Dec

24

Best practice leadership development

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Skip Reardon of Be Excellent provided a pointer to a study by the Hay Group, in partnership with Chief Executive, conducted a second year long study to identify the top companies that develop leaders systematically in ways that others acknowledge as productive of top talent. The study, considered 1,279 companies with at least $8 billion in annual revenues from around the world, focused on what top performers did differently with high potential future leaders.

Top 20 Companies for Leaders

2006 2005
1. General Electric 1. Procter & Gamble
2. Procter & Gamble 2. PepsiCo
3. PepsiCo 3. IBM
4. Citigroup 4. General Electric
5. Johnson & Johnson 5. Johnson & Johnson
6. HSBC Holdings 6. Dell
7. BASF 7. Microsoft
8. Home Depot 8. Home Depot
9. IBM 9. JPMorgan
10. Coca-Cola 10. Motorola
11. Dell 11.Pfizer
12. Microsoft 12. FedEx
13. Novartis 13. BASF
14. Verizon 14. Verizon
15. Nestle 15.BAE Systems
16. Lockheed Martin 16. Johnson Controls
17. GlaxoSmithKline 17. Siemens
18. Amgen 18. BP
19. Hewlett-Packard 19. L’Oreal
20. BAE Systems 20. Colgate-Palmolive

The study identified the following leadership development best practices…

Leadership Development Best Practices

2006 Best Practices 2005 Best Practices
1. Having leaders at all levels who focus on creating a work climate that motivates employees to perform at their best. 1. Having leaders at all levels who focus on creating a work climate that motivates employees to perform at their best.
2. Ensuring that the company and its senior management make leadership development a top priority. 2. Ensuring that the company and its senior management make
leadership development a top priority.
3. Providing training and coaching to help intact leadership teams, as well as the individual leaders, work together more effectively. 3. Providing training and coaching
to help intact leadership teams, as well as the individual leaders, work together more effectively.
4. Rotational job assignments for high potentials. 4. Providing job-shadowing opportunities for managers in mid-career.
5. External leadership development programs for mid-level managers. 5. Ensuring that high potentials receive objective 360-degree assessments and feedback on their leadership ability early on.
6. Web-based, self-study leadership modules for mid-level managers. 6. Ensuring that mid-level managers get enough time to take part in leadership development activities early in their careers.
7. Executive MBA programs for mid-level managers.

The 2006 survey found that the top 20 companies for leadership manage high potential employees with a greater sense of urgency and priority. They are more likely to have a formal process for identifying high potentials and a separate career track with specific programs to accelerate their development. In addition, the top 20 are more likely than other firms to include marketing as a function to which they attract high potentials. This might be due to the fact that the top 20 have a high number of market- focused businesses with leaders who value that background. Also, the top 20 are more likely to promote from within-not just for mid-level and senior managers-but for the CEO as well.

Practices That Waste Resources and Don’t Get Results

Based on the 2006 data, the practices that are least likely to create more of the right kind of leaders are as follows:

  1. Outdoor activity-based programs at all levels of management
  2. Paper-based self-study leadership modules at all levels of management
  3. Job-shadowing for senior managers
  4. Web-based self-study for senior managers and high potentials
  5. Executive MBAs for senior managers

An interesting piece of research, I was surprised to see that “Executive MBAs for senior managers” as a waste of resources! The best organisations institutionalise leadership development ans continually strive to learn the most effective ways of developing leaders.

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One Response to “Best practice leadership development”

  1. How to Develop Future Leaders on February 7th, 2007 21:29

    [...] have posted previously on research on “Best Practice Leadership Development“. The following Fast Company article includes the following best practices used by [...]

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