Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER May 18, 2015 NEWS 3 ADVANCED > pg. 9 Leadership is most pressing human capital challenge: Survey Bench strength, depth, development opportunities among concerns BY SARAH DOBSON WHEN it comes to the most pressing human capital challeng- es facing Canadian businesses, leadership once again tops the list, according to a recent Deloitte report. Ninety per cent of human re- sources and business leaders con- sider leadership an important or very important business concern, found the survey of 118 people — with 54 per cent saying it's the most pressing priority. at ranks above culture and engagement (86 per cent) and workforce capability (80 per cent). And while just 33 per cent feel their organization is ready or very ready to address the challenge of leadership, that's up from 20 per cent in 2014, said Deloitte. "Organizations and senior lead- ers are understanding the need for their business to focus on culture to dramatically improve employee engagement and then, ultimately, the impact that all of that has on the customer and their ability to execute the business plan," said Heather Stockton, a partner and human capital leader at Deloitte in Toronto. "ere's a recognition that you can have the best controls in the world but if you don't have the right culture and the right leaders with the right values and behav- iours, they'll find a way around the controls." Leadership has changed dra- matically in the last generation. It used to be you showed up and told people what to do and people knew their roles, said David Town, president of Your Leadership Matters in Aurora, Ont. "Leadership now requires, par- ticularly when you profile gen X and Y… a process of involving people in coming onboard and coming onside to go in the direc- tion that you want to go in. And this is a newer skill set and not necessarily one that's been mod- elled well in many workplaces," he said. "More people need to under- stand 'What do I really need to do to be effective in a leadership role? I can't just tell people what to do anymore.'" It's more demanding in the sense that a leader has to under- stand the people she's leading, which is wrapped up in engage- ment, said Town. "It really is about understand- ing what motivates that person — people have their own indi- vidual reasons for wanting to get onside with you and I think there's a term called… the psychological contract that has changed in the last generation because so many companies engaged in re-engi- neering, rightsizing, downsizing, all of which had the consequence of people getting laid off or chang- ing their employment," he said. "So people observed that, and especially the generations now in the workplace watch that and go, 'So I'm not going to be loyal to the company just because; I'm going to be loyal because they've engaged me in the process, I believe in their vision, it's chal- lenging work.' "So the leadership yoke, as it were, the demand of leaders is that they need to figure out ways rather than showing up and saying, 'I'm at the top of the house in this department or in the whole company.' ose that inspire people make a dramatic difference." Development challenges Given the increasingly complex business environment, organiza- tions see the effective develop- ment of leaders as an ongoing challenge, found Deloitte. But there's an opportunity to propel business strategy and agility by deepening bench strength. Employers and HR are worried about the depth of leadership, the quality of the bench strength they have, said Stockton, and there's a shifting emphasis on leadership at all levels. "e emphasis has largely been on senior executive succession but as businesses sort of shift and think about the future, one of the biggest challenges they have is the depth of leadership. So they need to actually start to build leaders at all levels so that they have a strong pipeline in order to ex- ecute against their business plan." As a result, Deloitte also sug- gests employers: • accelerate the development of high-potential talent • play to leaders' strengths by targeting individual growth op- portunities and capabilities that are critical to the organization's business strategy

• Cover