Building a Leadership Development Program
“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way” - John C. Maxwell.
There are many such quotes on what or who a leader is and should be; I have just picked one of them. The concept of Leadership can be extremely complex and overwhelming, especially for large organizations that are looking to outperform the marketplace and steer their organization to a path of success. There is tremendous research around the concept of leadership and companies are making huge investments in leadership development programs ensuring they are well equipped with a strong leadership pipeline.
A Leadership Development Program is a strategic investment and platform in a structured system that provides your employees with the experiences and training to become effective leaders. It is no longer confined to titles and corner offices. A good program must make early investments in employees who are not leaders yet but show the potential to improve the organization’s leadership bench strength.
My post is about the key components to consider when building an effective leadership development program inside an organization. This is useful for Talent Management practitioners and HR leaders. While many organizations have great programs in place, they are either not designed communicated or implemented in an optimum manner.
Here are a few points to consider if you are designing or reviewing a leadership development program.
Understand why you want to have a Leadership Development Program. What is your organization’s vision and value statement? Allow yourself and the organization’s leadership to wish and dream where you want to take the organization over the next 10-20-30 years.
A Leadership Development program must be developed in the context of an organization’s strategy and culture. Develop a robust Business Strategy and align the program to meet the needs of the business strategy. For example, if your organization is considering entering a new geographical or a new product market, consider the leadership skills that will be required and whether they exist or they need to be developed along the way.
Identify promising leaders early in the game. The start of the 21st Century has witnessed a ‘leadership shortage’ as baby boomers are set to retire and there are not enough Gen Xers to replace them.
Develop Competencies at individual, team and organizational level. A good leadership program must meet both, the individual and organizational goals.
Whatever gets measured gets managed. Identify competencies and resulting behaviors that can be measured and made accountable. Build them into performance management systems, career path models and individual development plans so they are tracked better.
Create an environment of feedback and support with Coaching and Mentoring programs.
Review the program often and seek feedback as to what is working and what is not. Design enough flexibility into the program to meet the changing needs of the business and employees.
As with any initiative, even the best of programs will fail without the strong commitment of top leadership. Such commitment must be clearly visible across the organization and must be communicated often.
