Big Leadership Problems that Leaders Can Solve (if they choose)

On a chilly New York morning following a snowstorm not long ago, I was sitting in a cafe sipping a cup of coffee, occasionally staring off across the street to watch pedestrians shuffle along the snowy sidewalks.

Most of the store owners had already been out with shovels and salt, but there was one section in front of several unoccupied shops that hadn’t been cleared. After several people slipped (luckily without falling), I saw a man emerge from one of the shops with two yellow “caution” signs – the kind they put outside the bathroom while it’s being cleaned. He placed one on either side of the un-shoveled section.

He disappeared back inside, and a few seconds later a young man walked past the yellow sign and slipped just exactly as all the previous people had. He flailed for a moment, righted himself, glanced back at the yellow sign, and walked on.

Sometimes we step right into mistakes, even when there are clear cues that would help us avoid them.

This month, DDI’s Global Leadership Forecast (GLF) dropped (as it has every couple of years for more than two decades), once again illuminating startling findings from 15,000+ respondents and 1700+ organizations.

The GLF isn’t just any leadership study. It’s huge. It’s global. It’s longitudinal. And each installation shares cutting-edge guidance for any organization savvy enough to recognize that where leadership goes, so goes the success of the enterprise.

I strongly encourage you to take some time to surf the super-easy GLF web experience and download the report.

Reviewing this year’s findings felt like watching people on the snowy New York sidewalk. There are several persistent challenges that have come up repeatedly in the GLF over the years (and yet again in this 2023 report). Like the slippery pavement, these problems have been well marked over the years, yet organizations keep tripping over them…

• CEOs are worried more about talent than anything else. More than their concerns about recession, product innovation, disruptive technologies, or digital transformation, CEOs are worried about talent . Attracting, retaining, developing, and engaging a talented workforce top the list of CEOs’ most pressing worries.
• The bench is not a source of reassurance. Leadership bench strength has dropped 33% over the last decade, leaving more and more organizations concerned about their ability to meet emerging leadership demands. They don’t see the next generation of senior leaders coming from within.
• Leadership skill is being ignored. The quality of leadership has eroded significantly in the last several years, and critical skills are being neglected . Our results showed significant gaps between the importance of key skills and the development leaders are receiving to cultivate them. Key gaps were observed in areas including developing strategy, leading change, prioritizing, influencing, and building talent.
• Most leaders are not inspiring trust. Trust is scarcer than ever in today’s world. But more than any other category (government, media, education, etc.), Edelman’s research suggests that business is the most trusted institution . This gets a little scary when we see the GLF finding that only 32% of associates trust senior leadership to do the right things, and only 40% trust their direct manager. In an environment like this, trust leaps out as a massively valuable, and massively underleveraged asset.

None of these findings are new. Each, in some form, has shown up in prior forecasts or in other DDI research. This is particularly true of bench strength, where we have watched a precipitous global decline in leader readiness for more than a decade.

But like many problems, inside these persistent findings lie opportunities, because for each there are solutions. Many organizations have converted these leadership shortfalls into points of competitive advantage. To be more specific…

• Leaders can improve their ability to attract and retain talent. Organizations with leaders who have stronger interpersonal skills are much better at retaining top talent than others. On the flip side, organizations without strength in this area are 3.5x more likely to have leaders looking to leave. Interpersonal skills are trainable. We help leaders and executives make small and large improvements in their ability to relate to others every day. And we see the results. Impact happens when organizations choose to make it so.
• The bench can be strengthened. While it doesn’t happen overnight, organizations that dedicate effort to growing leadership capability from within realize tremendous benefits including higher employee engagement, less unwanted turnover, less burnout, fewer leadership failures, stronger performance, and one more I should probably include: better financial returns. We’ve supported many of these organizations and have seen how the right tools, programs, and processes can transform the leadership bench from stalled to stellar.
• Investments in skill development pay off. Perhaps more than any finding in the GLF or elsewhere in DDI’s research, the erosion of leadership skill is one trend we at DDI know to be reversible. The data are legion indicating the impact of leader development on skills and on people. Some of the most significant examples of positive impact noted in the 2023 GLF include engagement, retention, burnout, dealing with ambiguity, and operating in a digital environment.
• Trust is a precious asset, and leaders can manufacture it – at scale. Trust is not simply a byproduct. It can be cultivated and grown quickly and broadly, with powerful effects. In high-trust organizations, leaders are 3x more likely to develop innovative ideas , and are less distracted by worries about failure. Taking it a step further, employees are 5x more likely to trust leaders who show vulnerability. And this starts at the top. We work routinely with CEOs to cultivate trust within senior teams. Small doses of trust building in the C-suite ripple through organizations in startlingly rapid fashion. So, while trust may be scarce, it’s also contagious when practiced well.

The simple takeaway here is that organizations do not need to live with these recurring problems. Proven tools and methods are available to shift mindsets and spark new behavior among leaders. These new insights and approaches make rapid and significant improvements in leaders’ ability to attract and keep great talent, strengthen the leadership bench, sharpen crucial skills, and cultivate a culture of trust.

These and numerous others are among the findings explored in the 2023 Global Leadership Forecast . Take a look, and if any of the problem areas ring true in your organization, don’t despair. Our biggest leadership problems have solutions if we simply choose to apply them.

I hope your biggest problems are being solved, and I hope you’ll share your insights and wisdom with us. Have a great week.

Let's continue the conversation. Connect with DDI's Executive Services on?LinkedIn and subscribe to our?Executive Services Newsletter .