Jack
Welch, former CEO of GE, who is well-known for his hands-on approach to
leadership development, once said: “Before
you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a
leader, success is all about growing others.”
Yet
far too often the development of leaders is “trial by fire” – painful lessons
that have a ripple effect on the people and organizations they lead. With many
senior leaders now getting ready to retire or move on to “sunset” careers, these
gaps in effective leadership development will become even more evident.
According
to a CareerBuilder survey, 31% of companies with more than 1,000 employees
reported that they don’t have a succession planning program. Half of senior
management and 52% of vice presidents said they do not have a successor. Clearly,
there’s a need to put more focus on leadership development. And who better to
do that than senior leaders themselves?
In
Chief Executive Magazine’s report
earlier this year on the 40 Best Companies for Leaders in 2013, the companies
that ranked at the top not only had well-defined leadership development
programs, their chief executives were directly involved in structuring and/or
delivering the training either as mentors or teachers. Proctor & Gamble,
who ranked #1, has “developed a rigorous and disciplined approach to leadership
development at every level of the company.” This includes senior management
spending a significant amount of their time recruiting, teaching and coaching.
At GE, who
ranked #2, “developing leaders is integral to their company culture and
long-term success.” In addition to a formal leadership development curriculum,
on-the-job mentoring and stretch assignments, GE launched the Leader in
Residence program in 2010, which involves senior leaders in the development of
younger leaders.
IBM at #3
attributes its ability to last more than a century to adherence to core values,
embracing change and having an institutionalized succession plan.
The top
ranking companies in Chief Executives “list of 40” achieved their ranking on
the basis of criteria that included having a formal leadership process in place
and a high level of CEO time commitment to implementing the process.
Are you
leveraging your senior leaders to develop emerging leaders and thereby position
your organization for sustainability? If so, I’d love to hear your comments
below about success stories and lessons learned.
Lead on,
Rebecca
