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    You are here Home » change

    How to Overcome the 3 Organizational Barriers to Leadership Development

    Last updated on Jun 24, 2013 by Dan McCarthy · This post may contain affiliate links

    “The
    truth is that no one factor makes a company admirable; but if you were forced
    to pick the one that makes the most difference, you’d pick leadership.”

    - Fortune’s
    Thomas Stewart

    You would think that given the
    rock-solid evidence
    that organizations with great leadership
    consistently outperform those that don’t that EVERY organization would be

    heavily invested in the development of its current and future leaders.

    However, most are not. And even if they say they are,
    when you look behind the curtain, it’s mostly lip service.

    It’s also hard to keep a competitive advantage a secret these
    days, so again, it’s astounding to me that so many companies can’t figure out
    how to develop leaders by stealing the best practices
    from
    those that do
    or stumbling on proven, tried and true,
    research-backed leadership development models, tools, and practices.

    How can this be? In today’s hyper-competitive business
    climate, why would companies ignore such a no-brainer opportunity to kick the
    competition’s #%$@?

    I think may boil down to three reasons: 

    1.
    They are uninformed or just don’t believe it.


    Given that I’ve been doing this for most of my career and
    have made developing great leaders a personal mission, I have to constantly remind
    myself that not every CEO or
    executive spends as much of their time immersed in leadership development as I
    do. Go figure. They have hundreds of business priorities, and everyone thinks
    their pet cause is the most important
    thing they should be focusing on. Also, just because they don’t “get it”, sure
    as hell doesn’t mean they are idiots. Most of them are a lot smarter than you
    and I.

    The challenge is to get them to understand, believe in
    it, and own it. When it comes to
    leadership development,
    the
    commitment of the CEO
    and top dogs is the #1 most important success
    factor.

    Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as just sending a
    research report to the executive team or presenting the data to them in a 52
    page slide deck. Executives are generally skeptical and have big egos, so they
    need to come to their own conclusions. There also needs to be some immediate or
    upcoming potential crisis to grab their attention.  Examples of crisis’s could be a lack of
    candidates to fill current or future critical positions, poor company
    performance, upcoming retirements, too many external hires that didn’t work
    out, or dissatisfaction from the Board or auditors.

    I wish I had a silver bullet, I really do. I’ve tried
    everything with different executives I’ve worked for and consulted with, and
    some success and some frustration. I’ll tell you,
    cnce
    a CEO gets it
    , they are ALL OVER it, and everything else
    is relatively easy.

    2.
    They don’t know how to do it.
    So let’s say you’ve won over a CEO and the executive
    team. They charge you with coming back to them with the “how”. In other words,
    you’re tasked with coming up with a way to assess and develop current and
    future leaders.

    For some reason, organizations seem to think they have to
    start with a clean sheet of paper and create everything from scratch, as is
    they were the first and only company that had to figure out how to develop
    their leaders.


    When it comes to how to develop leaders, everybody has an opinion. Yes, stakeholder input is good, but do we form committees and ask for everyone's opinions when we design bridges, in order to get "buy-in"? In most cases, no, we turn to civil engineers. Otherwise we end up with a bridge that looks like this:



    There is no need to reinvent the wheel, it’s a waste of time and shareholder money! Again, I think
    it’s the “not invented here” syndrome, as well as executive egos and weak HR
    leadership that perpetuates this problem.

    Do your
    homework and get some help. Talk to the head of HR or training in
    companies
    that do it well
    , go
    to a conference
    , do some web-surfing, work with a trusted
    consultant, and/or
    buy
    a $7.99 book
    . Pretty soon you’ll start to see common patterns,
    models, systems, and practices. Then, draw from this body of work to create a
    plan that makes sense for your organization. The “how” is relatively
    straightforward – doing it well is the hard part.

    Again, executive influence comes into play here. Just
    because you’ve done your homework and come up with a great proposal, you still
    have to convince key stakeholders that your plan is solid. Sometimes it helps
    to start small, try a pilot, and take it one step at a time.
    Measure
    your progress
    and adapt as you go.

    Or, sometimes you need to hire a consultant to tell your executives what you've already learned. (-:

    3.
    They just don’t want to.


    In any organization, there’s always going to be about 10%
    early adopters, 80% that will eventually get on board if you can convince them
    and show them how, and 10% that are just going to dig their heels in and refuse
    to try anything new or different. For those, a “carrot and stick” approach is
    needed. Reward the 80% that need a nudge, and punish the 10% that just won’t
    budge. Of course, if it’s the CEO, then it’s time to move on and either take on
    a higher priority or update your resume.

    I hope this “Why, How and Won’t” framework helps in
    figuring out how to get your organization started with the development of your
    leaders. Good luck!
    « Your Company Language- is it Driving the Results you Want?
    I Get No Respect -- A Look at "Dangerfield" Leadership »
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