Preliminary results from our global 2020 Workforce survey show lackluster leadership at many companies. Executives cite a lack of adequate leadership as a major impediment to building a workforce to meet future business objectives, and only about half say leadership at their company has the skills to effectively manage talent.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, employees agree that leaders have much room for improvement. Fewer than half of employee respondents say leadership is equipped to lead the company to success, and many do not believe their leaders can lead a global, diverse workforce.

The workforce of the future will be increasingly diverse, mobile, multi-cultural, and multi-generational. To succeed, companies will have to cultivate leadership to effectively manage—and reap the full benefits of—these changes.

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.