An article “U.S best at grooming leaders of the future” from Management-Issues, reports of a 2006 poll of Best Companies for Leaders carried out by consultancy Hay Group and the magazine Chief Executive aimed at identifying those companies most committed to and most successful at fostering leadership talent. The companies rated as the best at grooming future leaders include GE, Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo, Citigroup and Johnson & Johnson. Looking at the performance of these companies, the long-term benefits of leadership development speak for themselves. The article goes on to say that:
Common best practice included rotational job assignments for high potentials, external leadership development programmes for mid-level managers, web-based self-study leadership modules for mid-level managers and executive MBA programmes for mid-level managers.
“The Top 20 companies are far more likely to use the top practices than their peers,” said Fontaine…… “And, while many of the companies we looked at employ all of the practices, the top ones use them by a much wider margin,” she added.
I have posted previously on research discussing “Best Practice Leadership Development“. The following Fast Company article includes the following best practices used by organisations to develop their leaders and executives:
- Linked to Strategy: Our executive development efforts are directly linked to our organization’s strategy. It’s clear how these efforts help address our marketplace challenges and/or achieve our strategic objectives.
- Top Management Driven: Our top executives champion our executive development efforts. We have a senior, line executive advisory board. Our top executives attend the programs as participants and also teach when appropriate.
- Strategy & System: We have a strategy and long-term plan for executive development. Our programs and practices are part of a continuous system and process rather than stand-alone, ad hoc events.
- Thorough Front-End Analysis: No significant executive development effort is begun without a thorough front-end or needs analysis.
- Custom Designed: We custom-design our programs so they address our unique, company-specific challenges and opportunities, and help create and/or drive our vision, values and strategies.
- Leadership Profile, Feedback and Individual Development Plans: We use a custom-designed [linked to our vision, values, and strategies], multi-rater leadership instrument/inventory to provide confidential development feedback to our executives. Our executives have individual development plans based on that feedback.
- Top-Down Implementation: Whenever our executive and leadership development efforts are aimed at organizational change, our top management attends the programs first as participants. Then the programs are cascaded down throughout the organization.
- Action-Oriented Learning: Our executive learning experiences are action oriented. Whenever feasible, we use some form of “action learning” where participants apply what they are learning to real, current business problems and opportunities.
- Succession Management: We have an effective succession management system that ensures we have the right executive, in the right job, at the right time. We seldom are forced to hire from outside the organization to fill a key executive job opening as a result of not having a qualified internal candidate prepared.
- Integrated Talent Management System: We have a well integrated talent management system (succession management, external and internal executive education, on-the-job development, coaching/mentoring, etc.) rather than independent stand-alone processes.
- Measurement: We set clear, measurable objectives when we create new executive development strategies, systems, processes, and programs. Then we measure the business impact using metrics that matter to senior management, and communicate the results effectively.
- High Potential Identification and Development: Our organization has an effective process for identifying “high potential” talent and accelerating their development.
Organisations are only as strong as their leaders. High performing organisations, such as those mentioned above, make leadership development, at all levels, a top priority. So how does your organisation shape up? Which of these practices are being used in your organisation to develop leaders? Which of these practices should you consider adopting to develop your organisation or teams future leaders?
Technorati Tags: Leadership, Management, Business, Practice, Research, Strategy, Development, Best Practice, HR
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