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Leadership Career Development

Guest post by: Roger Ingbretsen

Article Overview: The secret to leadership success is in investing in Leadership Career Development. Most often leaders are made, not born. Leadership Career Development is not a one day event. Leaders are also not made overnight. It is a process which has many aspects and takes time to evolve.

Leadership Career Development

“Leadership Career Development” requires a sharp focus not only on the present needs of the organization, but also on the future vision and strategy. This is an important step in order to align leadership development with the future the organization aspires to create. Therefore, “Leadership Career Development” is based not only on the present talent, knowledge base, culture and sustainability of the organization, but also on the vision and strategy of future… especially with regard to competition and growth.

The secret to leadership success is in investing in Leadership Career Development. Most often leaders are made, not born. Leadership Career Development is not a one day event. Leaders are also not made overnight. It is a process which has many aspects and takes time to evolve.

Leadership Career Development is more likely to succeed when the design of the development program includes the following as a minimum: Individual assessment, training in the attributes and skills required by a leader, stretch goal assignment/s, internal mentoring and professional external executive coaching. Many additional books and targeted training scenarios can and most likely should be added to make the Leadership Career Development more robust.

Many individuals in leadership positions act more like managers than leaders. The main reason for this situation is they have never be taught and coached to be true leaders. People are promoted into leadership roles but are not afforded the opportunity to be developed as leaders. Most of their time is spent micro managing and doing what they are comfortable doing as they manage their area of responsibility on a day-to-day basis. They look inward within their department rather than outward at the needs of the organization. They think and live in the present, not understanding that the role of a leader is to take their organization and its talent to places they have never been.

Leaders need to demonstrate they are smart, competent, inspiring, forward-looking, honest individuals who accomplish the strategy and goals of the organization with the solid talent they have put in place. Manager of the 20^th Century Jack Welch stated it this way. “Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive the vision to its completion.” Do you have leaders like this in your organization? Do you have a Leadership Career Development process in place that is designed to develop your present managers into your future leaders?

Good leadership is rather easy to explain, but can be difficult to practice because good leadership relies heavily on behavior… not skill. This is why a good skilled accountant, engineer, sales person, etc. (without the proper training and coaching) can be promoted to a leadership role and fail. Destructive behavior, not lack of skill, is one of the biggest reasons leaders fail. Destructive behavior is also very expensive and disruptive to an organization because it most often affects the good employee and good people quit their boss (leader) not the company.

For a Leadership Career Development process to be successful, a screening of future leadership should be based not only on “what we know and have” but also on “what we need to have” from both the organizations present leadership and more importantly, the future leadership. Additionally, candidates for leadership development should possess traits such as: self-awareness, maturity, integrity, tough-mindedness, self-assurance, intuitiveness, resiliency, high energy, enthusiasm, and emotional stability, tolerance for stress, assertiveness, a high standard of excellence, and the ability to take risks.

Beyond these basic traits, leaders of today need to develop the ability to motivate others, envision the future and convince others that their vision is worth following. Personal strengths, traits and ability play an important role in determining who can or cannot lead others; however, people are constantly changing and learning. A Leadership Career Development process will go a long way towards helping individuals gain an acceptable level of success in becoming the leaders of tomorrow.

The quality of the organizations leaders has a direct and critical impact on its overall adaptability and effectiveness. It is therefore important for organizations to invest in the development of its leaders. This may seem to be a statement of the obvious; however, many organizations do not spend the time, money and effort required to ensure they have the right leadership in place to sustain and grow the organization. Does your organization have the leadership talent required to achieve its strategic initiatives and objectives? Perhaps its time to enhance the competencies and capabilities of your present leaders… and identify your organizations future leaders.

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Article Tags: career development, leadership development, leadership success



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