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Hottest New Trends in Executive Development
Hottest Trends in Executive Development
The White Paper combines, in an innovative way, the results of research conducted by the
Innovation in Leadership Development
The research is based on responses received from some 111 senior Corporate Executives, Heads of Human Resources and of Learning & Organisational Development together with the thoughts of some fifty experienced practitioners involved in executive coaching as well as in designing, developing and facilitating Leadership Development programmes.
It also contains a section outlining some key findings recently published in other surveys. Its conclusions offer some thoughts about what it will take to turn the current economic and financial crisis into an opportunity for reinvention and renewal.
By Jorgen Thorsell & Didier Gonin, Mannaz
Survey findings from Corporate Executives and others
Part I of the White Paper presents a detailed analysis of the findings of the research in addition to reflections from Corporate Executives, Heads of Human Resources and of Learning & Organisational Development.
Key findings are outlined below:
- Revenue growth, innovation, and talent management are the three major business challenges respondents declare that their organisations are facing.
- Today, organisations - beyond building leadership capabilities for the future -, use Leadership Development initiatives mostly to support organisational change; build a mindset and culture for innovation and help leaders implement strategies, communicate vision, mission and values.
- The Leadership Development practices seen as the most powerful ones are interactive: coaching and mentoring, leaders training leaders, action learning, succession planning, etc.
- “Top down”, “academic”, “one way” communication and teaching as well as too generic programmes not linked to business strategy are viewed as the least effective practices.
- The organisation’s strategy has the greatest influence in shaping leadership development initiatives.
- The CEO and Executive teams are most likely to contribute as sponsors and give input about desired programme impact to ensure the connection between leader development and the achievement of business results.
- Organisations continue to focus on individual/personal development in order to achieve their desired organisational development goals.
- The four biggest challenges to developing leaders are : connecting leadership development and business results; executive time for participating in development activities; financial constraints and communicating effectively within the organisation about leadership development activities and initiatives.
- Only 31% of respondents declare that it is very important to measure the impact of leadership development activities.
- The top three priorities for leadership development today are : to increase executive quality, to implement strategy and to stimulate entrepreneurship and innovation.
- Some of the new development methods organisations expect to use in the future include : external insights with customers/suppliers; more peer networking and learning; involving the Board more in programmes; and using ad hoc technology.
- Coaching, leader to leader development, action learning projects and stretch assignments will become increasingly important as methods to develop global leaders in the coming years.
- Lecturing/teaching and outdoor activities will become less important.
- About a third of leader development budgets are expected to decrease in the next two-three years, another third is expected to increase and another third to stay the same.
- When choosing an external provider, the most important criteria considered are : expertise in the required field, followed by innovative approaches and price level for the service.
Survey findings from Leadership Development experts
Part II of the White Paper presents the thoughts of experienced practitioners on emerging trends in Leadership Development.
Seven new themes
A first section is dedicated to twenty-six new and emerging themes. Seven of these themes are briefly summarized below:
- Apply leadership development for crafting an innovative strategy within your organisation by acknowledging that everyone can contribute to the strategic thinking process; by finding new ways to tap into the reservoir of ideas in the organisation; by helping leaders find a better balance between operational and strategic work; by giving strategic assignments and projects; by asking people to translate strategies into meaningful “game plans”; by creating new opportunities for intact teams and whole business units to contribute to shaping the strategy, etc.
- Managing global work groups, project teams and virtual teams by : finding new ways to share key projects internationally; using innovative ways to communicate across borders; employing electronic media to foster real time communication; using a less individualistic and adopting a more “team-focused” and collective approach to the work at hand; building trust and bonding as a team; using team dynamics dialogue, etc.
- Assessing and developing leadership potential by : creating opportunities for people to better understand other roles, contributions and function in the organisation; developing highly relevant competency models; offering short term assignments, task forces, strategic project work, interdisciplinary workshops; offering development centres; nurturing a “tree nursery” of talent, etc.
- Developing “business partners” and “trusted advisors” in all staff functions, by : developing specific skills and attitudes; learning how to develop trust, ensure reliability, establish credibility, develop intimacy and demonstrate a caring and serving attitude; providing tools to monitor development and progress; better demonstrating how staff functions can be recognized for what they bring to the business and to the bottom line of the organisation.
- Fostering creativity and innovation within the organisation by : mapping out innovation networks; using good software available to do it; offering “creative space” and “creative time” to employees; truly disseminating innovation and best practices throughout the organisation; smartly encouraging and “sponsoring” innovation, etc.
- Resolving conflicts and reducing the cost of conflicts for organisations by: investing widely in conflict prevention; training managers to address conflicts and learn about mediation; developing approaches to anticipate and prevent conflict, etc.
- From “leading from the front” to “leading from the back”, by : focusing on how leaders can make more room for their people; learning how to step back and “let go”; enabling everyone to give ideas and suggestions; influencing without using one’s position power; creating a true “leadership culture” across the organisation; giving to “non-charismatic leaders” a true chance to contribute, being effective as a team leader, catalyst, facilitator, networker; adopting a “gardening approach” to knowledge management and leadership, etc.
Processes and methods
Practitioners then addressed innovative development processes and methods such as:
- Use leadership development as a vehicle for Organisation Development by “modelling the way” from the top of the organisation, by designing, for example, initiatives with only intact management teams, starting from the top of the organisation, using 360° feedback between colleagues, agreeing behavioural norms, holding each other accountable and supporting one another long after a training event.
- Offering more in depth appraisal of needs and more customized initiatives. Conducted with professionalism and rigor, with different stakeholders (Executives, N+1, target population, sample groups of direct reports, etc.), and using different methods with in-depth needs analyses leading to highly customized initiatives fitting the very specific needs of an organisation.
- Rethinking the leadership development process, by : moving away from “one off” programmes to leadership journeys planned over several months or a year; putting more focus on team development and organisational impact; developing and offering tools and learning resources to support the integration and application of what is learned; giving more and new types of support to leaders before and after programmes; communicating better about Leadership Development initiatives; integrating more leadership development into on-the-job activities; fostering coaching and mentoring approaches and processes, etc.
Innovative ideas from the survey
Taken from an “Idea Box” that contains twenty innovative ideas, just a few examples are given here:
- Organising learning expeditions for senior executives
- Analyzing trends and doing “prospective work” with your leaders
- Exploring ethical dilemmas with others
- Using a “detour” to open minds and foster learning
- Using voice training and drama techniques
- Dealing better with negative emotions and stress
- Putting managers in front of realities they often ignore or are protected from
Emerging client needs
Practitioners also reflected on emerging client needs and expectations as they experience them. For example:
- A more research-based and innovative Leadership Development
- Establishing stronger links between strategy and the “soft” people management side
- Cross-fertilization, sharing of ideas, networking
- Working with top experts
- Co-producing and/or co-facilitating with clients
- Finding and working with partners we can trust, etc.
Seven major trends in Leadership Development
Part III of the White Paper offers a summary of the findings from other recently published surveys and outlines seven major trends in Leadership Development, namely:
- Alignment of organisational strategies and involvement of top management
- Engaging the leadership
- Leading innovation
- Coaching
- E-Learning
- Sustainability
- Corporate social responsibility
In its conclusions, the White Paper offers some reflections on Leadership Development in a time of crisis/opportunity and asks the question:
Could the crisis trigger the emergence of new models for the organisation? Do we need to rethink the shape, form and structure of our organisations to be more agile and better positioned to face the current crisis? What are the alternative models that we could use? How could we use Leadership Development to support the emergence of such models?
The results of this research abundantly show that a large number of organisations seem to rely on innovation as one of the primary ways to overcome the crisis. Could we use Leadership Development initiatives to generate and focus on breakthrough solutions for our organisations?
Innovation is everything – except a “buzz word”'
Let’s invent the future
Developing a White Paper from the research findings has been, for us, an exciting adventure. “Innovation in Leadership Development” is intended to provoke a sharing of ideas between all - be they : senior Executives, Heads of Human Resources, involved in Leadership Development or in Learning & Organisational Development and, of course, practitioners! – who care about Leadership Development.
Let’s inspire one another!
Let’s share our ideas and our expectations!
Let’s find innovative ways to share new and interesting themes and approaches!
Let’s invent, together, the future of Leadership Development!
More information
Please send us a mail if your have any comments to the survey or are interested in purchasing the White Paper. The price is 250 EUR.
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