We are facing serious lack of effective leadership in business today.    Drotter’s discussions with over fifty companies have raised new concerns and substantiated old ones.

A vast number of leaders are retiring without leaving effective succession leaders.

Far too many companies are going outside for leadership replacement because they haven’t developed leadership within their organizations. Their internal systems are defective.

Even solid companies who are using solid leadership programs aren’t getting the results they need, and are having to settle with “We meant to deliver” and “We didn’t achieve our potential.” Often they adopt a “program” which lasts only as long as the incumbent leader stays. New leadership brings a new “program” so leadership tends to be gimmick driven.

There is no common core for a united message in most companies. Human Resources is silo-oriented, guarded and not connected with finance, strategy and operations.

Unlike GAAP in accounting, there are no standards for leadership. Most of it is made up in response to problems rather than driven by principles. In particular, lines of succession are poorly handled. But leadership is measurable and it should be.

To set a new leadership foundation that works will require a shift from behavioral science to business science, based on a set of principles.

The goal is to get rid of looking at leadership potential and start looking at leadership deliverables or measured performance.