BUS603: Managing People

A quick look at what the researchers are saying gives a feel for the scale of the challenges which leaders face whatever their role or place in the organization - both for themselves and within their organizations and communities. It also shows why leadership is lonely. The data also show that leaders and their teams face huge capability and capacity gaps to both survive and thrive in today's VUCA world.

As the data report:

• Only 15% of leaders sampled showed a consistent capacity to innovate and successfully transform their organizations.
• Only 30% of CEOs are confident that they have the talent needed to grow their businesses.
  
• 13% of employees are actively engaged (and twice that number would actively sabotage their employer).
  
• 58% of new executives fail within 18 months of taking up post.
  
• Only 8–12% of those who attend formal training translate their new skills into measurable performance.
  
• 75% of organizations report that they struggle with overwhelmed employees.
  
• Constant distraction where people now check their cell phones almost 150 times a day with busy professionals focusing for only 7 minutes at a time.
  
• Where the poorest 40% of the world's population accounts for 5% of global income. The richest 20% accounts for 75% of the world's income; and
• Where we are using 150% of our planet's capacity to sustain our current levels of consumption.
  

High profile scandals like the MP Business Expenses scandal in the United Kingdom in 2014, the Report on the Hillsborough Football Stadium Disaster (in 2016), the NHS Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry (in 2013) or business failures like the Lehman Brothers in USA, or British Home Stores in 2016 are showing a malaise at the heart of corporate decision‐making. A report by? WHAT IF! in 2015 reported that almost 72% of leaders admitted that their organization is too reliant on fading revenue streams, that 58% of teams were failing to lead for innovation, and that 28% of leaders believed that their current business model was not sustainable.

A recent IBM Global CEO Survey noted that the great majority of CEOs expect that business complexity is going to increase and that more than half doubted their ability to manage it. Other studies appear to consistently show that approximately only 5% of leaders in the West have the mental and emotional capacity needed to lead for transformation. This indicates that leading effectively for transformation in today's turbulent economic, political and social waters is beyond most leaders’ experience and mental capacity.