"How do we build leadership bench strength?" "What leadership development method has the greatest ROI?" These are question that keep a lot of senior leaders awake at night as they pursue their dream of global business success.
Twenty years ago an influential study entitled The Lessons of Experience made a convincing argument that organizations develop successful executives by providing them with challenging and diverse job assignments. Today, the path to success is not so simple. From Executive Education to Executive Coaching...from Simulations to Second Life...there are a plethora of leadership development tools all laying claim to The Most Effective Method title.
If we are to develop sustainable business strategies, we've got to create a leadership system that uses the most effective means to build leadership capacity. A nagging concern I've had is that so many new leadership development tools bypass what I believe to be the most effective development tool we have...the individual leader coaching and mentoring his or her employees.
Many organizations have turned the job of developing leaders over to HR and/or the Learning and Development functions....to external facilitators and coaches. We can't outsource leadership development and let leaders off the hook. It's imperative that we select leaders who see that their most important role is developing their people. It's equally important that we give them effective tools to develop and motivate their people. Finally it's important that we create a leadership system that reinforces and supports leaders in building bench strength.
A recent study by the Corporate Executive Board (March 2009) concludes that leader-led development is seen by learning executives as the #1 driver of leadership bench strength...more important than job rotations and challenging assignments. The primacy of leader-led development is consistent with research done by social psychologists like Albert Bandura who reinforced the notion that you must experience something in order to change your behavior.
If we are to achieve sustainable organizational transformation, we must emphasize the importance of developing a relationship in which aspiring leaders get frequent, high-quality developmental feedback from their leaders.
Great leaders tell us time and time again that leadership is a contact sport...how can we help leaders at all levels improve their game?
Twenty years ago an influential study entitled The Lessons of Experience made a convincing argument that organizations develop successful executives by providing them with challenging and diverse job assignments. Today, the path to success is not so simple. From Executive Education to Executive Coaching...from Simulations to Second Life...there are a plethora of leadership development tools all laying claim to The Most Effective Method title.
If we are to develop sustainable business strategies, we've got to create a leadership system that uses the most effective means to build leadership capacity. A nagging concern I've had is that so many new leadership development tools bypass what I believe to be the most effective development tool we have...the individual leader coaching and mentoring his or her employees.
Many organizations have turned the job of developing leaders over to HR and/or the Learning and Development functions....to external facilitators and coaches. We can't outsource leadership development and let leaders off the hook. It's imperative that we select leaders who see that their most important role is developing their people. It's equally important that we give them effective tools to develop and motivate their people. Finally it's important that we create a leadership system that reinforces and supports leaders in building bench strength.
A recent study by the Corporate Executive Board (March 2009) concludes that leader-led development is seen by learning executives as the #1 driver of leadership bench strength...more important than job rotations and challenging assignments. The primacy of leader-led development is consistent with research done by social psychologists like Albert Bandura who reinforced the notion that you must experience something in order to change your behavior.
If we are to achieve sustainable organizational transformation, we must emphasize the importance of developing a relationship in which aspiring leaders get frequent, high-quality developmental feedback from their leaders.
Great leaders tell us time and time again that leadership is a contact sport...how can we help leaders at all levels improve their game?
Comments for Leadership is a Contact Sport