Preliminary analysis of our 2020 Workforce surveys shows that leadership is ill-equipped to deal with tomorrow’s—and even today’s—workforce issues.

Just about half of executives say that their leaders are prepared to effectively manage talent, and even fewer say their leaders are prepared to lead a global workforce.  Employees agree that leadership is lackluster—less than half say leadership is equipped to lead the company to success. Furthermore, employees do not believe that management values leadership ability in employees, meaning companies may not be developing future leaders within their organizations.

Executives and employee responses suggest a worrying lack of qualified leaders—but to be successful in the new multi-generation and -cultural workplaces, companies will have to equip leadership with the skills to lead global and diverse workforces.