The Global Leadership Forecast Reports Slow Leadership Progress In Innovation

That's not a valid work email account. Please enter your work email (e.g. you@yourcompany.com)
Please enter your work email
(e.g. you@yourcompany.com)

checkAccording to the sixth edition of the Global Leadership Forecast, leaders are not as prepared as they’d like to be for future innovation. The reasons cited are lack of quality leadership practices and less emphasis on innovation by most companies.

The latest Global Leadership Forecast conducted by Development Dimensions International (DDI) surveyed 1,897 HR professionals and at least 12,000 leaders from around the world. The study is conducted every two years and reports indicate this latest one is the largest one completed thus far.

This year’s study received assistance from Gary Hamel and his Management Lab to discover the key factors that show how organizations’ management cultures have evolved.

Rich Wellins, Senior Vice President at DDI, stated, “As businesses—and business practices—accelerate ahead, it seems that leadership is barely moving at all. We looked at what leaders needed in the future, what organizations’ future leadership needs are, and how we can advance our practices around leadership and found that our work is cut out for us.”

The results of the study indicate that leadership quality is not very good and progress has been extremely slow. Approximately 33 percent ranked their leadership quality as very good or excellent. The slow progress on the quality of leadership is consistent with the study that was conducted two years ago.

The confidence level for future leadership quality is low, as only 18 percent indicated that the future would be strong. The latest research from the Boston Consulting Group indicates that the US is not investing in innovation as much as other countries in the world. At least 60 percent of leaders report that rigid management practices are to blame for the lack of progress.

Regarding the nurturing of creativity and innovation, only half of the leaders gave themselves good ratings. Wellins added, “This is a grade we should be concerned with—the heart of future competitive advantage—half of leaders say they’re not effective at encouraging their teams to be creative and innovative.”

For more information about DDI, visit http://www.ddiworld.com/.

By Rachel Lorinda