Global Research Reveals Barriers Persist to Leadership Opportunities - With Politicians Part of the Problem, Not the Solution

NEW YORK, June 30, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- New international research across five continents has unearthed a profound multi-dimensional leadership glass ceiling that goes beyond gender. The 10-country Ketchum Leadership Communication Monitor (www.ketchum.com/leadership-communication-monitor-2016) has revealed that even in 2016, stark barriers blocking equal access to leadership opportunities remain stubbornly in place when it comes to race, gender, disability and sexual orientation. Moreover, political leaders are seen by survey respondents to be part of the problem rather than the solution.

Now in its fifth year, the Ketchum Leadership Communication Monitor examines leadership and communication across leaders spanning business, political, community, non-profit and union/labor organizations. This year's study shows that, when asked to consider five potential barriers to equal opportunities in achieving leadership positions, a majority of people worldwide believe those barriers persist in every area except religious beliefs – and even close to half see that as a barrier.

Commenting on the findings, Rod Cartwright, partner and director of Ketchum's Global Corporate & Public Affairs Practice, said, "Five years of global research have starkly highlighted the low-trust, high-expectation gap that exists for leaders, resulting in a significant negative impact on the bottom-line. This year's results show unambiguously that business leaders have a huge opportunity to improve confidence levels by breaking through the multiple diversity barriers that still exist to equal leadership opportunity."

Despite all the social progress of recent decades, not one country saw a majority believing in equality across all five areas – with respondents in Brazil, Japan and Spain feeling particularly strongly about the inequality of leadership opportunity in their country.

And when asked to choose the most effective means of shattering the leadership glass ceiling, "actions by companies and other employers" and "individual responsibility from every citizen for their own future" left "new laws and legislation" in the dust.

The global collapse in political confidence

The 2016 Ketchum Leadership Communication Monitor study shines a stark new light on the extent of the global crisis of political leadership, yet it also identifies key causes and provides a clear five-step roadmap to restoring confidence in politicians, based on lessons from business leaders.

Nearly two-thirds (61 percent) of consumers globally believe their political leaders have fallen short of expectation in the past year, with a miniscule 7 percent saying those leaders take appropriate responsibility when they do fall short.

As a result, only 1 in 5 respondents (22 percent) said politicians lead effectively, with just 12 percent saying they anticipate an improvement over the coming year and more than half (51 percent) saying they expect performance to get even worse. And, over five years, political leaders have come last every year on how effectively they communicate, with an average 45-point gap between political and business leaders on meeting public expectations.

Rob Flaherty, Ketchum senior partner, CEO and president, said, "It is remarkable to find that in the second decade of the 21st century, such stubborn obstacles to equality of leadership opportunity remain so firmly in place. And that at a time when world-class political leadership has never been more crucial, people look to companies and citizens themselves to combat these barriers, rather than to those they elect to drive social change."

Politicians get the right things wrong and the wrong things right

At the root of the deepening global crisis of confidence in political leaders is the perception that they are getting the right things wrong and the wrong things right. In the three areas of greatest importance to respondents – corruption, the national economy and education – there is a sizeable gap between the importance of the issue and political leaders' effectiveness in addressing it: 47 percentage points for corruption, 38 for education and 36 points for the national economy.

Corruption leads the way by a considerable margin in terms of importance, with 69 percent of respondents including it in their top-five issues. By contrast, the issues at which politicians are thought to be doing best – national security, terrorism and climate change – sit fourth, sixth and eighth, respectively, in a list of the 10 most important issues that respondents think political leaders should address.

With discontent in political leaders rearing its head from South Africa, Brazil and Syria to Venezuela, Malaysia and Argentina – ahead of the U.S. party conventions in mid-July and following the UK's decision to leave the European Union – the message of "must do better" for political leaders around the world could not be more clear.

Five-step roadmap for restoring confidence in political leaders

Ketchum's 2016 study findings, reinforced by data from the past five years that represents conversations with more than 25,000 consumers from around the world, points to a five-step approach to start restoring the low confidence in political leaders across five continents:

1. Close the gap between expectation and delivery on the issues people deem having the greatest importance – corruption, the national economy and education.
2. Adhere to the personality traits preferred by global respondents in judging leaders, revealed by the new research and illustrated below.
3. Learn lessons from business leaders about the most important characteristics of effective leaders. This year – and every year over the past five – business leaders have led the field; in 2016 they outperform political leaders by an average of eight percentage points.
4. Look closely at the "more feminine" leadership archetype, regardless of the leader's gender. Although the world continues to look more to male leaders to steer it through difficult times (61 percent to 39 percent looking to female leaders), female leaders in 2016 continue to outperform male counterparts on a majority of the attributes seen as most important to effective leadership, including all of the top three. In 2016, those characteristics that female leaders "best demonstrate" are leading by example, communicating in an open and transparent way, and admitting mistakes.
5. Note the rise of the "title-less leader" and the death of the hierarchical leader – 38 percent of study respondents believe that leadership should come mostly from "the company/organization overall and everyone within it", compared with 29 percent for the CEO and 17 percent for senior management.

Cartwright commented, "Based on the results of this study, we have identified a path to help restore confidence in leaders, at a time when that confidence is sorely needed in rising to the challenge of enduring leadership inequality. This path is fundamentally informed by the performance of leaders in the corporate sector who are leading the way, despite having lessons to learn themselves."

In parallel with the publication of its fifth anniversary KLCM report, Ketchum is launching a new modular leadership communication service called "READY by Ketchum" for senior executives and executive teams grappling with the challenges of 21st century leadership and employee engagement. The new multi-disciplinary offer will combine media, presentation, facilitation and crisis communications training with personal social media profiling, leadership content strategy, corporate storytelling and leadership development.

Visit www.ketchum.com/leadership-communication-monitor-2016 for additional study information and materials.

About the Ketchum Leadership Communication Monitor
Ketchum Global Research & Analytics conducted an online survey of 3,001 respondents in 10 markets from March 29 to April 19, 2016. These markets included the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, China, Singapore, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, South Africa and Brazil. The global margin of error is +/-1.79 percent. The research explored respondents' views of both different categories of leader (business, political, community, non-profit and union/labor organization) and of 22 vertical industries. All data collection was handled by Ipsos Observer.

About Ketchum
Ketchum is a leading global communications firm with operations in more than 70 countries across six continents. The winner of 19 Cannes Lions and an unprecedented five PRWeek Campaign of the Year Awards, Ketchum partners with clients to deliver strategic programming, game-changing creative and measurable results that build brands and reputations. For more information on Ketchum, a part of the DAS Group of Companies, visit www.ketchum.com.

About the DAS Group of Companies
The DAS Group of Companies, a division of Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC) (www.omnicomgroup.com), is a global group of marketing services companies. DAS includes over 200 companies in the following marketing disciplines: specialty, PR, healthcare, CRM, events, promotional marketing, branding and research. Operating through a combination of networks and regional organizations, DAS serves international, regional, national and local clients through more than 700 offices in 71 countries. 

SOURCE Ketchum

Related Links

http://www.ketchum.com