LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT – HOW TO MAKE IT DELIVER RESULTS Part - 2 Provide Opportunities: We often run into organizations which say, ‘our people (aka middle and senior level leaders) don’t take risks. But probe further and they are lost at answering what are those situations or conditions that they have provided for where the individual had to take a risk. Leadership is a skill at some level, and in order for that skill to be developed, opportunities have to be provided, and organizations can do this only when they think through the process at the start. Leadership most times is capability in action; organizations have to provide the scope, the opportunity and the willingness to experiment with their ‘new or being developed’ leaders. Measure Effectiveness & Returns: One of the most important aspects any development initiative, leadership being no exception, is that there should be a measure on the effectiveness of the program and some computation on the returns. Most time organizations either do not establish a definitive metrics or loosely define it, thereby setting it up for future debates. In this context, some of the matrices that can be useful are (a) number of internal promotions to external lateral entries for critical positions, (b) percentage of home grown internal talent to external talent at senior levels, and also at other levels defined by the organization, (c) a somewhat contrarian metric could be the number of senior positions occupied by your home grown talent in other organizations. One of the leading Indian FMCG companies, at one point of time, could boast a significant percentage of CXO in various companies, across sectors. This was a point of attraction for its future talent. Think through and set up an appropriate system of measurement on the effectiveness of the program, prior to the program so that the gains can be arrived at. Iterate the Process: Any process, more so those to do with people will gain maturity only when it is constantly reviewed and improved upon. The Leadership Development process would also have to constantly be reviewed factoring some of the elements that are mentioned above. Apart from this, organizations would also have to consider external elements that will impact the process, such as sudden changes in the business environment, new technology changes or changes in competitive environment. Again a classic case would be the development of leadership that happened in an Indian conglomerate which was more in the B2B space, with sudden shift to B2C markets, where there was need for it to completely reorient its internal development processes which would make the leaders more retail customer centric. Constantly review the external environment and internal demands to make Leadership Development context specific. Institutionalize: Organizations which would like to be around beyond the millenniums would have to ensure that they develop Leadership Development processes which become a part of the organizational DNA. A classic case-in-point is GE and its intensive leadership development methods and processes at Crotonville which ensures that the organization is able to take on the challenges of growth and the dips of recession, all in the stride, while many of its counterparts disappeared. Best practices and processes need to be documented and publicized within the organization so that they get embedded in the culture of the organization. While the above steps may not necessarily take care of all the issues that are plaguing Leadership Development in organizations, these certainly would help in addressing some of the most common irritants.
Posted on: Fri, 17 Oct 2014 10:48:48 +0000
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