The Importance of Leaders Developing Leaders

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