Preparing the next generation of leaders: many public organizations are facing leadership turnover of 50 percent or higher in the next few years. Unless we develop talented replacements, our organizations face the very real risk of failing to achieve our missions, and our potential.

• Author: Lavigna, Bob
• Position: Just-in-time approach, integrated approach

Last year 1 wrote about how the graying of our population is creating a workforce crisis. While some government agencies have yet to feel the impact of baby boomer retirements, it's inevitable. As 80 million baby boomers ease into retirement, the entire nation will face a worker shortage. Government will have to deal with this crisis before the private sector because, on average, public sector employees are older than our private sector counterparts.

A state government executive recently remarked that not only is his state's workforce "old"--the average age is 47--but the average age of his new recruits is 41. In another case, a client said she is concerned that about 25 percent of her managers will be eligible to retire soon. While we applaud her actions to plan for this turnover, her city is actually in relatively good shape--many public organizations are facing leadership turnover of 50 percent or higher in the next few years. Unless we develop talented replacements, our organizations face the very real risk of failing to achieve our missions, and our potential.

That's the bad news. The good news is that many agencies are already putting in place the systems and practices to develop tomorrow's leaders. While the HR department may facilitate and coordinate these activities, it is the line managers who are shaping and driving leadership development strategies. This article examines the findings from a recent study on public sector leadership development.

THE RESEARCH

CPS Human Resource Services is conducting a series of research studies on how government agencies at all levels are preparing to compete in the war for talent. I highlighted the results of our first study, The Aging-and-Retiring Government Workforce: How Serious Is the Challenge? What Are Jurisdictions Doing About It?, in my earlier articles. A new report, just released, is Building the Leadership Pipeline in Local, State and Federal Government. We sponsored these studies in cooperation with organizations such as the International City/County Management Association, the Council of State Governments, and others.

To find out what governments at the local, state, and federal levels are doing to ensure that they will have a supply of experienced talent for the future, we talked to practitioners, academies, journalists, and other "thought leaders." This led to interviews with officials in 35 public agencies that seemed to have leading-edge programs. We then narrowed this group down...