We Are In A Leadership Pandemic: Research Proves It

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Most business leaders around the world are not good leaders. They aren't bad people, but their approaches to leadership are simply put...obsolete. We can especially see this quite clearly with what has been going on with Black Lives Matter, COVID-19, and the ongoing fight against racism and social injustice.

To give you an analogy, it's a bit like trying to fly a modern-day passenger plane while being trained on an original Wright Brothers plane. There's a chance you might get the plane in the air, but you won't go far.

Leadership around the world is failing us.

Consider some of these sobering statistics take from my book, The Future Leader:

• 80% of employees say they can do their jobs without their managers and say their managers are not even necessary (Ultimate Software and Center for Generational Kinetics).
• Almost half of 2,257 survey respondents said they could do their jobs better than their boss (Randstad).
• 60% of employees have left or are considering leaving their jobs because they don't like their direct supervisors (Randstad).
• 50% of Americans have left a job at some point in their career to get away from their managers (Gallup).
• In the UK, nearly half of British workers believe they could do a better job than their boss and 13% actually said their bosses are dangerously incompetent at their jobs (Independent).
• Only 15% of employees around the world are even engaged in their jobs (Gallup).
• According to a survey of 25,000 leaders around the world done by DDI, only 42% of organizations said that the overall quality of leadership inside of their organizations was high.
• Only 14% of organizations have a "strong bench," which is ready-now leaders who can step to replace those who retire or move on (DDI).
• Half of the organizations surveyed by DDI say their leaders are not skilled to lead effectively today and 71% say their leaders are not ready to lead their organizations in the future.

CLEARLY something is wrong with leadership around the world otherwise these statistics wouldn't be as terrible as they are. All of the human indicators are telling us that we have a problem yet most organizations and leaders are doing nothing to correct the problem.

Imagine for a moment that you are driving a car and in the middle of your trip as your speeding down the highway, the "check engine" light comes on, followed by the tire pressure warning, the low fuel light, and the battery light, all while your car temperature indicator is in the red. Now imagine your whole family is sitting in the car with you.

Are you really just going to keep driving along? I hope not!

Yet here we are, and the business world is on cruise control but the scary part is that we are all sitting in the same car!

In the United States alone there are around 25 million supervisors and managers today, these are people who are responsible for others. I estimate that by 2030 we are going to have around 220 million leaders around the world.

That's a lot of leaders!

We have lots of people in leadership roles but unfortunately, many of them are bad leaders, there's just no other way around it. But, their days are numbered because the way that we think about leadership is changing...Leaders Must Change.

Leadership is not about making the most money

Leadership is not about a rank or title

Leadership is not about playing office politics to get the top.

Leadership is not about being friends with other leaders who will promote you.

Leadership is not just about staying at the company for a long time until you get promoted.

Leadership IS ABOUT putting people first

Leadership IS ABOUT being able to influence change

Leadership IS ABOUT making other people more successful than you

Leadership IS ABOUT rallying people to build a better world

Leadership IS ABOUT YOU!

Being a leader is the hardest job in the world but it's also the most rewarding. Everyone in the world has the potential to become a leader, even if you're a leader of self.

The first step towards becoming that leader is making the conscientious choice that you are willing to get out of your comfort zone and do whatever it takes to positively impact your community, your organization, your people, and yourself.

Are you ready to take that first step?

Leadership is changing. What are the skills and mindsets you need to master in order to lead in the new world of work? According to over 140 of the world's top CEOs there are 4 mindsets and 5 skills that leaders need to master. Learn what they are and hear directly from these leaders by downloading the PDF below.

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If you enjoyed the article and want more content like this here’s what you can do:

1. Subscribe to The Future of Work Podcast where I interview business leaders around the world each week. 

2. Grab a copy of The Future Leader which has been endorsed by the CEOs of MasterCard, Best Buy, Oracle, Audi, Unilever, Domino’s Pizza, Ritz Carlton, Kaiser, and Marshall Goldsmith. It explores the most essential skills and mindsets for future leaders.

3. If you are or want to be an entrepreneur then my wife and I just launched a brand new podcast on how to Be Your Own Boss, called the BYOB Podcast where we share what we did and how we did it. You can subscribe to that here.