Our Leaders Lack Skills

It is Election Day as I write this. Elections should be about a community thoughtfully electing leaders to move us forward to a better future.

A new survey from Pearson and Executive Development Associates determined that business leaders are concerned about attracting talented individuals to assume executive positions. As many elections go uncontested, we have a problem attracting talented people to run for public office.

When business leaders were asked what skills were lacking in the pool of talent primed to assume executive positions within the next few years responses included: strategic thinking, leading change, the ability to create a vision and engage others around it, the ability to inspire, and the ability to understand how the total enterprise works.

The above list of skills unfortunately appear to be lacking in most of our elected officials.

The reason for the lack of available business talent according to Judy Chartrand of Pearson is that finding the combination of skills mentioned above is difficult because it takes the right blend of personality, time and experience. According to Chartrand “You need somebody who’s got really good critical thinking capabilities, somebody’s who’s got really good interpersonal personality qualities, they need to have the courage to be able to make those tough decisions under fire, they also need to have the right experience.”

Strategic thinking, leading change, the ability to create a vision and engage others around it, the ability to inspire, and the ability to understand how the total enterprise works.

Our elected officials spend far too much time on small thinking, resisting change, not engaging others with a vision and a lack of understanding regarding the big picture. That being said I hope you voted and beyond that I hope you consider running for public office as we truly need leaders with some critical skills to move us forward.