Does Everyone Have to Be a Leader?

Allan Holmes thinks it's very bad news that a fair number of mid-level managers don't really want to join the Senior Executive Service. If you're looking at replicating the SES, and things that make SES jobs undesirable as the only relevant goasl, there's cause for concern there. But if there's one thing that reporting on human capital has taught me, it's that there's just as much need for steady, dependable, smart mid-level managers as there is for set-the-world-afire executives. If everyone wanted to be a senior executive, totally irrespective of whether being a senior executive would be what they're good at and happy doing, government would actually have a problem. The key is to find a workforce mix: the folks who want to be the leaders, the innovators, the talented 8,000, and the people who will be absolute geniuses at managing teams, divisions, offices, etc.