Currently, 60% of organizations in the United States are facing talent shortages that are impeding performance. With 10,000 Baby Boomers retiring every day, the smaller Gen X isn’t sufficient to fill the gap. Does your organization have a talent gap?

This Week’s Edition

55% of CEOs say their top challenge is developing the next generation of leaders: 74% of US leaders think they are unprepared for their new roles.

Clarify Your Thinking

77% of organizations report that they are experiencing a talent shortage especially in the leadership category. As a result, many are being promoted to a leadership position even though they aren’t fully qualified despite the fact that 83% of businesses say developing leaders is important. So, how are they getting trained?

No Training: Less than 5% of companies have implemented leadership development across all levels.

Seeking it Out: Some are finding training on their own due to organizations seeing the cost as an expense vs. an investment.

On the Job: Some are being trained by their established leaders.

Taking a deeper look at current leaders who attempt to train the new up and coming leaders, we find that: 

• They don’t have sufficient time to dedicate to the effort

• They aren’t current on the latest learning and development techniques

Many leaders I’ve worked with will remark, “Robin, I’m trying to train up new leaders, but they just don’t’ seem to be getting it.  I’m wondering what happened to that rising star I once knew. Maybe they aren’t as good as a thought.”

Old Thinking: I keep lecturing my team, asking them to read my emails carefully. I’ve even shown them how to do certain things, but nothing seems to work. What’s wrong with them?

New Thinking: I need to find the best way to teach and train my people to be leaders and seek alternate ways to deliver the instruction.

Thoughts Lead to Actions

Note: employees who feel they cannot develop in the company and fulfill their career goals are 12 times more likely to leave [p.2 4a].

So, you, the established leader, must change the way you train your team. You can do it. You can improve your ability to train up and coming leaders. 

Here is how. Review the Learning Pyramid. Add some active learning elements to your training toolkit. Here are some options to consider:

1. Ask your up and comer what they want/need to know.

2. Determine which active learning modes may be best to deliver the teaching and training, i.e., group discussion or a practice out loud.

3. Have them take notes and teach someone else what they learned.

Adding some of these elements will help you maximize your influence, train leaders and increase performance. 

Boost Your Performance

Harvard Business Review conducted a survey of the Fortune 500 CEOs who use an executive coach.  They reported between a 7x and 41x return. They concluded that the return was so high due to the leader casting a long shadow.  Be patient. Spend the time to train and develop the next generation of leaders and you chart your course to a 7x return, if not more.

What’s Your Opinion?

What the best way to train your team? Share with me at: robin.pou@robinpou.com.

Don’t let doubt count you out. Have a confident week!

Robin Pou, Chief Advisor and Strategist

If this was helpful, feel free to share it with another leader who needs to defeat doubt and complete their confidence.

Let’s Connect

Follow me on Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter.

What is “The Confident Leader”?

During the Covid-19 Pandemic, I began a video series called “Panic or Plan?” It was designed to equip leaders to navigate the doubt they experienced and to rise in the confidence they needed to lead during turbulent times. It took off. I then started this newsletter to equip leaders in the same fashion each week for the doubt that crashes across the bow of their leaderSHIP.