Leadership Development

• The first step is to determine what you really want to develop - managers, executives or leaders.
• Most so-called leadership development is actually executive development.
• An executive occupies a multi-faceted, senior role with huge responsibilities.
• Many of these responsibilities are managerial in nature - everything to do with getting the best possible return from all resources at the organization's disposal - money, people, material, energy and passion.
• In some industries - those that compete on cost, for instance, the managerial functions of the executive's role are the main keys to competitive advantage.
• In other industries - especially those that compete on innovation, more leadership is required.
• However, in these cases, leadership need not come from executives. Some will, some might be shown by various other employees at all levels. See thought leadership for more on this.
• An effective executive in this environment needs to be good at cultivating leadership in others and providing them with a supportive culture.
• If you are signing up to a blanket leadership development process that pays no attention to the actual leadership versus managerial needs of your organization, then you are using a shot-gun approach.
• If you are only developing leadership in senior executives or budding senior executives, then you might want to re-visit what leadership really means. See the pages on leadership in LeadersDirect for some ideas on this topic.