Where will the Aerospace Leaders come from?

An article by Dr. Daryl Watkins     1 Comment

What are you doing to prepare the future leaders of your organizations? A Benchmark Report on Trends in Executive Development was recently released by Pearson TalentLens and Executive Development Associates Inc. The report surveyed senior leaders from large national and multinational corporations within a variety of industries. Two significant concerns for those senior leaders are a shortage of capable leaders coming up through the ranks and a perceived lack of critical and strategic thinking skills in emerging leaders. An implication is that companies may not survive if future leaders are not ready or able to take over the mantle of leadership. I think it is somewhat natural for seasoned leaders to lack confidence in the people who will be filling their shoes. After all, people are naturally wired to overlook their own shortcomings and attribute the failure of others to their shortcomings. This tendency is so prevalent that social psychologists coined two phrases, correspondence bias and fundamental attribution error, to describe the phenomenon.


The hyper turbulent environment is further clouded by conflicting trends in the workforce. Baby Boomers were born between January 1st, 1946 and December 31st, 1964 according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That means that this year, Baby Boomers started to turn 65. Over the next several years, boomers should be retiring at unprecedented rates. But, will boomers have the luxury of retirement? Many Baby Boomers don’t have pensions, retirement plans, savings, or resources that will carry them through their projected life spans. Even for those boomers who planned well, there is a possibility that their retirement funds and social security will disappear completely. Bloomberg cited a Stanford University report that suggested California’s three biggest pension funds are underfunded by over $500 Billion. The Congressional Budget Office reported that in 2010 (for the first time ever), Social Security outlays exceeded income. Add to all this the possibility that emerging leaders may not be ready for leadership and Senior leaders will feel economic and social pressure to remain in the driver seat. But even they may not be ready for the future.


We live in an era of complexity where inflection points are coming more rapidly. Future generations of leaders will need to cope with dramatically different environments than current leaders deal with. New industries are emerging that weren’t conceived of just a few years ago; conversely, some mature industries will be gone. Leaders will have to demonstrate a broad range of competencies to be successful and they will need to develop high-performing teams who can rapidly shift priorities. But, where and how do they learn these competencies? Universities can help by developing management and leadership programs that provide significant leadership development opportunities. However, companies must provide a proving ground for emerging leaders to learn. This means that the onus for developing the new crop of leaders falls back on the shoulders of the current senior leaders. Senior leaders must fight to keep money in the budget for leadership development. And, they must develop a long-range outlook that allows emergent leaders to learn from failure as much as from success.


Embry-Riddle and CAAL are working with industry to develop leaders on several fronts. Embry-Riddle is launching a Master of Science in Leadership Program. CAAL has developed industry partnership through initiative based leadership programs, manufacturing initiatives, action research partnerships, Aviation and Aerospace industry reports and summits, and through a STEM+M program for High School.


Are you concerned that there will not be leaders capable of leading your organization into a promising future? And, how serious is your company about developing leaders?