Addressing the Leadership Deficit

The quest for improving the workforce landscape often revolves around ‘skilling up’ those who are not prepared to enter the current workforce. An additional, if less discussed, challenge for businesses is the ‘leadership deficit’. As described by the Center for Creative Leadership (www.ccl.org), and validated by multiple studies, “crucial leadership skills … are insufficient for meeting current and future needs.”-1

Having received feedback of a similar nature from our own membership, the Springfield Chamber is working to address this leadership gap as part of a strategic priority to “Cultivate Talent”.

The Problem

In and around 2005 numerous articles began to appear describing a concerning lack of leadership skills within American business. Today, nearly 15 years later, that ‘leadership shortage’ persists in all sectors: public, non-profit and business. According to research by the American Productivity & Quality Center (APQC) the top leadership deficiencies are:

1. Strategic planning,
2. Change management,
3. Knowledge sharing,
4. Listening, and
5. Emotional intelligence

Only 21 percent of businesses feel their own leadership practices are ‘quite a bit’ or ‘extremely’ effective. The leading solution, that which predicts the smallest leadership deficit, “is developing leadership capabilities in all employees.”-2 Sadly, only eight percent of participating businesses claim to be supporting this level of professional development.

What Members Want According to our own survey, member businesses identify “managing conflict” as the greatest opportunity for leadership skills training. In order, the top ten areas of concern to members are:

1. Managing Conflict
2. Communication
3. Team Building
4. Building Trust, Credibility & Respect
5. Fostering a Positive Environment
6. Strategic Planning
7. Building Employee Engagement
8. Embracing Change
9. Handling Mistakes
10. Time Management

The Solution

In response, the Chamber has broadened its efforts in addressing workforce challenges to include leadership skills training and engagement. The Chamber’s 2019-20 Strategic Plan identifies Cultivate Talent as one of four fundamental priorities. The other three are Model Excellence, Foster Business Vitality and its perennial priority Organizational Stewardship. Within Cultivate Talent, a new leadership imperative has emerged to complement the #WorkReady initiative that has been the organization’s workforce focus over the past two years.

Ongoing related programming includes the Springfield Leadership Workshop and Leadership Eugene Springfield. Both of these programs, originally designed to address a vacuum in civic leadership, have strengthened their leadership skill building component and will continue to invest in this area. The impact has been direct and meaningful.

“The greatest reward for me” says Robert Killen, Chamber staff member, “has been follow up conversation with alumni about the knowledge they’ve picked up that they’re now using in the workplace.” Two of Killen’s favorite examples are a banker who used culture-building skills to help lead through a period of massive organizational change, and another professional who was inspired to build out a program of dialog in response to the persistent incivility she witnessed.

In addition to optimizing these two existing programs, the Chamber is building out its fall Business Conference with a leadership focus. Though still in development, early indications predict a program with widely varied explorations of leadership in business. From the entrepreneurial mentality to 360-degree leadership, the options are many and all of them are beneficial in a landscape with a fundamental gap.

The leadership deficit has been a challenge for business for more than a decade. Through effective programming, and with the support of regional experts, the Springfield Chamber is stepping up to address it. For more information about the Chamber, the 2019-20 Strategic Plan or its leadership programming contact Paige Sharpe at 541-746-1651.