A lot of leadership development programs are not delivering promised results. Some of the wrong people are selected as leaders. High potential leaders are not given the right experiences or stretch assignments to develop leadership competency.
I work with a number of companies to help them assess future leaders. In our executive coaching programs, we co-create leadership development action plans based on requisite competencies to grow future leaders. Required experiences are built into each leaders development plan.
Is your company using an executive coach and leadership consultant to help select, assess and develop future leaders and fill your leadership pipeline?
Traditional leadership development processes aren’t delivering on their promises. It’s time for a new approach to finding and developing the kinds of leaders businesses need for a complex and uncertain future.
Ram Charan presents the Apprenticeship Model — a remedy for the leadership crisis — in his recent book, Leaders at All Levels.
Having observed how leaders develop (or fail to do so) over several decades, in hundreds of organizations, he concludes:
• Not everyone can become a leader. No amount of classroom instruction can supply leadership qualities. Leaders think and act differently. We can recognize future leaders if we know what to look for and sharpen our powers of observation.
• Leadership ability is developed through practice and self-correction. People who have the right talent can accelerate their growth as long as each new job assignment helps them build their core capabilities and acquire new ones, provided they’re given timely and precise feedback.
• The CEO job requires giant leaps in learning. Leaders will not be prepared to lead large companies unless each job experience is much more complex than the one before.
The Apprenticeship Model for leadership development requires us to spot leaders early and put them in situations that drive them to grow fast. People with the right talent and high potential must embrace opportunities to learn by doing: practice, feedback, corrections and even more practice.
Leadership development is no longer a discrete activity run by HR staff; it’s an everyday “contact sport” that’s fully integrated into the fabric of a business. Line leaders play a central role in providing the necessary practice and feedback.
Are you or your company working with an executive coach who can help with leadership development?
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