September 2006

Building Leadership for the New Millennium

As an organizational consultant, I have the unique opportunity of experiencing many different types of organizations over brief periods of time. These experiences not only enhance my appreciation of the different organizational cultures and issues, but they also allow me to see trends across organizations. Based on my experiences in the past few months, the long-predicted wave of change in the workforce due to Baby Boomers' aging has begun. Organizations have started to lose both experienced leadership and institutional knowledge as the Boomers retire and younger generations move into their places. Here are a few examples:

• While preparing for a teambuilding retreat for a senior management team that had just replaced three members, we realized that the combined years of senior management experience for the team went from 45 years to 25 years in six months.

• A non-profit organization that relies on volunteer leadership for more than 50 committees realized that for the first time ever, the average length of organization experience for its chairs is significantly lower this year than it has been in the previous year.

• One city is quietly developing succession plans as it anticipates seven of 20 department directors retiring within the next three to five years.

• A 2003 study of family-owned businesses predicted that 39% of their leadership would be changed by 2008.

This wave of change in leadership is magnified by the extremely different values and attitudes towards work of the younger generations, "Gen X" and "Gen Y," who are replacing the Baby Boomers.

Leadership development for most organizations, in both non-profit and for-profit, has been left up to time and experience or for individuals to pursue on their own. However, for many organizations to continue to succeed, leadership training must become a necessary and very serious business.

Some organizations will resist change and argue that they should not be in the business of leadership training. Others will struggle with the questions of how to identify who should receive the training and how much training they should receive. Those who do not address the issue of succession planning and leadership development will be at risk of not having the people who will be able to continue their organizations' growth and success.

What about your business? Are you prepared for the future? If you own your business and are planning to retire soon, will your business survive or thrive? To learn more about developing people within your organization, please read, and enjoy, the rest of this newsletter.

To your business success,

Gail Schaper-Gordon, Ph.D.
President, Win Win Workplace Solutions