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What's Your Top Leadership Challenge?
December 03, 2008
By Margery Weinstein
In a volatile economy, everything is a challenge, you might say. Will my training programs receiving the funding I need? How much of my workforce will get cut, and how do I manage that? Those two big ones, among other questions, probably are racking many of your brains right now. Curious if business leaders are suffering from the same preying thoughts? To clue you into their thinking, Adecco Group North America released results from its survey of 200 business leaders attending the World Business Forum in New York in September regarding the most important leadership qualities and major workforce challenges facing leaders today. Adecco Group North America CEO Tig Gilliam presented the findings during his remarks at the forum. Here are some of the points he made:
• Leadership and the priorities of leaders change vastly depending on the state of the economy. For example, those polled stated that "generating revenue" is the most important priority during an economic downturn (i.e. right now). In contrast, this ranks fourth on the list of priorities when the economy is booming. Instead, when the economy is growing, "recruiting and retaining top talent" becomes the main focus. Interestingly, regardless of our economic state, "downsizing staff" was seen to be the least important on a leader's list of priorities.
• Leaders aren't rewarded for their most important qualities: Soft skills such as "the ability to inspire and motivate," "communication skills," and "people management skills" were ranked as the most important leadership qualities in today's economy. In contrast, "keen decision-making" and "financial acumen" were seen as most rewarded, revealing that what is important isn't always what is valued when it comes to our nation's business leaders.
• Workforce initiatives continue to make it onto leaders' agendas: "Succession planning," "better compensation and benefits," and "improved performance management tools" are the three most important non-discretionary workforce initiatives on leaders' agendas.
• "Managing through change" is the most challenging workforce issue for leaders: When asked about the workforce issues most plaguing leaders and their companies, "managing through change" took top ranking with just more than one-third of respondents feeling strongly about the challenges associated with working through downsizings, restructurings, and other workforce changes. In close second place, "attracting and managing Generation X and Generation Y" remains a core challenge for one-quarter of those surveyed. Interestingly, immigration reform was seen as the least troubling workforce issue, capturing only 1 percent of the vote.
• "It's clear that leadership and priorities of leaders shift as the economy shifts," said Gilliam. "Those leaders who best adapt to shifts in priorities and successfully execute against them by rallying their talent in new and often unchartered territory are leaders who are successful in times of growth and times of uncertainty. In today's rapidly changing global economy, all leaders must have the capacity to manage through change to support their people, processes, and stakeholders.
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