Therefore, with Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg no longer leaders of as the leaders of Labour and the Liberal Democrats respectively, much of the political speculation over the next few months will be on who succeeds them over the next few months.
Indeed, with leadership election occurring very rarely in politics, the press is already examining the characteristics of those who want to head the two parties.
But even within the world of business it is not easy to find new people to lead your organisation.
The Global Workforce Leadership Survey, which recently questioned 1000 human resource (HR) executives and 1000 employees in eight countries, found a growing talent gap at the executive level in companies across the World.
In fact, nearly a third of HR professionals indicated that they were finding it difficult to find suitable candidates for senior roles. Moreover, nearly half of the businesses questioned said “leadership” was the skill hardest to find in employees and only 36 per cent of employees listed “leadership” as a strength in their organisations.
But such strategic leaders are not easy to find and this makes those who can grow into this role a valuable and rare commodity.
As a result, any obstacles must be removed within the organisation for these leaders to emerge. However, and usually without thinking about it, adopting a short term approach to leading an organisation can eliminate ambitious thinking and innovation, and potential leaders in politics or business should realise that without a long-term vision, the most they’ll achieve is probably an average return for a limited time.
More importantly, if leaders are to emerge to head up they organisation for which they currently work, then they need to be given the freedom to envision a future as they see it and implement strategies to achieve this without interference.
In identifying and nurturing such individuals, perhaps the problem is that many define leadership as being one person dominating another or a group of people. Research shows that whilst this approach may work in the short term, good leaders have realised this is not sustainable in the long-term as it can have a real effect on the morale of employees and lead to future problems that can affect the bottom line.
So what are the characteristics of successful strategic leaders?
First of all, they pay attention to building their organisation’s resources, capabilities and competencies in order to gain appropriate, sustained competitive advantages. They also view human capital as an important factor in developing the organisation and whilst they focus on existing resources, they are not afraid to bring in new capabilities to create wealth.
Finally, they are able to manage both the visionary and managerial roles in ensuring that not only do their employees understand the ‘big picture’ but are able to implement it efficiently and effectively.
As one business guru noted, leadership is primarily “is about getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it for you”.
That is something that many will argue both David Cameron and Nicola Sturgeon have managed, in different ways, to do successfully during this election.
Certainly, it will be a characteristic that the new leaders of Labour and the Liberal Democrats will need if they are to have any chance of making any difference at the next general election.