More than half of senior executives predict business performance will suffer because their leaders are not up to scratch, with chief financial officers most likely to blame failure on poor leadership. These are the main findings of a new report, Growing Global Executive Talent: High Priority, Little Progress, by business leadership consultancy DDI and written in co-operation with the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). 
 
The report reveals that while talent management is a priority for organisations, current efforts are not meeting business needs. Two in five senior leaders believe that having the wrong people in the wrong roles is the biggest obstacle they face in delivering their business strategy.

The findings are based on a survey conducted by the EIU, on behalf of DDI, in September and October of 2007 with 412 senior leaders in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia. To complement the quantitative findings, eight C-suite executives, or its equivalent, were interviewed on their perceptions on talent management.

The major findings of the report include:

• 85% of respondents claim talent management is as important as or more important than other business priorities, yet only 3% believe they’re doing an excellent job
• Only two in five are satisfied with the rate their firms are developing their most talented people.
• In fact, half rate talent management and leadership development efforts as just fair or poor and less than half rate current leaders and internal candidates for key positions as good or excellent
• 55% of senior executives believe their firms’ performance was likely to suffer in the near future because of insufficient leadership talent. Chief financial officers are most likely to link failure to poor leadership, with nearly 70% fearing declining business performance because of a lack of good leaders
• Despite recognising its importance, just two in 10 business leaders admit to spending frequent time on talent management and only one in 10 often reviews progress with their boards
• Given this, three quarters admit they need to improve their talent management efforts.

“This is a wake up call to organisations that ‘talk the talk but aren’t walking the walk’,” warns Simon Mitchell, European marketing director at DDI. “If you get the right people in the right roles, the strategy will take care of itself.”

He advises organisations to focus on three things: strategy, measurement and ownership:

“Get clear and simple talent management strategies in place with clear and simple ways to measure progress. Then ensure it happens by making your managers and leaders accountable for talent management – starting with the CEO and the board – and linking performance to incentives and consequences. Only then will sufficient focus be paid to identifying and developing future leaders. Organisations that do so will reap the rewards.”