Hay Group’s seventh annual Best Companies for Leadership study is now out and ready for discussion. Go to the firm’s site to learn more. Start on the page, “How do the Best Companies fill their talent pipeline and develop leaders?” where there are pointers to more information about the study.
The study always draws comment and analysis. Here are three looks at what it all means, starting with Dan McCarthy’s comments. I think that Dan does the best job, every year, of setting the study in perspective. There’s also analysis from Forbes and Human Resources Executive.
From Dan McCarthy: New Study IDs Best Companies for Leadership, Innovation
“Hay Group just released its seventh annual Best Companies for Leadership Study. Is this just another one of those touchy-feely, nice to do awards? Not at all. The Best Companies for Leadership consistently outperform their peers. Over a 10 year period, the Top 20 companies produced a 5.39 percent shareholder return, compared to a 2.92 percent shareholder return generated by the S&P 500.”
From Forbes: The World’s Best Companies for Leadership
“Which businesses most expect their employees to step up and lead, and best prepare them to do so? Those questions are tough to answer, of course. But for the last seven years, the Philadelphia-based global human resources management consultancy Hay Group has taken a stab at rating companies according to leadership measures. Today it released its latest “Best Companies for Leadership†survey. The winner: General Electric. GE also came out on top last year. According to Rick Lash, director of Hay Group’s leadership and talent practice, GE not only fosters leaders but it promotes innovation, securing it the top slot.”
From HREOnline: Building Leadership, Other Big Goals into Your System
“The top companies for developing leaders build innovation and idea-sharing into their corporate systems. This, according to the seventh annual Best Companies for Leadership Study, released today by the Philadelphia-based Hay Group. (Here’s a release from Business Wire about the study, and here are the top 20 companies, with General Electric and Procter & Gamble topping the list.)”
For more context, check out Hay Group’s white paper, “Leadership 2030” and the Fortune article on the most recent edition of another important study: the Aon/Hewitt study of best companies for leadership development.
Finally, here are two articles about the challenge of picking first-time leaders out of the pack. Ken Nowack (who posts on this blog) offers the best article I’ve seen on assessment tools and techniques, “In Search of…..Excellent Leaders.” Ken Blanchard shares some succinct advice on “How to Identify a Future Leader.”
