On Leadership Development
Leadership development cannot be a restricted to skills development. Go all the way, is the advice to follow.
Go all the way
Leadership development is on the top of the list of boards and executives. But there are several ways to look at leadership development. The advice? Go all the way.
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The simplest approach is to limit LD to skills training. That is still often the case. All too often, that training is then only provided for middle management, because they're the ones who need it. The executive suite stays out of range.
If this is what you want to do, you need to reconsider.
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Β A next approach is to see it as a process, from selection through onboarding, coaching, etc. That's a small step forward.
Please be aware that you can still work on leadership, in a void, checking the boxes, doing all the right things, but with limited impact.
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A somewhat broader approach is to see it as risk management. Here the idea of quality assurance and leadership effectiveness come into play. Leadership can create value, but it can just as easily destroy it. Here the board often enters the picture, because they want to avoid the chance of failure. This is where ideas like succession planning, pipeline thinking, and leadership audits surface.
This is another step forward but here the proof of the pudding will be in the eating.
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But the broadest approach is to see leadership development as a strategic process and the development as a change process. That's where ideas like "alignment" and "embedding" come into play. The view of leadership as a capability that brings a competitive advantage, and of development as a change process, entails that organizational and systemic elements are examined. Leadership development becomes organizational development and cannot be seen separately from strategy (execution), culture, structure, etc. Leadership is seen as a pillar of the organization. And everything related to leadership development is linked to other aspects of running the business.
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- Β Anyone who doubts the importance of leadership development should consider the impact of ineffective leaders in the boardroom or the wrong selection of a CEO, who has to leave again after a short time.Β
Β - Anyone who still thinks leadership development can be limited to a program, a one-shot action, a finite process, will sink into tinkering at the margins.
Β - Anyone who thinks about organizational change but is mainly preoccupied with structure, reporting lines, and the distribution of responsibilities, will have to pause and consider leadership. Because an organization only works if the people, and certainly the leaders, are willing and able to make that organization work.
Do not limit leadership development to the obvious. Think it through. It matters.
