In exploring to find the challenges and opportunities of the coming year, as we do at the start of every year, we search for authoritative research on where our clients may want to focus their energy, and by default where we might aid them.

In considering 2012 we once again looked at the Ken Blanchard Companies annual Corporate Issues Survey, which has been done for several years now to pinpoint the needs and issues of organisations seeking to develop their people to their fullest potential.These are excellent reports and we recommend you explore the Ken Blanchard Companies website.

The findings in 2011 represent the feedback from 1,300 executives, line managers, and training and HR leaders from a range of organizations, industries, and countries. Since 2003, approximately 9,800 leaders have participated in this ongoing study, and these survey reports always provide valuable information on key business issues, such as:

  • The organisation’s outlook for the coming year.
  • What will be happening with training and development expenditure.
  • The top organisational challenges
  • The organisation’s effectiveness in addressing key issues and challenges
  • The top leadership gaps
  • The top management challenges
  • The top employee development challenges

I’ll leave you to look at the whole report, as I cannot do it justice here.  But I wanted to highlight the Top Leadership Gaps the survey identified and address myself to just some of these.  My reasoning is that effective leadership is paramount to every aspect of an organisation’s success, and perhaps we need to aim at closing these gaps in the coming year in order to achieve greater success. The chart from the survey is below:

Blanchard_Top_Leadership_Skills_Gaps_2012

As we look at these self-identified leadership skill gaps we draw from it that major corporates are acknowledging they need to improve the calibre of their leaders in some very important areas, including:

  • Being more strategic and tactical in their thinking
  • Passionately inspiring others 
  • Driving innovation with vision and communication

Of course these are not new leadership skills, and their importance is generally well understood by organisational leaders.  But what is being done to close these gaps?  What tangible steps are being taken in the organisation’s leadership development areas?  The answer here of course is mixed – from little to a lot, and those organisations taking leadership development seriously will ultimately be more successful.

And what about small and medium sized businesses, government departments, not for profits, schools, and even volunteer groups?  Is anything being done there to create the passionate, visionary, inspirational, strategic thinking, and innovative supervisors and managers needed to grow and succeed?

These are questions you may want to ask and explore to make 2012 a fantastic year full of success.

In coming blogs, articles, eCourses and eLetters I’ll offer some ideas on what you might consider doing.

All the best for the coming year.