Filling the Leadership Gap

Often, there is a leadership gap. Who's on the bench to lead next?

?I spent?an amazing couple of weeks with leaders from dozens of organizations,?and?the primary challenge to growing in the future is the leadership gap. The human capital challenge is real, and because of many factors, we will have a labor shortage for?decades. The shortfalls are across all industries and skill sets.?

?I asked the question, "What percentage of your team has what it takes to lead?"?The consensus was that?40-60% of team members possess the skill sets to lead,?with additional training and a desire to do so. However, when asked the question of how many of these team members have expressed their interest in leading, the answer was dismal, considering the number of team members that have leadership potential. So why is there a?difference?between those who?have shared their desire to lead and those who?we believe have what it takes to lead?

?I don't know that we have the answer for that.?However,?we do know from our own experiences in many cases,?what events led us to want?to be leaders. The answer is someone "spoke greatness into us." Rod Olson or Coach "O" coined that phrase and I give him full credit. It encapsulated what happens when someone in a mentor, leadership, coaching, teaching position encourages us to be more than we are. They saw more in us than we had at that?particular moment. They believed in us and told us that we were destined?for much more than we ourselves could see.

?We have an opportunity much like Mrs. Bolt,?my music teacher in 6th grade, who?assigned me a lead part in the classroom play, or Coach Heatherly,?who asked me to be his student aide after another coach rejected me, or Mike Montana, who?believed in me early in my career and repeatedly told me that I have what it took to be great at my craft. Speak greatness into those that you see potential in, and repetitively do it until the recipient starts to believe it.

?This is how we're going to close the leadership gap.?