[November 20, 2016] There are many reasons that the Democrats lost in the 2016 elections that saw U.S. president-elect Donald Trump and other Republicans elected. I don’t plan to discuss them here but it is worth mentioning that it has been long said that the Democrats had few real choices to put up for the presidential race. In other words, their leadership pipeline is lacking.
Great senior leaders are developed through a rigorous process where they compete and those less deserving are weeded out. Most large, successful organizations recognize this and put into place some type of central authority responsible for leadership talent development. The problem? Rarely is there a cohesive talent strategy.
Little attention is paid to identifying, developing, recruiting, and selecting the very best leader talent. Good junior leaders are often not provided with opportunities to improve their leadership skill sets. More senior leaders are too busy competing against those who are up-and-coming talented leaders who could, if given the chance, be exceptional senior leaders. A senior leader attitude of entitlement can be detrimental to those young leaders.
To build a strong pipeline of leaders (also known as a pipeline bench) means many things. First and foremost it means that senior leaders must identify what they believe to be the most important need for the organization in terms of its future leaders. This is no easy task as it takes time and considerable effort to do so. Seeing into the future is difficult but necessary and only the best senior leaders can do it.
Opening the pipeline to outsiders is one way of obtaining new leader talent but it requires special care in the handling of those new to the organization. There must be a clear career track from junior to senior leader and everyone must know the standards and requirements to advance within the organization. Mentorship is crucial for success in such a program. And finally, best practices should be developed and continually assessed for their effectiveness in improving leader opportunity and growth.
All this will fail, however, if the senior leadership is unwilling or indifferent to support such an effort. I’ve seen what happens when an organization experiences a talent drain. It doesn’t take long for malaise to set and new members depart.
Members of the U.S. Democratic Party will testify that there are too many privileged senior leaders who care little about their leadership pipeline. This was identified in their strategic review back in 2014.1 Did they learn their lesson for 2016? Apparently not.
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