No improvement in leadership quality

India has not witnessed any significant improvement in leadership quality and leadership bench strength, according to a research report by global talent management consultancy DDI and The Conference Board. As per the report, there is a variation around the world in the quality of today's leaders and in bench strength (the supply of leaders ready to succeed others who will step down).

Many countries, including India, have not seen an improvement in leadership quality, and for those where the quality has improved, their chosen leaders still fail to keep up with their peers. Further, it has been revealed that data analytics is the number one 'hot button' issue for CEOs. This means that big data is getting crucial by the minute because executives are putting increased pressure on finding ways to monetise data. However, these same executives do not recognise the potential of analytics.

Why is leader quality going nowhere fast? Apparently, because leadership development efforts have stalled, despite the fact that it is estimated that around $50 billion a year is being spent on developing leaders worldwide, the report states. Forty eight countries were surveyed for the report in which 13,124 leaders along with 1,528 HR professions across 2031 organisations took part.