In his post, “A CEO’s Guide to Leadership Development,” Dan McCarthy says that the key differentiator of companies that excel in leadership development is the “commitment and ownership” of the CEO. Then he says this:
“So when it comes to leadership development, what’s the difference between a CEO that is just ‘involved’ and one that is really committed? Here are 10 things that I believe would give any CEO the best return on their time invested.”
Talent development starts with the CEO, but it shouldn’t end there. CEOs only serve for a time so if that involved CEO wants change to last, it’s time to start thinking culture. Strong leadership development cultures have three important things in common.
Leadership development is a key part of every manager’s job. No potent leadership development system can work without the involvement of every manager. Those systems help assure that the mangers who do a good job of talent development are praised, promoted, and paid accordingly.
Leadership development is about both performance results and values. One common definition of culture is “the way we do things around here.” Leadership development cultures assess the “how” for every manager.
Leadership development is integrated into the larger company system. One of the most developed examples of how this works is General Electric’s vaunted Session C. That integrated series of meetings ties leadership development to performance review and the larger operating rhythms of the company.
An involved CEO is vital for leadership development. But unless you drive leadership development into the culture you can’t be sure that you have a system that will keep developing leaders.
