Leadership development

Leadership development

Leadership development refers to any activity that enhances the quality of leadership within an individual or organization. These activities have ranged from MBA style programs offered at university business schools to high-ropes courses and executive retreats.


Developing Individual Leaders

Traditionally, leadership development has focused on developing the leadership abilities and attitudes of individuals.

"The research shows that leadership can be developed but not easily."[1]

People are not all born with the same potential to lead well anymore than people do not all have the same ability to play soccer like David Beckam or sing like Luciano Pavarotti. Different personal characteristics can help or hinder a person's leadership effectiveness[2]. Yet, everyone can develop their leadership effectiveness. Achieving such development takes focus, practice and persistence more akin to learning a musical instrument than reading a book[3].

Classroom style training and associated reading is effective in helping leaders to know more about what is involved in leading well. Yet knowing what to do and doing what you know are two very different outcomes, as highlighted by management expert Henry Mintzberg. It is estimated that as little 15% of learning from traditional classroom style training results in sustained behavioral change within the workplace[4].

The success of leadership development efforts has been linked to three variables:

• Individual learner characteristics
  

• The quality and nature of the leadership development program
  

• Genuine support for behavioural change from the leader's supervisor

Officer training academies such as the US Military Academy at West Point, who have an incredibly impressive go to great lengths and to only accept canditates who show the highest potential to lead well [5]. Personal characteristics that associated with successful leadership development include leader motivation to learn, a high achievement drive and personality traits such as openess to experience, an internal locus of control, self-monitoring.

Development is also more likely to occur when the design of the development program[6]:

• Integrates a range of developmental experiences over a set period of time (eg 6-12 months). These experiences may include 360 degree feedback, experiential classroom style programs, business school style coursework,executive coaching, reflective journaling, mentoring and more.
  

• Involve goal setting, following an assessment of key developmental needs and then evaluate the achievement of goals after a given time period.

Developing Leadership At A Collective Level

More recently organizations have come to understand that leadership can also be developed by strengthening the connection between and alignment of the efforts of individual leaders and the systems through which they influence organizational operations. This has led to a differentiation between leader development and leadership development[7]. Leader development focuses on the development of the leader, such as the personal attributes desired in a leader, desired ways of behaving, ways of thinking or feeling. In contrast, leadership development focuses on the development of leadership as a process. This will include the interpersonal relationships, social influence process, and the team dynamics between the leader and his/her team at the dyad level, the contextual factors surrounding the team such as the perception of the organizational climate and the social network linkages between the team and other groups in the organization.

Both forms of development may mutually influence each other, as exemplified in the concept of "Deep Change" in Robert E. Quinn's 1996 book of the same title.

A modern approach by Arthur F Carmazzi suggests leadership is a product of the psychology of self as it interacts with the psychology of group, and, Leadership Development must involve a clear understanding of the dynamics of action and reaction between the two. This process is defined in Carmazzi's "Directive Communication" methodology that embodies the way individuals act and react to each other in groups, and how to influence those groups.
Leadership development can build on the development of individuals (including followers) to become leaders. In addition, it also needs to focus on the interpersonal linkages between the individuals in the team.

In the belief that the most important resource that an organization possesses is the people that comprise the organization, some organizations address the development of these resources (even including the leadership).


See also

Centre for High Performance Development

Organizational empowerment