Workplace leaders are dazed and confused about their futures as chief executives and HR professionals are failing to provide clear plans for career progression, research has revealed.
The Global Leadership Forecast 2008-09 by business leadership consultancy DDI and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD),showed that despite efforts by UK employers to improve leadership programmes, only 41% of leaders were happy with their progression chances – the same amount as in 2001.
There is a growing culture of disaffected leaders who are having a negative effect on businesses, according to Steve Newhall, vice-president for Europe at DDI.
“Leadership is about helping those around you to be better than they would be without you, and some people just don’t have the passion to be able to focus on the things you need to do that,” Newhall told Personnel Today.
“There are too many of these leaders in our organisations, and it’s extremely difficult to re-engage somebody who’s fallen out of love with the job of leadership.”
Less than half of the HR managers polled by DDI said their leadership programmes were of a ‘high quality’.
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John Harkness, HR director at the RAC motoring organisation, said: “Leadership is critical to the role of HR, and ultimately, the success of the business. Our job is about leading the business to achieve big goals, and to achieve that you need really effective leadership at all levels, so people can really understand the vision and know how they’re contributing to it.”
DDI polled more than 300 leaders at all levels.
