"86 percent of leaders believe leadership succession planning is an ‘urgent’ or ‘important’ priority, only 13 percent believe they do it well"

We’ve interviewed over 30 chief executives so far on The Leadership Café webcast and have come away  with a number of enlightening insights. One of the more telling lessons from these extraordinary leaders was that the organizations that had intentionally focused on developing their pipeline of leaders prior to COVID were more effective in responding to the challenge and bouncing forward. Our webcast guests referred to this as, “future-proofing our workforce” and “building organization resilience”. Research has always shown the benefits of a robust talent pipeline; the unique challenges 2020 have significantly highlighted the payoff.

On the downside, research has also underscored how many organizations struggle with succession planning and building their talent pipelines. For example, a study conducted by Deloitte in 2018 reported that “86 percent of leaders believe leadership succession planning is an ‘urgent’ or ‘important’ priority, only 13 percent believe they do it well.”

Tony Beltran, President and CEO of Pittsburgh Mercy. A faith-based community health and well-being nonprofit organization serving the most vulnerable people and communities; including those who have mental illness, intellectual disabilities, addictions, and other types of trauma.

Andrew Andronas serves as the CEO of Bluestar USA, a locally owned and operated pipeline construction company based out of Southwestern Pennsylvania. He focuses on the overall vision of the company through creating new growth opportunities and revenue generation as well as client relations, marketing, and public relations. 

Matthew Thiel, President of AUMA Actuators, developers and producers of electric actuators and valve gearboxes for over 50 years. Where Matt is responsible for AUMA’s North American operations, which includes manufacturing, engineering, sales, marketing and service.