What does it mean to have a comprehensive leadership development program?
At least two surveys present concurring views. A survey of 1,313 U.S. employers released late last year by Chicago-based Aon Consulting found that, while 84 percent ranked the ability to meet talent and skill needs for leadership roles as a top priority, only 38 percent said their organizations are very or extremely effective at meeting those needs.
Meanwhile, the 2009/2010 Trends in Executive Development study, released late last year by New York-based Pearson and Executive Development Associates, found that many of the 70 leaders from the nation's largest private, nonprofit and government organizations who were surveyed expressed concern that their organizations' up-and-comers were lacking in areas such as the ability to think strategically and manage change effectively. "Basically, these executives are telling us that these critical competencies are in short supply," says Judy Chartrand, director of Pearson Talent Assessment, which administered the survey.
You can't learn leadership in a classroom: you develop leadership capability as the emerging leader moves forward meeting business challenges.
A recurring theme of leadership development at General Electric (GE) is challenge: Up-and-comers are regularly placed in stretch assignments, whether it's starting up a new business in a foreign country or winding down a business that the company is exiting. "We want to ensure our future leaders understand change, and we've learned that experience is the best teacher," says Susan Peters, GE's chief learning officer and vice president of executive development.
Leadership development is self-development
The Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) in Greensboro, NC, recently conducted a soon-to-be-released study in which it asked managers at various companies to rank a list of competencies in their order of importance at the companies they worked for.
"Self-awareness and the ability to lead employees effectively were ranked low on the competency list by the managers," says Sylvester Taylor, the CCL's director of assessments, tools and publications. "But when you looked at who they described as the most effective employees, those things were at the top of the list. I guess the take-away for the average employee from this is, if you want to know what's important for success in your organizatioin, don't ask your boss," he says ruefully.
In October 2003, BusinessWeek reported that 134 companies from 20 nations spent $210 million to enroll 21,000 employees in executive leadership programs. Since leadership development is not an event, that's a significant investment in classroom activities that may or may not produce company leaders or even better managers.
Stanford University today introduces leadership coaching into their MBA program and the University of Michigan Executive Education Program offers a 3-day "Becoming an Exceptional Coach" for $4,350. Compare these classroom training programs with six-months of weekly personal executive coaching for less than $7,500 to create a positive leadership mindset.
A survey of 3,000 leaders and associates in 117 organizations reports that 63% plan to increase spending on leadership development programs that 75% of HR executives surveyed don't give a high quality rating to.
The paradox of spending more on what's not working is due to leadership development being seen as a classroom event. Yet, you don't fix people by sending them off to training. Managers need ongoing coaching to get in the habit of being good leaders.
The survey reported that two-thirds of the respondents said leaders at their company exhibited at least one potentially fatal flaw or "derailer"--a personality attribute that interferes with leadership effectiveness. Derailers are more personality-oriented than skill-based and are more difficult to change than teaching someone a new skill.
For all the money spent on them, most organizations don't know if their leadership programs work.
Bottom Line: Leadership development is self-development. Learning how to not micromanage, not be overly concrete, not fail to explicitly state expectations and other unproductive inter-personal behavior only happens through the increased self-awareness gained in a personal coaching or mentoring relationship.
“The crux of leadership development that works is self-directed learning: intentionally developing or strengthening an aspect of who you are or who you want to be, or both.” Primal Leadership by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis & Annie McKee (Harvard Business School Press)
Sources: Human Resource Executive, February 2010, Leadership Paradox by Warren Bennis in October 1, 2004, CIO/Insight and Assessment of the state of corporate leadership by Bridgeville, PA-based Development Dimensions International