Last month I had the esteemed honor to participate on a panel with Ira Jackson, the Dean of Peter Drucker’s School of Business in Claremont. Mr. Jackson’s coauthored book “Profit with Principles” explores the social responsibility of corporations and was the impetus for the event.

During the interactive dialogue, I was struck by a recurring theme: Independent of the problem, world hunger, absence of clean drinking water or global warming, leadership (or lack of) appeared to play a significant role in every issue being discussed. Influenced by the event, I began to notice the words, “lack of leadership” cropping up in all my experiences. In an article published by the Newsweek Washington Post, William M. Gumede the Associate Editor at Africa Confidential writes, “Serious food shortages and inflation, which in some places have spawned unprecedented riots, protests and marches across Africa, are due in part to bad local leadership and lack of democracy.”

Professionally while working with middle market companies I have the rare opportunity to examine the inner-workings and become intimately involved with the owners, management and employees. Plagued by tough competition and eroding margins, these companies are often struggling to survive. With that said, the tough economic conditions could be overcome but the lack of leadership is what will ultimately hinder the companies’ growth.

Theoretically, the next logical question is, “What happened to all the leaders?” Is there a leadership void caused by the absence of a leadership incubator? This thought process led me to consider how a leader is formed and thereby the proverbial question of whether they are born or made.

Independent of a blessed genetic inheritance, I still believe a leader must learn through emulation, a mentor of some sort. Traditionally the process of mentoring began in the home with the parents, was furthered by teachers though the school system, advanced in college and then polished in the business setting as the employee moved “up ranks”. There were enough opportunities for exposure that even if one of the legs were missing, such as an lack of family structure or a misguided teacher, somewhere along the way an individual would gain exposure to a suitable mentor. Today however, parents are not always home, schools are lacking, and globalization has quicken the business pace to where the “GE” slow progression and grooming model no longer exist.

The word “crisis” has become a staple to our daily vocabulary: environmental crisis, economic crisis, banking crisis as well as a slew of others. Since serving on the panel I have given the topic of leadership much thought and I now believe we have overlooked the underlying cause of all issues; a leadership crisis.