Who’s Responsible for Feeding Leadership Development?

Ladan Nikravan -  2/8/12
New research indicates it’s most often senior executives who select participants for leadership development programs. Here’s how CLOs can get more involved. Leadership development programs are essential to fill holes in a company’s talent portfolio and ensure a deep bench for critical positions. But who determines who participates in such programs? Most often it’s senior executives rather than learning and development professionals, according to a 2012 survey by AMA Enterprise, a division of the American Management Association that offers advisory services and tailored learning programs. When asked who is responsible for identifying and developing high potentials, 55 percent of the survey’s 562 respondents cited senior executives, who were followed closely by managers and directors. Training and development staff was selected by just 11 percent of respondents, who consisted primarily of senior-level business, human resources and management professional contacts drawn from the AMA database. Eric Hieger, director of professional services for AMA Enterprise, said this is due to senior executives’ experience and their insight into success factors. They’re involved with leaders at all levels on a day-to-day basis and most aware of attributes linked to future success. But while Hieger acknowledges this trend and its reasoning, he doesn’t believe senior executives should act alone. “While senior executives may support and make the final decision about high potentials, they often have limited firsthand experience of all of the employees being considered,” he said. “To ideally address this, managers who have direct experience of those considered for high potential programs must represent them and be included in the evaluation process.” Hieger believes line managers should help senior executives and learning and development professionals define and create a balanced leadership development system for an entire company. He proposes that the selection criteria to be eligible for high potential programs be driven first by qualification criteria, supported by nomination of a sponsoring manager. After all the possible candidates are identified within a company’s division, the pool can be evaluated by forming a talent review council. This council should be composed of cross-functional and cross-level managers, all of whom have direct experience with the candidates and have collected perceptions of others in the organization — peers and internal and external customers. It is this council that can help to create a collaborative environment where managers and leaders can all weigh in on the relative strengths of each person being considered.

Who’s Responsible for Feeding Leadership Development? - Chief Learning Officer, Solutions for Enterprise Productivity