US Businesses Facing Dangerous Gaps in Leadership, Says America's Top Coach® Stephen Xavier

RALEIGH, N.C., Oct. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- A recent Wall Street Journal article reported that US business is heading for a potentially crippling gap in leadership. "We don't have a lot of time," states Rod Dooley, vice president of talent management and diversity at Rockwell Collins. "We need to have a leadership pipeline in place now." Americans are still reeling from the economic crisis that peaked in 2009, but that meltdown will pale in comparison to the disaster poised to strike Fortune 500 companies over the next 2-3 years, according to a new book released recently by America's Top Coach® Stephen Xavier (http://www.americastopcoach.com).

In Not on My Watch: A Leader's Guide to Navigating the Impending Retirement Bubble Disaster, Building a Bench and Leaving a Legacy of Success (BookSurge Publishing, ISBN 1439261857 - available at Amazon.com), Xavier paints a stark picture of the knowledge vacuum that even now is being created as Baby Boomers retire from executive leadership positions.

Xavier, whose 20 years of experience coaching and mentoring Fortune 500 executives have made him a trusted advisor for top executives, says the root of the problem is business leaders' failure to take charge and implement concrete succession plans. In the absence of succession planning, however, the next generation of business leaders, including Gen X'ers and Millennials, is woefully unprepared to step into positions the Boomers will vacate. This spells disaster for the hundreds of companies that will soon lack competent leaders at the helm. "It's not only an issue of a leadership vacuum, it ultimately translates to a bigger issue of success or failure, and shareholder value being at risk," says Xavier.

"Succession planning and talent management should not be just corporate buzzwords," explains Xavier, president & CEO of Cornerstone Executive Development Group, Inc. (http://www.cedg.com). "They represent a critical process that involves identifying and preparing an organization's future leaders, building bench strength and weeding out younger executives who, on closer inspection, may not possess the leadership qualities necessary to guide a company through transition."

Xavier blames traditional business education and out-of-synch HR departments for failing to prepare emerging executives adequately for leadership roles. "Generic corporate training programs and B-school curricula with little real-world relevance have turned out future leaders that lack the fundamental skills needed to keep a company afloat. Many emerging leaders lack basics such as tackling conflict head-on, decision-making and managing timelines," Xavier says.

How can companies begin preparing for the vacancies Baby Boomer executives will create? As with other corporate processes, responsibility ultimately falls on the shoulders of the current leaders, Xavier asserts. Executives must identify, mentor and coach emerging leaders now. If bench strength doesn't exist within a company, executives need to look outside to identify and attract talent -- a task that should prove extremely fruitful given the record numbers of strong candidates who are currently unemployed.

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SOURCE Stephen Xavier