According to a recent Society of Human Resources Management human resources leadership survey, as Baby Boomers retire from the workforce, many organizations are poised to lose 30 to 50 percent of their key leaders over the next five years. In addition, organizations that have not been actively working to develop new leaders to replace retirees will suffer as hundreds of years of experience walk out of the door. Finally, the expectations of leaders and their expertise continues to increase as technology evolves, and the pace of business becomes faster.

Senior leadership positions have become more challenging, requiring a broader range of job experience and a surprisingly long list of competencies. In fact, fewer than half of 1,000 C-suite executives recently surveyed ranked their organization’s overall leadership quality as “excellent” or “very good,” according to the 2018 DDI Global Leadership Forecast. Asked to name their biggest challenges, the executives’ top choice was “developing next-gen leaders.” 

Learning and development teams understand that traditional classroom-based lectures, long the foundation of many development programs, is not conducive to today’s adult learner, as most information is forgotten soon after participants return to their jobs.  

The Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM) states effective leadership development programs should:

• Offer personalized learning. Tailor development opportunities to a leader’s needs.
• Focus on the business context. Identify the strategic and cultural priorities of the organization. What global and economic market challenges will the company and the industry face in the future? Ensure that development opportunities are tied to those.
• Provide relevant learning. Ensure that what participants are learning can be used immediately to address the situations and challenges that they’re facing. One way to add relevance is to spend less time telling potential leaders what to do and more time immersing them in situations where they can get needed experience.

An effective leadership development program can help an organization achieve its business goals and financial success. Companies in the top third in terms of financial performance are twice as likely to have high-quality leaders as those in the bottom third, according to recent DDI research. Therefore, the goals for the leadership development efforts should support the organization's strategy and produce results. An organization's leadership must establish, track, measure, and evaluate clear goals for their organization's leadership development efforts.  

We recommend that leaders:

• Determine how they will measure and evaluate their leadership development efforts
• Design a measurement process that ties leadership development efforts to the bottom line
• Hold each other accountable for developmental results

Start with our Organizational Skills Profile! Although organizational skills are closely associated with senior leaders, individuals at all levels of an organization must demonstrate competency within their respective departments while navigating the organization. Maintaining strong organizational skills can reduce the likelihood of miscommunication, inefficiency and slow decision-making.

Prepare your team to leverage their capabilities and achieve their professional goals with the Organizational Skills Profile today by contacting Sue Drake at sdrake@drakerg.com. Go to the Ascendis Leadership Academy and create your account today to get started on your path to define a successful future of leadership.