Trends in Leader Development
The past two years have been tough for many businesses and industries. I have experienced this first hand as our industry, leader development, has been hammered as many companies have held off on their training and development dollars because of the poor economy.
While companies are beginning to invest again in leader development I have noticed a number of trends that are beginning to happen. Here are a few:
1. Companies will now spend money on raising the capacity of leaders versus simply focusing on skills training. The “Do More With Less” reality is causing companies to need high-capacity leaders and they are now willing to work with companies like GiANT to help them do that.
2. Online training is still prevalent for the highly systematic workforces, but is not being as invested in because of costs. The next level of online leader development will happen via the iPad and other innovations currently in the early adopter stage.
3. Lecture style training is on the decline due to the next generation learning style and the Harvard-esque case study methodology. For instance, we have taken all of our lecture style workshops and innovated them to be highly experiential (see www.giantimpact.com/intentionalleadership).
4. The whole person is the trend of the future. The next generation doesn’t separate life the way the past generations did. Home and family time affect leader development as well. A holistic plan is simply the new norm for future leader development.
5. More advanced companies are actually beginning to create a leadership budget separate from their normal HR budgets (or at least creating a separate track). There seems to be a better understanding of the investment in leaders producing a stronger company and return.
6. Finally, the next generation is ushering in leadership at every level. Going are the days of the traditional executive suite. White House regulation and corporate scandals are changing the style and standard of leadership in the United States. This is a good thing.
These trends are positive, especially in light of the past two years. Let’s hope leaders continue to grow and organizations continue to invest in the right kinds of leaders.
Posted on March 16, 2010 in Business Growth
1 Comment
Bill Bliss said...
Jeremie,
Good thoughts on some of the trends you are seeing. Being in the same field, I am glad that organizations are beginning to focus again on the importance of training up the next generation of leaders. Leadership development doesn’t happen overnight or even in a couple of weeks. It is a long process of intentional development. Some will do well, and others will not. Jack Welch used to say that he spent 50% of his time developing the leaders in GE. They are well recognized today for their leadership talent pool at both GE and hundreds of other organizations.
I think what will matter most is both the methods (as you point out) and content of leadership development going forward. Organizations must carefully consider where they are getting the leadership development content from; organizations such as Giant Impact play an important role in helping provide content that is reliable, sustainable and a proven track record of ongoing success.
Comment by Bill Bliss - Mar 17, 2010 @ 06:36 PM