What we do know is that by about 2018, half of the current of the current workforce would have disappeared.

The Babyboomers will be retiring in droves (and probably we would have already seen a decided trend in this direction if the Global Financial Crisis had not occurred where the Boomers have now had to remain longer in the workforce to boost their savings and help their retirement funds). Remember that the first Boomers turned 60 in 2006.

Now, as it happens, most of the leadership positions in the public service and in commercial enterprise including small business, are held by the Boomers. To make matters worse, there seems to be a total lack of leadership training within organisations. Once in our nation’s history there used to be a federal government initiative called the “training levy” where organisations were compelled to spend 10% of their budget on training and they frequently did so by grooming young people for leadership. Gone are those days….long gone.

So where are our leaders going to come from? We are undoubtedly going to have a crisis of leadership in the next decade.

I am encouraged by a small minority of companies such as AG Coombs in Melbourne who have recognised the problem and have undertaken a leadership program for 36 of their staff. They need to be congratulated. Heartily so.

The rest of the nation had better wake up. If we really want to be the clever country, we’d better do something about our leadership. And now, before it is too late.