A global survey has validated an open secret known to observers of the local BPO (business process outsourcing) industry — that the sector is grappling to meet the humongous demand for competent managers and to create successors to the current generation of leaders.

In its report, US-headquartered research firm Development Dimensions International (DDI) found that only 41 percent of leaders and 32 percent of HR professionals in the country are satisfied with the quality of their leadership development efforts.

In the report, it was revealed other BPO organizations were more likely to have succession programs for first-level leaders and individual contributors compared to the global norm, but there were less efforts to provide succession plans for senior leaders.

While senior leaders of BPO companies share the same business priorities — improving talent and company growth — as leaders from other companies around the globe, there were some differences in terms of leadership development and succession planning.

DDI collaborated with the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) for the study, its fifth report of practices related to effective leadership. The global report features responses from both senior leaders and HR professionals on the state of leadership today, leadership development, and transitions in different levels of leadership.

The report, which included a section on the Philippine BPO industry, provided a picture of the sector based on the feedback of 26 BPO companies and 350 responses from leaders across all levels.

In an interview, DDI senior vice president and primary researcher Rich Wellins said although the report gave a gloomy assessment of the state of leadership worldwide, the Philippines actually ranked high in the survey.

“Generally, leadership all over the world has declined with organizations failing to pinpoint and develop leaders,” said Wellins. “But for the Philippines, it has a young population from which leaders can be nurtured and developed.”

In the report where served as a co-author, Wellins wrote that unless HR and top management can make their partnership work, they will never see their dream of developing excellent leaders become reality.

The report observed that HR professionals and leaders appeared to hold the other primarily responsible for the failure of leadership development programs. HR professionals pointed to management’s lack of accountability and commitment, while leaders showed limited confidence in HR, it noted.

“Organizations need to have a sustainable supply of quality leaders at all levels to meet current and future challenges. The business process that meets this need is called a leadership pipeline. Although some organizations have made substantive progress in filling their pipeline, most have gaps between their current leadership bench and the talent they need to drive future success,” the report said.

Leaders responding to the Global Leadership Forecast survey identified skills rather than ingrained personal attributes, like personality or motivation, as the most frequent causes of leader failure.

“This is fortunate, in that skills can be developed, but it takes special circumstances to do so,” it said.

The report also said that an extensive body of research has demonstrated that experts are primarily made, not born.

“Top performers in many fields, such as sports, chess, or visual arts, do not exhibit superior talents at the start; rather, they perfect them through years of purposeful practice. What is required is a passionate devotion to achieving excellence, a well-informed coach to provide guidance and feedback, and deliberate practice that continually focuses on mastering tasks beyond one’s current level of competence and comfort,” it said.

Source: MELVIN G. CALIMAG