assessments, peer groups, action learning and technology-enabled learning simulations.

Individuals are far more motivated and energized when they are connected to a higher purpose and feel they are providing a service to society, their customers and their community. Leadership development should focus on the whole person and help individuals uncover their motivational drivers. This can be achieved by linking service-based activity to the leadership development strategy, allowing leaders to deploy their skills in service of something greater than themselves.

In short, there is no quick fix. Organizations facing a shortfall in leaders to drive and execute strategic change can start by making leadership development a central part of their culture and then fusing leadership development with organizational purpose and business strategy.