7 Steps for Effective Leadership Development

HRM 29 Jul 2014

A business is a collection of people working for the same cause, and a leader is required to define that cause. Growth of a business will only come through the time and talents of others. To identify, attract, fill, and retain corporate leadership talent, companies need leadership development programmes focused on hiring strategies, employee development, and career and succession planning.

Companies face two major challenges in finding and developing leaders. They need to identify qualified candidates to fill current and future leadership roles, and to develop a comprehensive leadership programme to cultivate the leaders of tomorrow.

In the past, leadership development was focused on only a few individuals in the organisation. First-generation systems to assist with leadership development were hard to use and were not widely adopted. Companies needed a system-enabled way to unify methods of assessing and selecting leaders, executing programmes to develop skills, and measuring the success of these programmes.

Today, technology can be deployed to extend these practices across the enterprise and down into all levels of the workforce. eHR development then becomes an enterprise-wide effort across the management team and not just the job of the HR department. At the same time, by using a common, integrated technology platform, the HR department can easily and effectively track and execute programmes across the organisation.

Major talent management functions all play a part in a comprehensive leadership development programme and can be well supported by a unified talent management technology platform. These functions include recruitment, assessment, performance management, succession planning and career planning.

A successful leadership development programme begins with the alignment of leadership development with company strategy and an understanding of the type of leadership style(s) needed to execute that strategy.

1. Determine the best leadership style for your organisation

There are many theories and techniques for determining the right leadership styles for an organisation. For instance, the leadership style required by a head of corporate security will be vastly different from an art museum director. Company culture will also play a major role in determining leadership style.

One of the main reasons for the high failure rate of new CEOs (with more than half never making it past the four-year mark) is poor organisational fit. Here are two ways to assess leaders’ fit. Firstly, get to know them better. Psychological and behavioral assessments have been statistically linked to current and future success in leadership roles. Secondly, you must understand the existing culture better. HR must check with the board, employees, vendors, consultants for insight into what makes an effective leader in the company.

Use both sets of information to find alignments or disparities. If there is a glaring cultural conflict, be ready to find a better candidate who possesses the unique skills your organisation requires.

2. Identify current and potential leaders within or outside the company

Leaders can be found both internally and externally. Companies must weigh the cost and timing of developing internal leadership against the cost and availability of hiring from the outside. Research has shown that one of the key advantages of developing leaders internally is that they achieve productivity almost 50% faster than external candidates.

To evaluate potential leaders in the organisation, a leadership programme needs to identify the expected leadership skills and competencies. When leadership positions cannot be filled from within, the company recruitment should use the same measurements to test the existing competencies of potential candidates.

Online pre-assessments and full assessment testing can help ensure that the right candidates are on the short list. Unqualified candidates are automatically filtered out, not on the basis of their résumés but, rather, on the basis of a self-administered online test or questionnaire.

3. Identify leadership gaps

To fully recognise leadership gaps, companies should determine current and future leadership requirements and compare those with the current leadership team. Then, identify current leaders who may be at risk of leaving and develop succession plans. Companies should also look at the leadership development pipeline and identify gaps in skills and the time required to fill those gaps

4. Develop succession plans for critical roles

Succession planning avoids disruption and employee trauma when the CEO leaves, whether the departure is anticipated or not. But a succession plan should not be confined to executive roles. As part of the leadership programme, companies should evaluate critical roles throughout the organisation.

For the greatest efficacy, succession planning should be supported by technology systems that provide the ability to:

• Create backfill strategies that use data captured in the recruiting and performance review processes, coupled with individual career plans
• Display multiple talent profiles—from C-level executives to individual contributors—side by side to quickly identify the best fit
• Track candidate readiness based on skills, competencies, and performance; promote top candidates based on relative ranking and composite feedback scores

5. Develop career planning goals for potential Leaders

Career planning used to be considered the responsibility of an individual. However, today’s companies that support career planning for their employees gain in retention, engagement, and protection of the leadership pipeline. If companies do not provide employees with career planning and advancement opportunities, their competitors will.

Self-service career planning will help motivate and retain talent, by empowering employees to view a career plan and generate their own within the company

Combining employee development with self-service career planning enables employees not only to explore potential career paths but also to monitor and progress through the development activities necessary to attain them.

Competencies can then be tied to relevant development activities, thereby incorporating development planning right into the performance review process, which supports career development and succession planning.

6. Develop a skills roadmap for future leaders

Once the high-potential employees have been identified, a skills roadmap should be developed for the future leaders. Because people learn and develop new skills both inside and outside the classroom, a development programme needs to support both traditional and non-traditional learning.

To support less-formal learning, activities such as coaching, rotational assignments, job shadowing, mentor relationships, and project leadership should also be part of an employee’s development plan. At the core, the very definition of learning should reflect today’s non-traditional learning and incorporate social networking tools into the development process.

7. Develop retention programmes for current and future leaders

Linking pay to performance can be a motivator for an employee, but goal alignment helps potential leaders stay focused on what is important to the company. Recognise excellent performance, and base the upside of bonus potential on the success of both the employee and the company.

Leadership retention is critically important for all organisations, as turnover is expensive and top performers drive optimum business performance.

Another way to retain and motivate future leaders is to involve them in the decision-making process. This teaches them the stated mission, values, and goals of the organisation as well as how they contribute to the success of the business.

A well-designed leadership development programme is the key to identifying, attracting, filling, and retaining corporate leadership. Talent management practices implemented with robust technology applications can effectively identify and develop—from all levels of the workforce—the leaders who will best drive business performance.

About the Author Shaun Han heads the Application Line of Business Unit at Oracle Corporation for ASEAN. He is responsible for the accelerated revenue growth and customer satisfaction for the Applications License portfolio including ERP, CRM, business intelligence and analytics and specialty applications. In his previous company, Han ran the Technology Services business unit at Hewlett-Packard, Singapore. He was responsible for the profit and loss of the unit for a broad portfolio of customer services including customer support business, deployment, availability, performance management and security solutions for business critical, multi-technology environments and networking solutions. Prior to this, Shaun was the lead for the Technology Management Solutions (TMS) for Asia Pacific including Japan. He was responsible for developing the strategy and direction for the TMS business which is focused on revenue, profitability and customer satisfaction. His portfolio includes management, service creation and business planning for Asia Pacific & Japan as part of the APJ Outsourcing Organisation. Shaun graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree (Hons) in Building and Estate Management from the National University of Singapore. He also has a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Leicester University, UK.