Leadership development may be the most important thing any company does. That’s why, every week, I review blogs and other publications that cover leadership development to find the very best leadership development posts. This week, you’ll find pointers to posts critical skills for your  program to teach, why leadership development is crucial, a surprising fix for leadership development problems, and reinventing the way we lead.
From Wharton: Myth vs. Reality: Four Behaviors That Define Successful Leaders
“What makes some CEOs successful while others crash and burn? The stereotypical view — often promoted in magazines and on television — is that these leaders are charismatic, armed with an Ivy League degree and larger than life. That impression is both superficial and wrong, according to Elena Lytkina Botelho and Kim Powell, consultants at ghSMART, a Chicago-based management consulting firm. After a 10-year study, Botelho, Powell, and their colleagues found that successful CEOs have four behavioral attributes that are often overlooked because they are not particularly glamorous. These CEOs make decisions quickly; they are relentlessly reliable; they excel at managing relationships; and they adapt swiftly to changing circumstances.”
From TrainingZone: Why Leadership Development Is So Crucial
“But leadership doesn’t come from just anywhere, and consistently bringing in outside hires for leadership will negatively affect the loyalty of your management and your lower level staff. Instead, your business plan should include developing a robust leadership development program. Think of your employees as potential management hires, figure out what skills they lack to be successful, and provide them with training to develop those skills.”
From Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic: The surprising fix for our shocking leadership development problems
“Although leadership development is a multibillion dollar industry, the average performance of leaders is rather poor. Most employees dislike and distrust their bosses and are therefore disengaged, open to other job offers, and considering self-employment. Moreover, 38 to 50% of CEOs, for whom investment in leadership development is largest, will fail within the first 18 months, while the failure rate of high-potential (HiPo) programs is even higher. Most shocking of all, as a seminal academic review by Rob Kaiser and Gordon Curphy illustrated a few years ago, there is a negative correlation between the amount of money spent on leadership development programs and the level of confidence and trust people have in their leaders, suggesting that the typical solution to our leadership problems is not just not working, but actually making the problem worse.”
From Glenn Llopis: 6 Strategies to Reinvent the Way We Lead
“To disrupt the status quo, leaders must get beyond diversity, and create inclusive environments to increase performance predictability with employees, clients, products and services.”
