Leadership Development: Ensuring Future Success Today

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Our current economic downturn has tested the battle-readiness of business leaders and found some lacking. On the other hand, many have proven their mettle and demonstrated the value of strong, visionary leaders with integrity.

However, you don't need a recession to demonstrate the value of leadership today. Downturn aside, the changing economic landscape is placing growing importance on leadership as a key component of business success. As demographics change and the baby boom generation approaches retirement, as resources become more and more limited, leadership development is rising to the top as an organizational priority. What's more, as businesses become more global, complex, competitive, and subject to rapid and radical change, the bar for successful leadership is constantly rising.

Increasingly, organizations are seeing the benefits of leadership development in terms of business value and organizational success. A recent Watson Wyatt study found that the better organizations are in developing leaders, the greater the financial success. When linked with organizational strategy, leadership development programs and leadership competencies effectively support profound, long-lasting change.

However, many organizations today suffer from a shortage of leadership talent. How then do you find the leaders your business so desperately needs? You can look outside your company. But often you'll find that your future leaders–talented, visionary people with a passion for the future–are already on your payroll. The challenge is to look deep into your organization to identify these valuable individuals, develop their qualities, and ensure they remain with you.


Finding Your Future Leaders

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Organizations often make the mistake of searching for their future leaders in management positions. The problem with this strategy is that good managers are not necessarily good leaders because the skill sets, traits and priorities of the two roles are different.

A good manager is skilled at using people, systems and processes to execute the plans and activities of an organization. He or she is driven by process and policy. In one sense, a good manager is focused on the present. On the other hand, a good leader focuses on driving change, articulating the organization's purpose and values, adapting to new challenges, and engaging the support and commitment of the people in the organization to the future state. In this sense, a good leader is focused on the future.

In fact, strong leaders often tend not to be good managers because their strength doesn't lie in engaging others by implementing formal management practices. Instead, they engage those around them through other means.

What's more, a search through your company's roster of managers may overlook the best leaders because those individuals may not have advanced to management roles yet. That doesn't mean they're impossible to find. In fact, true leaders often exhibit their potential early in their careers. For example, regardless of their role, employees who are good at coaching and developing their peers are demonstrating their future ability: to create a performance–driven environment by putting the right people in the right roles and motivating them.

This potential will be apparent because leadership is more of a trait and a capability than a position in an organizational chart-and this is truer today than ever before. In the past, leadership roles may have required a well–defined skill set. But today, the idea of leadership in business has evolved away from authoritative control and position power, to collaborative leadership and knowledge power.

For example, the Gallup Leadership Institute Summit on Authentic Leadership stresses the importance of leading with authenticity. Authentic leaders are optimistic, confident, resilient, and possess high principles, values and ethics.

This is why, when seeking future leaders, organizations often value personal leadership traits more highly than business–oriented capabilities. Thus, being open to change and growth, having the courage to make decisions that "feel right", building strong relationships, and motivating and inspiring others–all are necessary skills for today's leader.



Developing Your Future Leaders

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Once you've identified your future leaders, there are many things you can do to develop these individuals. Most organizations are good at management development. However, leadership is less concrete and definable than management, and leadership capabilities are more difficult to build or transmit. Jim Thomson is VP Human Resources Operations, Ceridian Canada Ltd, and as he points out, "The most important contributors to leadership development do not include a course. In fact, surveys show that over 90% of the contributors to leadership development pertain to learning that occurred in the course of work."

Many organizations have found that one of the most common and effective development strategies is to assign responsibility for a major project to an individual. This approach can provide the individual with invaluable experience: working with groups outside of his or her functional expertise; working on multi–disciplinary teams; working with customer, suppliers or strategic partners. It also provides future leaders with an opportunity to lead people–not by directly managing them, but by influencing them. Depending on the project, it can also be an opportunity to contribute to the development of corporate strategies and plans.

While some organizations might balk at such an approach, others recognize that leaders must be empowered to make decisions, innovate, and take risks. In fact, they must be given the opportunity to fail–as long as the failure was for the right reasons.

Similarly, Action Learning is an emerging trend in leadership development. This approach involves assigning groups of executives with diverse backgrounds to work on issues of strategic interest to their organization. Such an approach engages leaders and potential leaders in real work, in a real work environment.


Retaining Your Future Leaders

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Once you've identified and developed the leadership talent in your organization, the next challenge is retaining them. It is relatively easy for a company to make their future leaders eligible for rewards and recognition normally reserved for more senior managers and executives.

But it can often be more effective for you to give future leaders the recognition and reward that means the most to them: more responsibility, more opportunities to impact the business, and a relationship with senior leadership they might otherwise not have.

In the end, the greatest retention strategy may be to ensure that these individuals know they're regarded as leaders. They're much more likely to remain with you if they know they'll be leading your organization to its victories in the future.

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