by Roger E. Herman

In the past few years, our lives have been disrupted, challenged and influenced by an economic downturn, a major terrorist attack on the United States and countless other terrorist acts around the globe. We've also witnessed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, armed conflicts and significant shifts in geo-economic trends as jobs move offshore.

Mixed in with all this, we've experienced devastating hurricanes in the U.S., flooding and tsunamis in other countries and stormy political campaigns.

Corporate ethics and inadequate leadership tainted the business environment, rewarded by prison terms or multi-million dollar buyouts of executive contracts.

In the midst of all this turbulence, corporate leaders are expected to achieve sufficient economic success to produce impressive results on Wall Street, develop and introduce new products and services, penetrate markets, apply technology, motivate their workers and generate bottom-line strength.

These objectives cannot be accomplished without a competent, dedicated workforce: That's the secret ingredient that will separate the winners from the whiners.

Velocity
With the speed of change and challenge, an astonishing proportion of corporate leaders have concentrated their attention and energy on short-term issues.

Their perspectives are diminished. Executive emphasis shifted from long-range, multi-year concerns to micro-managing the moment.

The speed of leadership life forced executives to grasp the immediate instead of illuminating the inspirational long-term path that their followers need so desperately to see. As a result, many companies are stalled in the present with limited capability of moving to the future.

Corporate executives find themselves on the horns of an interesting dilemma. On one hand, they are swamped and overwhelmed with work because they don't have enough people on their lean staffs to accomplish their objectives.

This condition means progress is much slower than they would like, building frustration. On the other hand, they sense the economy is picking up and they need to do more to position themselves to ride the wave.

Unfortunately, they are hampered by a lack of resources to move more aggressively.

They're trapped in a classic "Catch 22" situation and, in many cases, simply don't know how to get out.

Complicating matters is the fear that competitors are moving at a much faster pace and eroding their market share: current and future. Without being able to gather enough data quickly enough, corporate leaders find themselves making strategic estimates. This fact is particularly true, and troubling, for executives who have come from business schools where they were taught to gather information and analyze it before making decisions.

With the varying speed of databits ricocheting in a three-dimensional environment, capturing the right metrics at the right time, and knowing how to use the gathered intelligence, has become a monumental challenge.

Recommended Action. Take a deep breath. Collect as much information as you can and lay it out in front of you. Invite selected colleagues (not too many or your effort will be counterproductive) to join you in digesting, evaluating and analyzing your data to make decisions that will benefit the organization.

The world will continue to move faster than you'd prefer, and you have to accelerate your organization's speed. The secret is to move forward deliberately. Timeliness is important, but only if you're consciously focused on where you're going and why.

Take the time to get all your people on board with you. Appreciate the role you play in educating and inspiring others to do what they have to do. Link your vision and support roles so people know where they have to go, why the journey is important, and what assistance you will give them in making the trip.

Labor shortage
As we move through the next decade, practically every employer will face unexpected and frustrating challenges due to labor shortages. Most of the shortages will be in the area of skilled labor: workers who need education and/or training to perform their jobs.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as many as 10 million skilled workers will be needed by 2010. If this happens, employers will wrestle with the most severe shortage of skilled labor in history, something that no employer can really totally prepare for.

As the economy grows, you will need more people. Competition for top talent will be intense, with recruiters behaving like starving wolves on the prowl.

The companies that are most attractive to applicants will win the battles in the war for talent. Positioning tools will help differentiate one company from another as highly capable workers struggle to choose the right place to continue their careers.

Shortages will be seen in almost all fields, particularly in technical positions, service jobs and professional roles. Demand will be high in health care, bio-med, technology, advanced manufacturing, design and practically anything involving computers.

Electronic recruiting will be the weapon of choice in the new war for talent. For an example of what can be done, see www.retailology.com.

Be familiar with what's happening on the job boards, the major services and the niche services like www.vetjobs.com and www.retiredbrains.com.

This field is exploding and employment professionals not up-to-speed will be behind the curve. Playing catch-up in this environment will be expensive and damaging to your effectiveness. Pay attention to technology leaders like www.recruitmax.com to be aware of what is happening in this vital arena. 

These are just a handful of Web sites to visit; you are only scratching the surface. Invest the time to know this playing field. It is not a level playing field, and it's filled with potholes and quicksand.

Recommended Action. Strengthen your recruiting process now. Do not wait. Your competitors are already taking aggressive steps, even though you may not see them. Almost every day we hear about employers engaging in various forms of "stealth recruiting." They're quietly going after top talent, probably including people who work for your organization.

Get active in the recruiting space. Reach out to prospective employees, for now and for the future, through your company's Web site and every other place that may be even marginally valuable for you. Realize recruiting is more than a one-way process. Follow through with response to every candidate.

Listen to the sage advice of Peter Weddle, well-known and respected authority on recruiting: "Taking this step is vitally important because the experience a candidate has while interacting with an organization is a key element of its employment brand. The way candidates are treated conveys a subliminal, but powerful message about an employer's culture and the value it places on people. While those who are desperate for employment will probably apply no matter how shabbily they are treated, the best and brightest will not tolerate impolite or disrespectful behavior, even if it is unintended. They deserve to be treated better, they expect to be treated better, and they will only consider working for employers where they are."

Leadership
America's corporations are hampered by some serious leadership deficits. Frankly, too many people in top positions don't know how to manage, let alone lead, their organizations. Overcoming this problem is a responsibility, an obligation, of human resource professionals.

These leaders often don't realize how ineffective they really are, especially compared to what they could be. Somebody has to tell them, and brave HR leaders are the best ones to carry the message.

In some cases, you'll be dealing with clear cases of unconscious incompetence. However, in most situations the leaders will already feel that they aren't doing all that they should be doing, but don't know where to turn for help.

The Chief Human Resource Officer can play a very important role, confidentially or very openly, as a strategic support service for the entire senior leadership team.

While engaged in this vital improvement process, do not overlook the need to grow mid-level mangers and front-line supervisors into tomorrow's leaders. These people will be important to the company's future. If your employee turnover includes managers, your need may be sooner than you think.

Good leaders are essential to corporate performance. They set the pace and make sure that things are done--and resourced--to get results. These people have a big job to do, but usually aren't prepared sufficiently to achieve peak performance. The ball game has changed and they don't know the rules or the moves.

Recommended Action. Arrange an audience with your top executive to talk about the critical need for effective leadership throughout your organization. Suggest diagnostic processes like 360-degree assessments, leadership skill competency evaluations, and "Come to CEO" meetings to look seriously at what growth is needed.

Guard against the defensive as you interact with leaders; it's natural for people in high places to protect their turf by not admitting that they fear they aren't as good as everybody thinks they are or expects them to be.

The Imposter Syndrome is more widespread than we might believe, placing your organization's future at risk.

Establish a leadership development process. It can be open and public, including a few people or many. Or the process can be closed and quiet. It can be as simple as sending one person to one of the personal development programs at the Center for Creative Leadership or as extensive as bringing in outside consultants who can help executives grow and improve their influence.

Education and training
If people aren't moving forward in their personal and professional development, they're either stagnant or moving backward. A lack of forward movement, or conscious growth, affects self-esteem, performance and retention.

In these times of economic growth and beckoning job-change opportunities, employers with strong education and training programs have a substantially greater chance of attracting and holding top talent.

Training and development will occupy a high place on your agenda for 2005 and beyond. Included will be soft skills, much of them focused on building stronger human interactions, and technical skills.

Technology is racing ahead at a frenetic pace, demanding training and retraining just to keep up with all the changes in the way things are done. Keeping up with technological change is critically important in the computer fields, particularly in software.

Your changing workforce demographics will include older workers and young people fresh out of school. Both will need training, and there will be opportunities for the older to teach the younger and vice-versa.

Employers that develop a learning culture will enjoy a much stronger sense of community, shared purpose and personal satisfaction among employees.

Recommended Action. From wherever you are, invest the resources to build a dramatically stronger employee development program. Whether you call this effort a corporate university or not, assure that each component is integrated and connected to other parts. There is no stand-alone learning; everything is linked to something else as a process of growth.

Create an individualized learning plan for every employee. Start with new employees; catch up with existing employees as soon as possible. Include classes, seminars, workshops, stretch assignments, coaching, personal reading assignments and mentoring. Use internal resources, community colleges, universities, commercial seminar companies, contract trainers, and organizational development consultants. Include personal development (how to help your child in school) as well as personal growth in your offerings.

Recognize publicly with notices on bulletin boards the learning achievements of your people. Include evaluation of growth as part of each employee's performance review. Place this responsibility in the lap of each supervisor, and measure the supervisor's support of employee growth.

Globalization
Like it or not, every company will be affected by the globalization movement. Some will be heavily involved in global operations; others will be limited to perhaps selling products that are produced in other countries.

Our world is shrinking, yet most Americans have minimal appreciation of other cultures, environments or the political and social issues in other countries.

Few native-born Americans speak another language and a large percentage of our citizens have not traveled outside the borders of the United States.

Our ignorance about international issues, concerns and experiences places us at a distinct disadvantage in the global marketplace.

While we can easily beg off and say that gaining this knowledge is a personal responsibility, employer involvement can strengthen education and awareness for employees, building new levels of competence and confidence. Broadening perspectives can make a big difference in attitude and performance.

Recommended Action. Teach your employees, and perhaps their families, about other countries and cultures. Utilize resources from universities, consulates and the Department of Commerce.

Even some minimal surfing on the Internet will collect interesting information to share with your people. You can put up maps of the world so employees can appreciate where other countries like Iraq, Korea or India are located. Post "factoids" on bulletin boards and other places to help people learn little pieces of knowledge about other places.

Do you have an internationally diverse workforce now? Take advantage of that strength. Some companies have pot-luck lunches where employees bring food from their native countries and explain the significance of the dishes.

There's more
Your agenda for 2005 and beyond will grow. You'll be investing more time and other resources in building employee engagement and strengthening the stability of your workforce. Read industry publications and magazines in your field. Absorb everything you can get your hands on. Your fellow leaders will look to you more and more in the years ahead for guidance. Prepare yourself so you can serve effectively.

You can make a powerful difference in the years ahead.

The Herman Group is a firm of Strategic Business Futurists concentrating on workforce and workplace issues. To contact The Herman Group, call 800-227-3566 or e-mail info@hermangroup.com.

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