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B.M. In your book Made in Canada Leadership, you said, we require a national leadership strategy to make leadership a priority. The strategy should include leadership education for all ages, coaching, mentoring, stretch assignments and the creation of a National Leadership Institute to oversee the implementation of a national leadership strategy. Can you give me some more detail behind your reasoning?
F.M. Leadership is the most important factor in the success of any project, organization or social reform. In fact, the leadership factor can almost guarantee success or failure. Therefore, Canada needs an abundant and reliable supply of competent leaders in all sectors ─ now and in the future.
Currently we are heading into a crisis of demographics. Most baby boomers will be retired in ten years and the next generation, Generation X is significantly smaller. Therefore, we have to ramp up leadership and succession planning or we will have a huge leadership deficit. To do this we need a greatly improved leadership infrastructure. Our current leadership infrastructure is extremely hap- hazard. We need to identify the gaps, find a way to fill the gaps and share best practices from across Canada.
If we do not want to suffer as a country we need to realize that leadership can be effectively developed, just like capacity in hockey and other sports is developed. In fact, leadership can be developed in 80% of the population, where 60% are average to good, and 20% are gifted, and are able to expand their capacity to lead.
We have to think about the long-term, which is the pipeline. A great example of a pipeline is how we develop hockey players starting with Tim Bits™, which is where children start playing hockey and get coached in playing hockey at a very early age. It takes about a generation to produce results. In the same vein, leadership needs to be imbedded in the curriculum starting with elementary school. Our children have to be able to practice leadership, get coaching, feedback and continually improve just like they do in sports, in academia and the arts.
At the other end of the spectrum is a hothouse approach for high potential leaders. These are the people who will be leaders three to five years from now. Therefore, we need to put all kinds of resources into both the pipeline infrastructure as well as the hothouse infrastructure.
In sports a great example of a hothouse is “Own the podium” and the pipeline is “Participaction.” A great example of a hothouse in business is New Brunswick’s Wallace McCain Institute. The way the institute works is that every year a small, exceptional group of high potential entrepreneurs are invited to be in a program that challenges them to share insights and experiences with each other and with guest presenters in order to take themselves as leaders and their businesses to the next level.
In conclusion, we need to offer solutions that are doable, we need to get more of the right people involved, we have to provide hope and start moving.
To find out more about how master Canadian Leaders are inspired by vision and fueled by passion, attend the 1st Halifax Leadership Symposium on September 28, 2010 at Pier 21 ─ The Future of Leadership in Atlantic Canada: Challenges, Opportunities and Innovative Solutions. Our keynote speakers are Françoise Morissette author of Made in Canada Leadership. Françoise is the director of a pan Canadian leadership institute to help raise the level of leadership in Canada by sharing leadership best practices from across the country. Cora Tsouflidou, the founder of Cora’s Restaurants, who turned a café in Montreal into 120 restaurants across Canada. Chris Power, president and CEO of Capital Health is talking about the future of health care and Phil Fontaine the former National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, is speaking about the type of inclusiveness we need today and will even need more of in the future because the Conference Board of Canada says that by the year 2031 we will have 23 people in Atlantic Canada to do the work that 50 people do today. For more information and to register at the early bird discount rate of $299, visit www.futureofleadership.dal.ca. The book The Seven Strategies of Master Leaders is available at independent bookstores and at Chapters and Chapters online and at www.BradMcRae.com
