Leadership Development

1. Leadership Development Cornell School of Industrial and Labor Relations March 12, 2001

2. Agenda Why should you care? How has it been done? What is state of the art? What are the barriers?

3. Why should you know something about leadership development? “The primary limiting factor on our business is having enough creative leaders on our team.” -- Rusty Rueff, Senior VP of HR, Electronic Arts Inc.

4. 6,900 Executives and managersin 56 companiesMcKinsey & Co.’s “War for Talent 2000.” • Our company has enough talented managers to pursue all or most of its promising opportunities. Only 7% strongly agree • Our company has enough talented managers to substantially increase our performance relative to competitors. Only 11% strongly agree • We are confident that our current actions will lead to a stronger talent pool in the next three years. Only 9% strongly agree

5. Why should you know something about leadership development? • Almost every major corporation has some systematic effort to develop leaders. • Some companies (e.g., GE, HP) have made leadership development efforts a key strategic asset. • You will rarely hire well-developed leaders, especially fresh MBAs and others early in their careers.

6. Can use leadership development to communicate values and expectations. • Some research has suggested that the base rate for flawed leaders is 50-75%. • Results from a number of surveys indicate that the “boss” is the worst part of many people’s jobs.

7. Traditionally, leadership development has worked like this… • Some guy gets noticed • A senior leader says “Hey, we should develop this guy!” • Call HR. • The senior leader touts the younger guy to other senior leaders • Other leaders repeat the tales

8. They call it development. • The guy gets promoted. • The guy either succeeds or fails. • Along the way, he develops other leaders in his own image. • Etc….

9. A pervasive, enlightened, and more modern approach to leadership development is... • Some guy gets noticed • A senior leader says “Hey, we should develop this guy!” • Call HR. • The senior leader touts the younger guy to other senior leaders • Other leaders repeat the tales

10. They call it development. • Along the way, he develops other leaders in his own image. But, and here’s the modern part,... • Numerous high-priced web-based training companies and various consulting firms attempt to sell the senior leaders various leadership development techniques. • The company buys and uses these techniques and calls this development. He gets promoted repeatedly until...

11. So, what’s wrong with that? • Systematic error • Errors are often detected only late in the game • No definition of leadership • White males are over-represented; other groups are under-represented • No distinction between management and leadership • Off-the-shelf tools not linked to the business • Rewards typically linked only to financial results

12. A more thoughtful approach... “Develop leaders to do what?

13. Vision Values Strategies Organization Competencies & Capabilities Leadership Competencies

14. Competencies Knowledge Experience Motivation Intelligence Personality

15. Process • Vision, strategy, & values • Organization competencies • Short-term leadership needs • Long-term leadership needs • Define and validate leader competencies • Hire help and decide how to measure • Learning tools based on competencies

16. So, how do you develop leaders?

17. Adults are active learners... • Multi-modal and interactive • Practice • Feedback loops • Mentoring/coaching relationships • Seeing implications • Exploring

18. Individualize Your Efforts • Put development in a career context • Use assessment • Focus on strengths • Focus on development needs • Encourage risk taking • Be specific; What will s/he do differently? • Engage the boss • Build in accountability

19. Remember the 80-20 Rule

20. Talent Development Tactics Multi-SourceFeedback Strategic InitiativeTeams DevelopmentalAssignments COMPETENCIES ActionLearningWorkshops CoachingandMentoring Self-DevelopmentResources CoreCurriculum ExternalEducation

21. Use the portfolio method Key Talent Multi-SourceFeedback Strategic InitiativeTeams DevelopmentalAssignments COMPETENCIES ActionLearningWorkshops CoachingandMentoring Self-DevelopmentResources CoreCurriculum ExternalEducation

22. Use the portfolio method Newer Talent Multi-SourceFeedback Strategic InitiativeTeams DevelopmentalAssignments COMPETENCIES ActionLearningWorkshops CoachingandMentoring Self-DevelopmentResources CoreCurriculum ExternalEducation

23. Use the portfolio method Newest Talent Multi-SourceFeedback Strategic InitiativeTeams DevelopmentalAssignments COMPETENCIES ActionLearningWorkshops CoachingandMentoring Self-DevelopmentResources CoreCurriculum ExternalEducation

24. Integrate your efforts SELECTION RECRUITING APPRAISAL & FEEDBACK COMPETENCIES RETENTION LEARNING ORG./WORK DESIGN REWARDS

25. The single greatest barrier to leadership development is... Arrogance “MBAs are among the hardest people to train. Why? First, they’ve been taught they already know everything.” --Bruce Phillips, President, Directspace.com Inc.

26. Other barriers... • $$$ • Wall Street • Senior leaders • Difficult to measure return • You will sometimes fail • People forget stuff • Some will leave your company

27. Process • Vision, strategy, & values • Organization competencies • Short-term/Long-term leadership needs • Define and validate leader competencies • Hire help and decide how to measure • Learning tools based on competencies • It’s not business, it’s personal • Integrate development targets with HR processes

28. Leadership Development Cornell School of Industrial and Labor Relations March 12, 2001