Leadership development is the pressing need of organisations across the globe. Whilst there are organisations investing significant sums of money to develop leaders, according to recent research the results have been disappointing. Management-Issues discusses research by the Global Leadership Forecast 2008|2009, by consultants DDI, which sets out to examine why confidence in leaders is declining despite a heightened focus on developing leadership talent. The study surveyed almost 1,500 HR professionals and more than 12,000 leaders from 76 countries. The key findings of this research is as follows:
- Although three-quarters of the executives surveyed said that improving leadership talent was a top business priority, just four out of 10 were satisfied with what their organizations were actually doing to help them, a decline of 12 percentage points since the last Leadership Forecast was published two years ago.
- “… what emerges from the report is a clear message that while executives want more opportunities to learn on the job, such as special projects or moving to a new assignment, their senior management seldom takes responsibility for making this happen".”
- Almost six out of 10 executives said that they and their manager had not agreed on a formal written plan for their development.
- Only around a third of senior managers were held accountable for the success of leadership development programs.
- Just a quarter of organizations monitor their leadership development programs or formally measure their results. "Great leadership doesn’t happen by accident – organizations need to start listening to their leaders and make the right development investments if they want different results than they’re getting now," Wellins said.
- Only half of organizations globally have succession plans for their leadership team and US organizations even lower than the global sample. “But having succession plans isn’t the whole story – HR professionals indicated that one in three succession candidates fail.”
This research makes it clear that developing future leaders is not seen as a priority by today’s leaders. The sad thing is that one of the primary responsibilities of leaders is to grow and develop other leaders. It seems that we are failing in executing this responsibility. What actions can you take over the following week to start developing a programme to grow and develop future leaders in your teams and organisations?
Technorati Tags: Leadership, Leadership Development, Development, Research, Management, Business, Talent, HR, Succession
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
George –
Your last statement is powerful – “What actions can you take over the following week to start developing a programme to grow and develop future leaders in your teams and organisations?”
Leadership development is every leader’s responsibility, and HR needs to step up and provide the programs, systems, and support to show the way.
Let’s stop pointing fingers and start taking action today.
I think the key problem is that leadership development is left solely to the HR department. What we need is that senior executives need to get involved in the process to help identify and develop potential leaders.
I totally agree with you. Leadership development is not solely an HR issue. All the research I read highlights the importance of on-the-job mentoring and development, challenging assignment and inspirational role models. The delegation of leadership development to HR is not delegation it’s abdication!
These findings are not surprising. What constitutes leadership is largely misunderstood not only by HR departments but also by many senior executives across all disciplines.
Leadership is an entirely different proposition to management with an entirely different deliverable. Leadership is influence, with a primal responsibility of drawing potential into performance through the development of people. It is a personality issue, not a positional one, and it begins with leading self, you simply cannot give what you do not have.
In my experience of working with leaders in some of the worlds largest organizations, very few possess the necessary capabilities and skills to lead successfully, and that often includes many senior executives. Why is that?
At the very centre of the issue is the fact that business still operates on industrial age principles, with an underlying premise that the fax, laptop and building is an asset, whilst people are costs. This lends itself to the default command and control, process and numbers focused management practice that is rife in corporations today. Then you have the practice of people being promoted into leadership positions based on excellent technical ability, or because they were successful in the role they are now to lead others in, not because they have an interest in, passion for, or gift in developing others. Finally, people naturally lead in the manner they were led, influenced by people ill-equipped for leadership in the creative economy. This represents the single biggest threat to organizational success, the hidden cancer that is steadily eroding performance and competitive advantage in the new economy.
Organizations need to think outside of conventional means of so-called leadership development programs to achieve the behavioral shift required. Leadership is an art not a science. It requires the development of emotional intelligence through one-to-one coaching, and the ability to then coach others to success to make the profound top and bottom line impact required, fed by improved performance, attraction, retention and nurture of talent, plus the essential leadership succession planning so vital for a sustainable performance culture. These are the broader consequences of powerful leadership through coaching, areas that are rarely measured by most organizations.
Senior executives in all disciplines, not just HR or OD, must gain a greater awareness of what constitutes true leadership and implement a far more intelligent approach to developing a leadership culture if they are to meet the increasing expectations of multiple stakeholders in the new economy.