The baby boomers’ anticipated exodus from the workforce may be pushing the next generation of employees into leadership roles before they are ready. The result is often increased stress and burnout for the new cadre of senior managers — and lost productivity and escalating costs for their companies.

“This is the No. 1 business organization issue of the next decade,” says Cathy Jacob, a leadership coach and co-founder of the Peer Leadership Program, based in Nova Scotia.

A study conducted last year by Ipsos-Reid Corp. found that 66% of CEOs surveyed identified “stress, burnout or other physical and mental health problems” as the top issue negatively affecting their productivity. Three out of four went so far as to say their employees are facing much greater mental health risks than they were just five years ago.

The price-tag associated with managing mental health issues in the workplace is staggering. According to the Mood Disorders Society of Canada, these problems are the fastest-growing occupational disability cost in Canada and drain $14.4 billion a year from the economy. Businesses pay two-thirds of this amount.

“Canadian CEOs will have to rely increasingly on solutions to manage the costs of health care and disability for workers, thereby enabling Canadian companies to remain globally competitive and address labour shortages in the face of an aging workforce,” notes John Wright, a senior vice president with Ipsos-Reid in Toronto. “Organizations need to develop a leadership culture.”

Leaders, however, need time to develop their skills and their style. “Fifty per cent of what we learn, we learn from experience,” says Dr. Brad McRae, founder of the Leadership Institute in Halifax and author of The Seven Strategies of Master Leaders. “But we need the right experience.”

Traditionally, individuals rise to positions of leadership for two reasons. First, they are good at what they did and get things done. Second, they have good people skills. On closer scrutiny, however, employers have found that the doers usually get things done on their own; the people person, while nice, is not necessarily effective.

“The skills that get us into positions of leadership aren’t the skills that we need,” says Jacob. “That problem is exacerbated today because we are getting into leadership positions faster and younger.

Wright adds: “There is a generational divide. New workers are not motivated by the same things as older workers. Today, employees are going to work hard because they are inspired — and that is leadership.”

That means companies have to change the way they look at leadership. “It’s not the same as training for technical competence,” says Jacob. “‘Take two courses and call me in the morning’ doesn’t work.”

What does work? A combination of formal training and coaching. Recognition that leadership doesn’t sit at the top of an organization but is infused throughout. A program to build leadership skills at all levels.

“Perhaps the most neglected aspect of leadership development is the development of character,” says McRae, who has developed a list of the 10 fatal flaws in a leader, including being cold, aloof and arrogant; betraying trust; overmanaging; and failing to think strategically.

Good leaders do not rely on their job title to get the job done, notes Jacob: “Part of what good leaders develop is a sense of self-authority, clarity about their values and what they stand for, a high level of self-awareness and very highly developed interpersonal skills.”

Lance Secretan, founder of the Secretan Centre in Erin, Ont., and an internationally known leadership strategist and advisor, has identified the essential ingredients in an exceptional leader and an exceptional company: courage, authenticity, service, truthfulness, love and effectiveness — CASTLE.

Those attributes can be hard to find today. Nonetheless, says Secretan, the author of ONE: The art and practice of conscious leadership: “We can prepare people for leadership.”

The emphasis is on the “we.” It takes a team to raise a leader, and it takes commitment.

Without commitment and a culture of leadership, there probably will be stress, anxiety and burnout. “A very common result of putting young leaders into positions of leadership without developing them is they either burn themselves out because they haven’t learned to achieve results through engaging and empowering others, or they burn out others because they create incredible stress and pressure all around them. Or, worse, they do both,” says Jacob.

@page_break@The result, she notes, is high turnover, illness and lost productivity — all situations companies would like to avoid. IE