UK risks ‘leadership time bomb’, says report

The UK is at risk of a shortage of leadership talent if it fails to identify and nurture potential leaders for the future, talent measurement company SHL has warned.

SHL’s analysis of global talent data found that the UK ranks third in the world for its current supply of effective leaders. However, when analysing the supply of potential leaders for the future, the UK fell to 21st place.

According to SHL’s criteria of key leadership characteristics, 10% of the UK’s population are currently identified as “effective leaders” and 37% have leadership potential for the future.

Effective leaders were identified as those who had the ability to: build relationships; solve problems; communicate effectively; think laterally; influence; respond positively to change; organise; and motivate. Potential leaders were identified as those who exhibited some of these characteristics but required additional development.

However, while the UK only ranked behind Hong Kong and Germany for its current supply of effective leaders, it was overtaken by countries such as Mexico, Turkey and Egypt when judged in terms of its pipeline of potential future leaders.

Paul Levett, chief product officer at SHL, said: “Despite having a strong supply of leaders for today, the UK has a leadership time bomb on its hands if it doesn’t invest in learning and development to cultivate its potential leaders and remain competitive.

“Rising education standards and a culture of entrepreneurialism are some of the many environmental factors that are driving emerging economies such as Brazil, India, Mexico and Turkey up the rankings for future leadership potential. These nations have a huge growth opportunity if they can identify, nurture and develop this potential.”

SHL’s infographic of the research explains the key differences between current and future leadership supplies globally.

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Supply of leadership potential: Top 25 countries
EFFECTIVE LEADERS OF TODAY			POTENTIAL LEADERS OF TOMORROW
Ranking 1-25 of population	Country	% of population	Country	% of population
1	Hong Kong	14	Mexico	54
2	Germany	13	Turkey	50
3	UK	10	Egypt	44
4	Australia	10	Switzerland	44
5	US	10	Brazil	42
6	Switzerland	10	India	41
7	Canada	10	Italy	41
8	Japan	9	US	41
9	Singapore	9	Germany	40
10	New Zealand	8	Netherlands	40
11	Sweden	7	China (Taiwan)	39
12	China (Taiwan)	7	United Arab Emirates	39
13	France	7	Denmark	39
14	Thailand	7	Sweden	37
15	Finland	7	Portugal	37
16	Belgium	7	Russia	37
17	Spain	6	Spain	37
18	Turkey	6	Ireland	37
19	Italy	6	Indonesia	37
20	South Africa	6	China (Hong Kong)	37
21	United Arab Emirates	6	United Kingdom	37
22	Mexico	6	Norway	36
23	Denmark	5	Poland	35
24	Brazil	5	Canada	35
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