Are Your Leaders and Emerging Leaders Capable?

How recently have you taken a serious look at your organization’s leadership? With the ongoing challenges of doing business in today’s economy, it benefits even the most savvy companies to ensure their management team is capable of successfully navigating their organization through ever-changing conditions and challenging turbulence.

Beyond bolstering the leadership skills of current management teams, forward-thinking organizations are also turning to the valuable training resources at their fingertips, current managers of course, to help develop the abilities of future leaders. And for good reason…with fewer potential leaders available from a smaller GenX pool and an unseasoned GenY, Baby Boomer retirement could leave many organizations facing a bit of a leadership gap with a new generation of leaders who are not yet ready to lead.

A recent leadership trends survey asked senior executive development pros about the strengths and weaknesses of tomorrow’s leaders. Respondents shared that they believe the next-gen leaders do possess many talents including a high integrity mindset, ability to deliver results and prioritize multiple demands, operational mastery and advanced technology skills. But respondents also identified several key competencies many emerging leaders lack. The top five are:

1. Strategic thinking
2. Leading change
3. Ability to create a vision and engage others around it
4. Ability to inspire
5. Understand the total enterprise and how parts work together

Strategic and critical thinking skills directly impact an organization’s bottom line. Top-notch critical thinking skills enable employees to:

• Avoid miscalculations and costly errors in judgment
• Find cost savings that others don’t see
• Develop successful sales, IT, and operational strategies
• Make good decisions when time is short

In addition, understanding the total enterprise presents an interesting challenge that’s come to light in the past few years. In a survey of business leaders, 67% of respondents indicated that employees lacked the business acumen and requisite knowledge to effectively operate outside of their area of expertise.

Other findings from the survey include:

• 83% of respondents said their organizations were likely to require business skills training to support employee career-pathing
• The perception that having an MBA serves as a differentiator among top performers in their organization was shared by 58.6% of respondents
• Despite believing training would be needed, 81% of respondents did not currently measure management competencies through independent testing and continuing education.

It’s clear that the professional training landscape is changing. An MBA is not the differentiating factor that it once was. And while organizations value business skills training, only a small percentage actually uses it as a means to measure management competency.

Many professions have a qualifying exam to certify that professionals all meet a certain benchmark of skills and knowledge. To date, there hasn't been a similar test in the business world. New business certification credentials are now available to enable candidates to demonstrate proficiency in every key functional area of management. What better way to help your managers gain a better idea of how all the parts of your organization work together?

The good news for bolstering the effectiveness of your company’s management team is that there are opportunities now available to assist in enhancing current management’s skills as well as preparing the next generation of leaders. Competencies in critical thinking and business acumen are addressable through assessments, blended learning and interactive training. Accelerating the development of your organization’s emerging leaders could be what potentially sets your company apart from the competition.

Don’t miss a chance to learn more about current trends in executive development.
Register for our free May 12th webinar.

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Referenced Surveys:
1) The 2009/2010 Trends in Executive Development: A Benchmark Report, Executive Development Association (EDA) and Pearson TalentLens
2) The APBM/PLS Survey on Business Management Certifications, Association of Professionals in Business Management (APBM) and Pearson Learning Solutions

State of the Industry Report...Further 2010 Thoughts

In our article "Thinking About Your 2010 Training?" (November 2009), we mentioned the 2009 State of the Industry Report from ASTD. We've had a chance to digest the report. We must admit, there were a number of interesting findings that captured our attention and we're extra curious to see how 2009 compared.

So what stuck out? E-learning, of course. ASTD had reported for several years prior to 2008 a steady growth of e-learning as a proportion of formal learning hours. In the 2009 report, however, ASTD noted that 2008 actually saw a decrease in that proportion and an increase in instructor-led, in-classroom learning events.

There were several thoughts shared as to this shift. A strong possibility was the idea that organizations felt compelled to make the most of their investments for the fixed costs like instructor fees surrounding instructor-led sessions. Another thought is that organizations were making use of their existing e-learning system and content rather than investing in anything new. Incidentally, that actually leads us to one of the benefits of a well-constructed e-learning event ... it is reusable. ASTD reported that each hour of learning content is accessed or used nearly 60 times. (Incidentally, we should remind you of the benefits of a blended learning approach. Not only does it give you an advantage to make use of existing instructor-led training and e-learning content, but it helps address the needs of your learners varied learning styles.)

A final item that caught our attention related to Web 2.0 technologies like web-based communities, blogs, podcasts, etc. Only a small percentage of companies used these technologies as part of their learning function, but interestingly 86.5% of survey respondents indicated that they felt their organizations would be more likely to incorporate these technologies into the learning function over the upcoming three years.

What was the case for your organization in 2008? In 2009? Do you feel your overall mix best meets the needs of your employees? Talk to us, we’d love to hear what your experience has been. You can contact us or you can tweet with us any time.

Fostering Employee Excellence

NCAA Football Playoffs. The Superbowl. The 67th Golden Globe Awards. The 2010 Winter Olympics. The 82nd Academy Awards. Over the past months, the best and brightest have stepped into the spotlight and received awards while we watched and cheered for them.

Do we take time that compares in the business world? Sales professionals are routinely acknowledged or awarded via annual sales meetings, but often organizations don’t have a corresponding rewards program for other employees. Unfortunately, failing to acknowledge or reward employees for outstanding performance on the job can have a negative effect as employees may never feel encouraged to step beyond what is expected of them and excel in their performance.

We hear about, and sometimes personally feel, the effects of a tough economic climate as many organizations run lean on resources. A callous response would be to think that employees having their jobs and their organizations staying afloat should be reward enough. But a more realistic look at the situation would likely show that while that might be true, employees who have shouldered extra responsibility during these lean times could use a bit of a pat on the back and some encouragement.

So what can you do to help? Take a good look at your training roster. Do you have training content that ties to your employees’ job function areas? For those who are assuming extra responsibilities, there may be a need for some cross-functional training. What about sessions for managers on how best to coach their employees to work toward high performance goals? Or how to motivate employees and acknowledge their achievements and progress?

While a championship ring or Oscar aren't necessarily translated to the business world, most everyone likes to hear a thank you and be recognized now and then. Sometimes it's the little things that make a difference. Tell us about your organization - is there an existing system to give your staff their chance to step into the spotlight? Give us a shout or a tweet.