Frankenstein's Manager Lousy employee leadership got you down? Hey, Dr. Entrepreneur, here's how to <i>build </i>the perfect supervisor.

You've probably heard the old joke about leadership beingthe ability to figure out which way people are going, then runningto get in front of them. You might laugh, but in today's world,business owners can't afford to ignore poor leadership in theirsupervisors, managers and executives. A recent survey of top U.S.companies revealed that businesses have a difficult time findingqualified leaders and that employees fear their companies face anuncertain future due to lack of leadership. And, of the leaderssurveyed, 70 percent said that they pursued development activitiesto make themselves more marketable for other jobs, and notnecessarily at their current companies.

The study, conducted by Development Dimensions InternationalInc. (DDI) in Pittsburgh, focused on large corporations, but BarrieAthol, DDI's vice president, says the results are equally, ifnot more, applicable to entrepreneurial businesses. "Thestrength of a leader has much more impact on the success of a smallorganization than a large organization," Athol says. "Forexample, in a small company, if you have an open executive slot orone of the executives is not performing well, that could mean athird of your executive leadership is [floundering]. If you haveone executive who is not performing well in a large corporation,there are [plenty of] others to cover for him."

It's more than just numbers. "Smaller organizations areflatter, so individual leaders don't have a staff to take careof certain things for them," Athol notes. "The quality ofeach individual leader tends to be more critical in a smallerorganization."