Six Best Practices of Leadership Development Initiatives by GEORGE AMBLER on SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2008

Six Best Practices of Leadership Development Initiatives
by GEORGE AMBLER on SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2008
Chief Learning Officer magazine has an article "Leadership Development in 2008" that discussing research which found the following six best practices common to highly successful leadership development initiatives.

Strong executive engagement: The most important practice of all is to obtain the engagement of top leaders and managers. Their commitment means that the program will be highly regarded, aligned with corporate strategy and focused on the right business issues.
Tailored leadership competencies: Successful leadership development programs are based on identified leadership competencies. By isolating and agreeing upon leadership competencies most important to your business, you will have the foundation for leadership development, as well as succession planning, career development and other talent-related processes.
Alignment with business strategy: Leadership development is far more than management training. As leaders move up in the organization, their skills must shift from people and project management to strategic business and operations management. Organizations such as Agilent, Aetna and Cisco focus heavily on company-specific business strategies in their leadership programs.
Target all levels of leadership: While the term “leadership” may not seem to apply to first-line managers, we find that high-impact programs have elements that apply to every level of management.
Apply a comprehensive and ongoing approach: No sound leadership development program consists solely of an instructor-led training event. Programs must include developmental assignments, 360-degree assessments, meetings with global counterparts, case studies, external education and a wide variety of e-learning and other media to give leaders a complete experience. People learn to lead by doing, so the best leadership development programs focus heavily on experiential learning.
Integrate with talent management: To build a sustainable leadership pipeline, organizations must implement programs to assess leadership potential (part of the performance management process), identify successors to existing leaders and place these individuals into the right development programs as part of the company’s regular business practices. In fact, one of the biggest indicators of a first-class leadership development program is a set of established practices and a corporate culture that encourages development throughout the enterprise.
These are a great set of leadership development practices to use in your leadership development programmes. As leadership talent becomes more scarce, developing people from within become more and more important. What are you doing to develop the leaders of tomorrow for your team and organisation?