3-5 Page Executive Summary and PowerPoint.

The Next Generation of Leaders

Introduction

A significant challenge of 21st century leadership is planning for the future with an ever-shrinking workforce. In the United States alone "succession planning poses an incredible challenge as the baby boomers retire and far fewer college-educated workers are prepared to replace them" (Groves, 2007, p. 240). In order to ensure a future pool of talent an organization must "spot potential, retain people, and create development" (Fernández-Aráoz, 2014, p. 7). Organizational leaders must consider their future needs and work now to create succession plans to improve the quality of leadership within the ranks. According to the AARP, the "cost of replacing workers is estimated to be 50 to 150 percent of their annual salaries" (Murphy, 2007, p. 3) when all costs are considered. If the best defense is a good offense then organizational leaders will do well to improve the quality of leadership rising through its ranks (Fernández-Aráoz, 2014).

Spot potential. "Any institution that develops its leaders at all levels will get ahead of its competition" (Groves, 2007, p. 241) Organizational leaders have to determine the leadership needs to build a pipeline of qualified people for a variety of roles. The emphasis cannot just be on replacement but on effective employee development to create multiple successors for a range of roles. Potential high performing employees should be identified through mentoring, stretch assignments, supportive culture, and practical evaluation methods (Groves, 2007). An effective employee development plan will include a strategy that involves leaders, managers, executives and even the CEO to create leadership development. Some organizations use a program of "leaders teaching leaders" that combines the knowledge of current executives into training sessions for high potential managers.

Retain people. Studies find that significant generational differences exist in the way people view learning, training, and leadership (Arsenault, 2004). Taking these differences into consideration when future planning is one way to retain the potential talent in the organization. Arsenault (2004) contends that employee development programs that make room for the differences in generational style and preference will be significant and effective within a workplace. For example, traditional learning is often presented in terms of the "heroic leader" which keeps with the style of Veteran and Baby Boomer generations. Changing up the traditional methods to make room for the "freedom to be change agents" often preferred by "Generation Xers and Nexters" (Arsenault, 2004, p. 138) will make training more significant to them. Updating training and development methods to combine classroom and structured learning with action learning and self-evaluation techniques that make use of the current technology will bring leadership development programs into the 21st century.

Create development. Succession planning is the challenge for leadership and creating the right program is essential. Basic steps to succession planning are identifying the positions for succession and potential employees; creating standards and desired skills along with tools to measure them; developing review procedures to build pool; link the succession plan to human resource tools; feedback to the successors; and finally, measure the effectiveness of the plan. (Noe, 2014) Today's leaders will recognize the need, spot the talent to fill the need, and work towards developing succession plans to create the tomorrow's leaders.

Bibliography

Arsenault, P. M. (2004). Validating generational differences: A legitimate diversity and leadership issue. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 25(1), 124- 141. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.snhu.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/226926783 ?accountid=3783

Fernández-Aráoz, C. (2014). 21st century talent spotting: Why potential now trumps brains, experience, and “competencies.” Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://archive.harvardbusiness.org/cla/web/pl/product.seam?c=33269&i=33306& cs=d16 d448e69f1a09fc652f53a4b223250

Groves, K. S. (2007). Integrating leadership development and succession planning best practices. The Journal of Management Development, 26(3), 239-260. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02621710710732146

Murphy, S. (2007). Leading a multigenerational workforce. AARP. Retrieved from http://assets.aarp.org/www.aarp.org_/cs/misc/leading_a_multigenerational_workf orce.pdf