Companies Wait Too Long to Train Leaders
December 19, 2012 3 CommentsThe average age of a supervisor is 33, yet the average age someone begins to get leadership training is 42. That’s a decade of lost potential, or worse, a decade of misguided management!
This data comes from the legendary Jack Zenger who has a great piece over in the HBR blog called, “We Wait Too Long to Train Our Leaders.”
In my talks I always mention that there is no downside to treating everyone as a leader in an organization. We don’t need a title or even direct reports to be leaders; we can all lead from where we are. My humble suggestion is that everyone receive leadership training early, and often.
Kevin Kruse is a NY Times bestselling author and serial entrepreneur. His new book, Employee Engagement 2.0, teaches managers how to turn apathetic groups into emotionally committed teams.
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3 Outstanding Responses to "Companies Wait Too Long to Train Leaders"
Soren Sjogren on January 18, 2013 at 4:29 am | Permalink
Unfortunately, I am not surprised by the data. In many organizations leaders are promoted from the floor without prior training. The best skilled at a certain task suddenly find themselves as managers or leaders.
I’d go with your idea: training everyone in the organization as a leader. That would enable everyone to understand the challenges a leader faces. In fact, most of us will lead others even though we are not leaders. Who leads the team when the leader is away?
A company training everyone would also have an opportunity to screen its workers’ leadership abilities before promoting the to managers.
kiran on March 12, 2013 at 7:28 am | Permalink
I agree with you. We have lost a lot of years and unnecessary struggle to get things moving. Soren above has hit the problem on the nail I guess. Working with people who have been suddenly promoted to a higher level – just because they were good at the present job – can be very harmful.
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