Organizations are in the midst of a “leadership drought” right now. The smart ones are starting to do a rain dance.
The leadership drought that we see with our clients and partners in the community is not just a question of demographics, but also one of development.
Starting with the recession in 2009, an ever-increasing wave of Baby Boomers began exiting our organizations. Initially, they were the unfortunate victims of corporate downsizing. More recently, as their retirement investments stabilized and their own clocks have started ticking more loudly, they are simply retiring.
In their wake, they are leaving our organizations with younger leaders who have less experience, less context and less confidence in their ability to lead. This is all happening at a time when our organizations have had significantly less capacity – time and money – to invest in the professional development of new managers and leaders.
Why does this matter? Because these young leaders are the emotional thermostat of your organization – we know that they have a 70-80% influence on the climate of their teams (and that climate has a 20-25% impact on the team’s results). If they are struggling, your organization will be struggling.
That’s why we’re launching a series of new programs at Floricane this year:
- The Leadership Circle: We’re excited to be able to launch our new program with two cohorts of leaders, who will come together monthly for facilitated, small group discussions led by our executive coaches. The Leadership Circle is designed for peer-to-peer exploration of challenges shared by leaders who often lack a place to turn inside their organizations to diagnose and discuss their work.
- Management Series: Our new five-part workshop series will provide managers and supervisors with a core set of skills that are critical to their long-term success – effective communication, performance management, team assessment, giving and receiving feedback, and more. Each monthly session will be a deep dive into a critical management learning topic.
- Custom Leadership Development Programs: In September, we’ll be start promoting a five-month leadership development program for emerging leaders in Chesterfield County. Designed with the team at the Chesterfield Chamber of Commerce, the program will combine leadership development with a healthy dose of Chesterfield 101. We’re designing three similar programs for other clients to launch in 2015.