Leadership development may be the most important thing any company does. That’s why, every week, I review blogs and other publications that cover leadership development to find the very best leadership development posts. This week, you’ll find pointers to posts about the finding that most people don’t want to be managers, culture, misconceptions between management and workers, and how boards do an awful job of hiring CEOs.
From Nicole Torres: Most People Don’t Want to Be Managers
“Most American workers aren’t interested in becoming managers. At least, that’s what a new CareerBuilder survey seems to suggest. Of the thousands surveyed, only about one-third of workers (34%) said they aspire to leadership positions – and just 7% strive for C-level management (the rest said they aspire to middle-management or department-head roles). Broken down further, the results show that more men (40%) hope to have a leadership role than women (29%), and that African Americans (39%) and LGBT workers (44%) are more likely to want to climb the corporate ladder than the national average.”
Wally’s Comment: Check out my comment on the same CareerBuilder survey.
From Sairah Ashman: Culture still eats strategy every time
“It’s obvious that a leadership team should invest time, energy and money in developing a clear, well-thought through strategy. Secondly, some kind of operating plan will then be needed to deliver successfully. And of course some carefully crafted measures are then required to signal priorities, assess progress and course correct. At some point along the way the question of how to motivate, inspire or simply communicate to ‘the troops’ comes up. Unfortunately it is often at this stage that the wheels come off.”
From China Gorman: The 2020 Workforce: Misconceptions Between Management and Employees
“Oxford Economics and SAP recently released the report ‘Workforce 2020: The Looming Talent Crisis’ aimed at understanding the opportunities and challenges of the evolving workforce. The research is based on survey responses from over 2,700 executives and more than 2,700 employees in 27 countries. Understanding the core characteristics of ‘the new face of work,’ as SAP puts it, is an important step in recognizing the opportunities and challenges that will come with it.”
From Lisa Walsh and Libbie Landles-Cobb: Boards Are Terrible at Their Most Important Job
“The chief responsibility of any board is management of the senior executive. Yet a recent Bridgespan Group survey of nonprofit CEOs found that nearly half (46%) got little or no onboarding help from their boards.”
