http://blogs.bnet.com/intercom/?p=1771&tag=content;col1&tag=nl.e713
Companies like GM increasingly value right-brain creative thinking. In this podcast, Katherine Bell explains that creative training also teaches skills that directly transfer to management: how to take criticism, what motivates people, how to engage your audience, and when to let go of good ideas.
Australian Leadership and Management Development Practices Survey
http://www.beaton.com.au/pdfs/BC_LMDsurvey.pdf
Extracts: In 2003, Beaton Consulting conducted a two-staged research study. Commencing with focus groups, we identified key practices and issues faced by firms today, and used this information to construct a web-based survey of professional service firms. Our findings represent responses from 160 firms in Australia and New Zealand, of which about half were law firms. About half the respondents were managing partners or CEOs; the others were human resources directors, partners-in-charge of departments and general managers.
Low cost, low ‘commitment’ initiatives are the order of the day
‘High commitment’ initiatives are considered to be more effective – but not necessarily the most used! However, simply because an initiative is effective, doesn’t guarantee it will be widely used. Both effective and ineffective initiatives are highly used. Four key findings indicate that LMD initiatives suffer from a lack of relevance.
Firstly, people don’t see that they have a personal responsibility for developing their own leadership and management skills. Secondly, technical staff don’t see the relevance of leadership and management development in their own roles. Thirdly, senior level participation on programs is low, further indicating a possible lack of relevance in their minds for the need to develop their leadership capability. Finally, the difficulty in measuring the effectiveness of LMD investments – both in dollar outcomes and in behavioural change terms – means it is difficult to demonstrate the relevance of programs to the firm’s overall strategy.
LMD initiatives tend to suffer from a lack of relevance and budgets are tightening
Overall, firms appear uncertain about the value of LMD initiatives. They find it difficult to distinguish the effectiveness of one initiative from another or to agree among themselves
which initiatives are indeed most effective. The cost-benefit of investing in LMD initiatives
is not well understood. Budgets allocated for LMD initiatives are not secure, particularly with larger spending firms. LMD initiatives are in a precarious position.
These findings suggest that if LMD initiatives are to be sustainable, they need partners of the
firm to position LMD strategically and to become its champions. They can only do this in the full knowledge of the impact of LMD initiatives on the growth and profit objectives of the firm. Some suggestions for repositioning LMD strategically are as follows.
Firstly, firms would benefit from HR being able to quantify the cost-benefit of LMD initiatives – for instance, through the development of clear key performance indicators that link LMD outcomes to the firm’s drivers of success. Secondly, HR practitioners could promote
initiatives more effectively by focusing on those initiatives that have particular relevance
to senior managers/partners, such as coaching and assessment of potential. Additionally,
increasing the participation of seniormanagers/partners in programs that are relevant and compelling is likely to embed a culture of learning and behaviour change and increase the firm’s commitment to ongoing investment.
Thirdly, opportunities exist to develop reward and recognition systems that consolidate and reward the learning. Finally, LMD investment could be more effectively applied by redirecting budgets and resources away from low impact initiatives such as conferences and generic external programs and towards those of higher impact, including assessment of potential, executive coaching and the introduction of tailored internal programs.
LMD needs to stand and deliver
Many firms that are highly committed in budget terms to LMD initiatives are reconsidering this expenditure, with up to 38% considering reducing overall budgets in the coming year. Perhaps this is related to their inability to effectively demonstrate relevance of LMD initiatives as discussed above.
Despite this finding, respondents indicated that they intend to increase investment in two emerging areas – assessment of potential and executive coaching. Interestingly, very few firms intend to scale down those programs regarded as least effective (literature, conferences and seminars) – perhaps because these initiatives required few resources or effort internally and may be lower in cost.
Institute researches the value of management qualifications (UK)
http://www.trainingreference.co.uk/news/ls070919.htm
Extract: Survey suggests that senior leadership job prospects are increasingly being influenced by an individual’s commitment to their long-term professional development:
- 64 per cent of employers – and 74 per cent of individuals - believe management qualifications will grow in importance over the next 5 years.
- Many employers argue that having qualified managers leads to productivity gains (60 per cent). Most highly valued are MBAs (74 per cent) and Diplomas (70 per cent)
- The majority of respondents (84 per cent) also claim that qualifications improve 'self awareness'. High numbers focus on how they have 'helped me deal with interpersonal issues' (66 per cent) or 'improved my business knowledge' (84 per cent).
http://www.trainingreference.co.uk/news/ls080110.htm
Extract: While senior executives are rated highest in business competence, it is their empathy and trustworthiness that are the best predictors of overall effective leadership, according to a study of 1,405 leaders in 47 organisations by consultants BlessingWhite.
BlessingWhite - based in Princeton, NJ, with locations in London, Chicago, San Francisco and Melbourne - says the six-year study analysed feedback on the executives from nearly 8,000 colleagues including direct reports, peers and superiors.
Respondents were asked to rate the individuals in 54 areas, which were combined into eight categories spanning both business and personal characteristics.
The study found that the executives were generally rated highest in the core competencies of business aptitude, responsibility, clarity and internal attunement/self-confidence. However, it was high scores in empathy and trustworthiness, followed by business aptitude, that were found to be most predictive of high ratings for overall leadership effectiveness. According to the study:
What are leaders good at? (ratings highest-to-lowest)
- Business aptitude
- Responsibility
- Clarity
- Internal attunement
- Trustworthiness
- Empathy
- External attunement
- Depth
What matters most? (correlation with effectiveness)
- Empathy
- Trustworthiness
- Business aptitude
- Depth
- External attunement
- Clarity
- Responsibility
- Internal attunement
http://www.ideashape.com/leadership-research.htm
Extracts: 265 leaders participated by invitation in this extensive online survey. One-third are executives, another third directors or managers, and the rest are primarily business owners and consultants.
What Makes a Successful Leader?
Vision topped the list of critical leadership capacities for nearly all leaders. Two other "applied EI" capacities -- Relationship Building and People Development -- were ranked in the top 5, along with Strategic Thinking and Execution.
Of the remaining 15 capacities studied, all the EI items -- including Self-Awareness, Empathy, and Adaptability -- were rated as more important than the traditional leadership capacities, such as External/Market Orientation, Financial Acumen, and Planning.
However, leaders of different personality type, job level, and experience rated many capacities quite differently. For example, Executives were more than twice as likely to value Optimism as were Managers/Directors or Consultants. Regardless of job level, participants of different personality type showed substantial variation in what they consider important to successful leadership.
Leaders Speak Out on Emotional Intelligence
Most leaders believe Emotional Intelligence is about building relationships and using emotions wisely, reading people, and being aware of their own emotions. These responses are consistent across levels, experience, and personality.
Nearly all leaders believe EI can be developed and are able to offer recommendations developing EI. These recommendations vary substantially by years of leadership experience. For example, the more experienced the leader, the more likely to recommend training, coaching, feedback, and self-directed development.
When leaders describe how they develop their own EI, years of experience is far less significant in differentiating their responses. Instead, leaders of different personality types (MBTI) develop their own EI very differently. For example, people with Feeling Perceiving preferences (FP's) are nearly three times more likely than people with Thinking Perceiving preferences (TP's) to cite training/group experiences as important in developing their EI.
Surprisingly, gender matters not at all in any of our findings. Men and women provided similar answers in describing EI, how it can be developed, how they develop their own EI, and how they rate their own EI.
How these leaders rate various aspects of their own Emotional Intelligence
Leaders at all levels are open to developing Emotional Intelligence, but they talk about it quite differently than do many consultants and EI theorists. Leadership coaches, HR professionals, and others who help people develop their EI should adjust their language and initial focus to reflect aspects of EI that resonate most with executives and managers – relationships, reading people, self-awareness, rather than empathy, self-confidence, and self-control.
"Soft skills" development programs would benefit from a richer view of what leaders actually value. In particular, leaders are deeply interested in resources that help them extract the learning from their own experiences.
Multiple types of EI development programs are needed to advance leaders of different personality types. MBTI is a significant predictor of the how leaders describe developing their own EI. For example, group learning is indispensable to some types and anathema to others.
To excel at the highly-ranked Relationship Management capacities, leaders should develop their EI "building block" capabilities of self-awareness, reading others, and adaptability. This study shows that leaders may underestimate the importance of these basics in performing the complex capabilities they highly value.
When assessing development needs or engaging in succession planning, leaders should be aware of blind spots or stereotypes they may hold. To the extent that executives view their own strength profiles as especially desirable, they may overlook leaders with different and perhaps complementary strengths. Also, look beyond common MBTI stereotypes. For example, J’s and P’s were indistinguishable in how they valued Execution, Achievement Drive, and Adaptability.
Leadership Research Study: Return on Investment for Various Leadership Development Initiatives (Sensis example)
http://www.ddiworld.com/pdf/ddi_leadershipresearchsummary_rr.pdf
Extract: Sensis (one of Australia’s leading directory, advertising, and information providers) aims to be the major player in local Australian advertising and search. To meet this objective, the organization places a high priority on developing its people. Sensis chose DDI’s Maximizing Performance®, which is designed to create a high-performance workplace. Using behavior change ratings, the dollar value of the improvements based on salary was estimated. Program costs were subtracted and computed an overall percentage ROI. ROI: This increase in confidence and skills represents a return of 1,060 percent, or $2.2 million, on the training investment made by Sensis.
Study suggests senior managers are missing easy opportunities to build skills (UK)
http://www.trainingreference.co.uk/news/ls071206.htm
The research, outlined in a report called 'Realising Value from Online Learning', is based on the views of 998 respondents and includes interviews with 12 large employers.
The findings confirm that Internet access is readily available for the majority of senior managers (90 per cent). However, the study suggests that most (67 per cent) spend 30 minutes or less using company intranets, the Internet or e-learning materials to solve any one problem. Only 54 per cent have made use of online management resources in the past year and just 1 in 5 have participated in a structured e-learning programme.
58 per cent of respondents suggest online learning is a powerful resource for senior managers as they can 'dip in and out as time allows'. Over one-third (35 per cent) also believe the 'constant availability for reference' is a benefit and 1 in 4 (23 per cent) focus on the cost-effectiveness of online resources.
47 per cent of respondents claim resistance to e-learning is caused by the 'loss of the human touch'. 72 per cent still prefer face-to-face conversations and 37 per cent suggest 'tutor-led' development is most effective.
46 per cent of respondents say they have 'too many distractions' diverting them from PC-based development and 20 per cent argue the content fails to 'engage' them. 28 per cent say they lack the motivation to complete online courses, with 17 per cent blaming lack of 'appropriate support'.
What’s Next? The 2007 Changing Nature of Leadership Survey
http://www.ccl.org/leadership/pdf/research/WhatsNext.pdf
Summary: Following a successful launch of the groundbreaking Changing Nature of
Leadership (CNL) research in 2003, the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL®) commissioned a second study on the current field of leadership. The goal: To examine any shifts in thinking over the past four years and to collect data on emerging trends important to current and future leaders. The data was compiled in April 2007 by surveying 1,131 people online. All of the respondents were either past participants of CCL programs or members of our online community, myCCL.
Changing nature of leadership
Results indicate that respondents still believe the definition of leadership has changed over the past five years (76 percent) and the challenges they face are increasingly complex (91 percent). This study sheds light on the why and how behind these findings.
Complex Challenges are Resisting Solutions and Driving the Need for New Approaches
More than 40 percent of respondents noted that their organizations have been facing a complex challenge for two years or more, which shows the challenges are either resisting solutions or morphing into new challenges. Further, these challenges are affecting organizations by forcing leaders to create more innovative solutions and work more collaboratively.
Talent and Talent Development is a Top Priority
When asked to describe the primary challenge their organization is facing, respondents placed talent acquisition/talent development at the top (17 percent). Additionally, 65 percent of respondents believe there will be a talent crisis in the next five years.
To Be Effective in the Future, Leaders Will Need to Develop New Skills
Leaders have a clear view of what skills will be needed to provide effective leadership
in the future. The survey shows that future leadership skills will focus on a number of key characteristics, the foremost being collaboration (49 percent). In addition, leadership change, building effective teams, and influence without authority ranked high in terms of leadership skills needed for the future.
Collaboration Will Be Important in Sustaining High Performance
Not only was collaboration considered the top skill leaders must develop for the future, only 30 percent of respondents believed their leaders are skilled collaborators. Further, when we surveyed a smaller sample of senior leaders, 97 percent said that collaboration was essential to success.
Rewarding Leaders in the Future Will Require a New Approach
When asked to compare their current reward systems with one that would be optimal, some important shifts occurred. First, most organizations currently reward their employees based almost entirely on making the numbers (33 percent) and individual performance (24 percent). While these two metrics for reward remained at the top of the optimal scenario, developing others, collaboration, and innovation rose significantly.
Transformational leadership and shared values: the building blocks of trust
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewContentItem.do;jsessionid=271DD7C8F57AA1EEFD0C9E1542508447?contentType=Article&contentId=881606
Abstract: Interpersonal trust is central to sustaining team effectiveness. Whilst leaders play the primary role in establishing and developing trust, little research has examined the specific leadership practices which engender trust toward team leaders. This study investigated the relationship between a set of leadership practices (transformational, transactional, and consultative) and members' trust in their leader, in research and development (R&D) teams. Usable questionnaires were completed by 83 team members drawn from 33 R&D project teams. Three factors together predicted 67 per cent of the variance in team members' trust towards leaders, namely: consulting team members when making decisions, communicating a collective vision, and sharing common values with the leader. Trust in the leader was also strongly associated with the leader's effectiveness. The implications of these findings for leadership development, team building and future research are discussed.
The realities of management promotion
http://www.ccl.org/leadership/pdf/research/RealitiesMgtPromotion.pdf
Description: An interesting but academic article that explores the factors that affect the promotion of managers within organisations.
Differences in the Developmental Needs of Managers at Multiple Levels
http://www.ccl.org/leadership/pdf/community/siop2004emerging.pdf
Description: PowerPoint summary of a major multicountry quantitative study of managers.
Conclusions:
- Managers have an accurate perception of what training they need to be effective. This being the case, efforts should be made to ensure that programs are in place with the appropriate topics targeted for each level.
- Traditional pedagogic methods are still preferred for learning “Hard”/Technical Skills. This training should be reinforced with relevant job assignments, especially for younger employees.
- “Soft” Skills may be introduced through traditional pedagogic methods, but they should be reinforced through action learning groups.
- Investing in technology based training may not be truly cost
effective if employees are not receptive to those methods of
content delivery.
- Develop a core curriculum of “Soft” skills focusing on Leadership, Team Building, Communication and Coaching to provide managers and their direct reports with a common organizational language and framework for these skills.
- Develop a general core curriculum of “Hard” skills that includes Problem Solving/Decision Making and Public Speaking. Ensure that increased complexity/sophistication is added to address the needs of upper level managers.
- Develop role-based “Hard” skills training programs that are strategically alignedto yield best cost/benefit results.
- Form action learning groups to provide an ongoing support network to develop, practice and hone “Soft” skills. Action learning groups may be beneficial to the development of some role-based “Hard” skills as well. (e.g. Software Development)
http://www.trainingreference.co.uk/news/co080325.htm
Extract: The tenth annual CIPD learning and development survey found that almost three-quarters (71%) of UK employers currently use coaching in their organisations, compared to 63% in 2007. A similar proportion of respondents (72%) found coaching to be an effective tool.
Within organisations that offer coaching to all their employees, general personal development (79%) and helping poor performance (74%) were both cited as the most common purposes for which coaching is used. In organisations that only offer coaching to managers, the survey found that the emphasis shifted towards its positioning as part of a wider management and leadership development programme (61%).
According to the survey, more than two fifths of organisations offer coaching to all employees, 39% offer it to directors and senior management and a third offer it to senior managers and line managers/supervisors.
Leadership Development: Past, Present, and Future
http://www.ccl.org/leadership/pdf/research/cclLeadershipDevelopment.pdf
Abstract: This excellent article reviews notable trends in the leadership development field. In the past two decades, such trends included the proliferation of new leadership development methods and a growing recognition of the importance of a leader’s emotional resonance with others. A growing recognition that leadership development involves more than just developing individual leaders has now led to a greater focus on the context in which leadership is developed, thoughtful consideration about how to best use leadership competencies, and work/life balance issues. Future trends include exciting potential advances in globalization, technology, return on investment (ROI), and new ways of thinking about the nature of leadership and leadership
development.
ASPIRING AUSTRALIAN MIDDLE MANAGERS: A FOLLOW UP STUDY
http://www.ballarat.edu.au/ard/business/research/resources/2005-08.pdf
Abstract:
Purpose: The current study followed up middle managers who had participated in a survey on Attitudes to Promotion in 1996. The vast majority of the original sample had responded favourably to the question: "Do you want to obtain a senior management position during your managerial career?" In addition, respondents were asked "How confident are you that this will happen?" and "How soon do you feel this will happen?" The aim of the follow up qualitative study was to contact as many of these individuals as possible, to explore the outcome to these questions, and to track what had happened to them in their management careers over the past eight years.
Methodology/approach: Interviews were conducted with 19 male and 11 female managers. Outcomes of promotion aspirations were sought, and factors that contributed to success and personal strategies that may have been set in place were explored, as were factors that had hindered their progress. In addition, views were sought on future aspirations for promotion.
Findings: Results indicated gender differences in outcome of promotion, in both proportions of women achieving senior roles, and the time it took for males and females to obtain these promotions with more male middle managers achieving their promotion to senior roles, in less time, than their female colleagues.
Practical implications: The findings were considered in relation to the ongoing career advancement of men and women in management, and in particular, the disproportionate numbers of men and women in senior management roles.
Report finds 'negative' management styles most common in UK organisations
http://www.trainingreference.co.uk/news/ls071212.htm
Extacts: The report, which questioned 1,511 managers, found that the majority (69 per cent) are motivated by 'a sense of achievement from reaching organisational goals'. However, the research says that management style also has a dramatic impact on job satisfaction. For example, the presence of an authoritarian approach depresses enjoyment of work by 27 points, from 71 to 44 per cent. Confidence in senior management teams also declines from 60 to 27 per cent, where the dominant style is bureaucratic.
The most widely experienced management styles in UK organisations are bureaucratic (40 per cent), reactive (37 per cent) and authoritarian (30 per cent). All three have become increasingly common; the top two have increased by 6 per cent since 2004, with authoritarian leadership also rising 5 per cent.
Only 1 in 10 respondents said absence increased in organisations with 'innovative' and 'trusting' cultures. This was in contrast to 45 per cent suggesting sickness rates have gone up where employers were 'suspicious'.
Leadership: The Right Stuff
http://www.accenture.com/Global/Research_and_Insights/By_Subject/Leadership_And_Talent_Management/LeadershipTheRightStuff.htm Extracts: As part of a broader study, we interviewed two generations of accomplished men and women—members of the first group were over 70 years of age and members of the second were under 33—drawn from business, the professions, government, academia, the military and nonprofit organizations.The over-70 group is noteworthy for its members' ability to renew themselves and their organizations over a lifetime. Members of the under-33 group collectively serve as a kind of proxy for the hopes and aspirations of the next generation of leaders, offering glimpses of what that generation knows, doesn't know and needs to learn.
The study identified four key experiences that are common to most leaders:
Mentoring Relationships
Mentors have long exerted dramatic influence on those they mentor, of course, particularly on young people. But two critical elements appeared in virtually every mentoring relationship described in our interviews. First, protégés attracted mentors; there was something compelling about them that made them approachable and interesting. Second, mentors were recruitable; they were open to caring for a particular protégé and willing to share valuable insight without any expectations of reward for their efforts.
Enforced Reflection
This crucible has at its core an opportunity for both exploration and reflection. College has the potential to be such a crucible, particularly as it affords a young person the time and space to explore other possible selves and lifestyles. The same can be said for more regimented settings that emphasize introspection, like yoga retreats, martial arts training and seminaries.
Insertion Into Foreign Territory
Most people find themselves operating in foreign, sometimes hostile, territory at some point in their lives. However, the leaders we interviewed demonstrated a remarkable capacity not only to survive those tough experiences but to extract profound insights from them.
Disruption and Loss
Personal loss, particularly of an associate, has the capacity to destabilize. But as Jeff Wilke, senior vice president of operations at Amazon.com, told us, loss can also allow leaders to understand their organizations in a fundamentally new—and more comprehensive—way.
Before joining the online bookseller, Wilke had been the plant manager at an industrial facility where a machine operator was killed on the job. Wilke was confronted with the very tender fabric of human life that sometimes gets lost when leading "by the numbers." According to Wilke, "It's a transformational experience . . . to realize that in the end it's all these lives that are all wrapped up together. And every so often an event happens that isn't just about whether we made the quarter."
In other instances, loss of a parent (particularly when it requires a person to take on family responsibility or live independently at an early age), loss of a sibling or close friend (which often occurs during war-time), bankruptcy, or failure in an important assignment or undertaking (including a run for public office) can stimulate a search for greater understanding of self, of relationships and of larger webs of affiliation. All these events carry the potential to catalyze a search for meaning and develop a far keener ability to extract insights from experience.
Research suggests executives struggle to juggle as priorities compete for attention (UK)
http://www.trainingreference.co.uk/news/ls071101.htm
Extract: According to the study of 1,175 managers and directors:
- 84 per cent of respondents grapple with the challenge of 'prioritising work'. Two-thirds (63 per cent) claim to have 'little time to think' and 53 per cent also say they struggle to find 'time for strategic planning'. Only 5 in 10 find it easy to make time for their staff, while a similar proportion (44 per cent) are diverted by internal politics.
- 51 per cent find their own administration a challenge, 54 per cent often find it hard to get home on time and only 1 in 10 strongly agree they can relax in their free time.
- 71 per cent say that 'finishing tasks' is a battle. 50 per cent of respondents blame an organisational culture of 'meeting overload' for this, with 46 per cent also saying that 'meeting preparation time' diverts too much attention.
- Only 16 per cent believe 'innovation' is a challenge, and 72 per cent claim new product development is not high on the organisational agenda. In terms of long-term growth, 70 per cent view 'seeking new markets for products and services' as unimportant.
- Despite 81 per cent of organisations struggling to recruit the best candidates, only 1 in 3 respondents claim that internal talent management is important to their employer and just 33 per cent agree with the statement that they 'understand how their career will progress'.
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