In the Jan 28th Wall Street Journal, columnist Carol Hymowitz discusses a problem that many company executives are facing: It is getting very difficult to find people who have the right set of skills and experience required for many management and executive positions. The nature of business in changing and becoming every more complex, and business owners and executives expect to find an exact match to the set of skills and experience required for their company. They are disappointed when the find that no one is a perfect match for their company.
In WSJ's BLOG for this article Ms. Hymowitz received a large number of responses from employees and managers who are basically overstretched, overlooked and underestimated in regards to the succession planning for the organization. What these readers and respondents are observing is that many managers and executives are failing miserably in one of the major responsibilities of leadership; the responsibility to develop new leaders. This is especially difficult in today’s business environment where finding the exact set of skills and talents is very difficult. For many businesses the only way to assure you have the right managers is to develop them. This requires proactive leadership and effective performance management. If a company’s leaders make a practice of regularly (not just yearly) assessing their subordinates performance and helping them establish and achieve goals to help them develop, it is clear that this will significantly avoid the talent gaps that Ms. Hymowitz so aptly noted.
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