We live in a world in which there is plenty to worry about – in fact too many things to worry about.
It’s a world of cascading crises. There’s climate change and environmental disasters, destructive artificial intelligence, pandemics and nuclear holocaust threats.
Then there is worry about biodiversity losses in which species of plants and animals become extinct and human life is affected. For instance, when India’s vultures began disappearing in the 1990s, human deaths increased from rotting disease-ridden animal carcasses normally cleaned up by vultures.
These are serious matters that deserve our attention. But there is one crisis not ge tting the attention it deserves – declining effective leadership. There’s been a startling drop in leadership quality in recent decades.
DDI, a leadership consulting firm, reported in its 2023 Global Leadership Forecast a “worrying pattern in the quality of leadership around the world.”
That study showed only 40 percent of leaders reporting their operations had high-quality leaders, the lowest level of quality leadership levels in a decade. More than 50 countries and 24 industries were represented in that study, which analyzed data from 1827 human resources experts and 13,695 leaders.
Lack of quality leadership is easily seen in North American politics. Joe Biden, current United States president, confuses names, forgets what he plans to say and walks like a 100-year-old with a full diaper. Donald Trump, the man who likely will succeed him in November, has the brain power of a worm and a garbage can mouth.
Our Canadian federal leaders are not much better. Justin Trudeau, an arrogant aristocrat, is probably the least qualified person ever to become prime minister. He is a wild spender, having driven federal personnel spending up 68 per cent since he was elected in 2015.
Pierre Poilievre, the Conservative leader expected to defeat Trudeau and his Liberals, never has had a real job outside politics. As a teenager he worked doing telephone collection calls for Telus.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh was a criminal defence lawyer whose main political goal seems to be keeping his New Democratic Party alive and active by supporting the minority Liberal government.
Decent folks, no doubt, but lacking the combination of street smarts and 21st century skills needed to combat issues much more complex than those of the 20th century.
We need new leaders with new ideas and new skills. Leaders who are visionary and inspirational. Leaders committed to the common good instead of the good of themselves and their political parties. Polarization, political and otherwise, has become a serious disease that ultimately will cripple democracy.
One reason that we don’t have the high-quality, effective leadership that we need is because it is not a priority in our educational systems. Leadership education should be a priority in all educational classes from kindergarten to university.
Leaders are not born; they are made. The earlier we teach our children about leadership, the more high-quality leaders we will have for the future.
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