Friday, December 21, 2012
My fantasy is to teach a course on organizational leadership theory, starting with a display of the hundreds of scholarly and popular books that have been written on the subject, each purporting to be the ultimate authority on the subject. Nevertheless, organizational leadership is essential to both the success – and its lack – the failure of every organization: public, private, for profit, and not-for profit.
The 2012 Kelly Global Workforce Index (KGWI), conducted by Kelly Services, Inc. recently looked at a number of workplace issues including organizational leadership styles in a survey of some 168,000 workers in the Americas, EMEA, and APAC regions. The survey was conducted by the RDA Group at the request of Kelly Services.
The third installment of the survey titled, “The Leadership Disconnect”, attempted to determine how satisfied global workers are with their organizational leadership. Not so surprisingly, most workers are not satisfied with the leadership style of their own leaders.
Several of the key global findings include:
● Workers not listening to the messages from leadership.
● Workers not listening to the messages from leadership.
● Workers questioning core principles of their organization.
● Less than half are satisfied with their organizations’ leadership style.
● Significant gap in leadership style practiced vs. what is desired by workers.
● Less than half indicate they are NOT inspired by current leaders to do their best.
● A little more than 60% believe in what their organizations are trying to accomplish.
The study suggests a number of ways for both organizations and workers to address this management gap.
For employers:
1. How are you evaluating your leadership development efforts? Are you considering how best to lead a multigenerational/cultural workforce?
2. Are you grooming leaders who are solely focused on growing the business from the bottom line? It may be time to also teach them how to grow the business from the front line.
3. How are you revising your leadership development efforts to deal with the increase in the virtual workforce?
4. Are your leaders just too busy to lead?
5. Has the move to more matrix organizations contributed to the disconnect between workers and leaders
6. How can you encourage more group collaboration and more decision making authority?
For workers:
1. How do you cope when your manager doesn’t speak your language?
2. What are the ways of earning more responsibility on the job?
3. How can you improve your leadership skills?
4. How can you fuel your own individual inspiration?
What can be gleaned from The 2012 Kelly Global Workforce Index?
● Each generational cohort requires different managerial and communications skills.
● Acquiring the right talent is still the best way to improve the bottom line.
● Leading the digital worker is not the same as leading the physical worker.
● Leaders must lead, not do.
● Managers, there is no room for “us vs. them” thinking.
● Managers must incorporate workers into the leadership process.
● Workers must learn the language of their leaders.
● Worker must seek ways to grow their own responsibilities.
● Workers need to lead from the bottom.
● Workers must own their own inspiration.
Most workers are not satisfied with the leadership style of their own leaders.
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