A recent federal election here in Canada gave our country a new leader.

Any group that wants to move ahead, make changes, or improve, needs a strong leader. Countries and businesses are very similar that way, but there’s a troubling statistic which has been identified by Global Human Capital Trends 2015 report.

According to the report, the leadership gap is widening. Leadership was recognized as the number two issue, with nearly 80 percent of respondents rating it as important or very important, but only 42 percent of respondents say they are ‘somewhat ready’ to develop leaders for their organization.

And it’s not just a North American phenomenon, it’s a worldwide trend.

“The capability gap for building great leaders has widened in every region of the world,” the report states.

The leadership gap is seen as the biggest challenge in several industries, including: energy and resources, financial services, manufacturing, the public sector, and technology, media and telecommunications.

Should we all throw our hands up in the air and despair?

No, we should tackle the issue the best way we can – develop those leaders through mentorship and training.

Dave Gormley, a long-time account manager here at Velsoft, said that leadership has always been a high profile topic among customers. He expects that to continue, especially in light of the report’s findings.

“It is critical now, more than ever, to assure we’re developing leaders. We speak to hundreds of people every week from all over the world, who tell us their number one struggle is to identify up and coming self-motivated potential leaders within their organization. My first reaction is to tell them ‘Be the leader you want your people to be!’ Lead from the front, and just as important, know who you are following. Even the great Lionel Messi has a coach. And, as always, ensure you have great training materials!”

Training is important, but the report is not optimistic regarding this saying that the learning and development gap has increased dramatically.

“This result suggests that, while technical and professional skills are a top priority, corporate training departments have fallen behind. Companies are struggling to redesign the training environment, incorporate new learning technologies, and utilize the incredible array of digital learning tools now available.”

Take the time to prevent this shortcoming in your organization.

Be a leader.