1. Learning and Development Developing leaders and managers
L&D
CHAPTER 17
Developing leaders and managers

2. THE PURPOSE OF THE CHAPTER
To explore how an organisation’s leadership and management development processes can help to build its future capability as well as aiding the achievement of excellent performance in a current situation.
KEY THEMES
The leadership pipeline
How effective is leadership and management development?
Assessing the evidence
Putting findings into practice
What kind of development?
Tasks for HR professionals

3. THE LEADERSHIP PIPELINE: THE TOP LEVEL
Corporate leadership
Those responsible for setting and executing corporate strategy
Key tasks
Building and sustaining vision and values
Achieving an organisational culture and a quality of life that will engage internal and external stakeholders
Leading a regular organising process
Working with a broad-based group in a continuous strategising process
Developing and maintaining a learning culture.

4. THE LEADERSHIP PIPELINE: THE MIDDLE LEVEL
Operational leadership
Those in charge of a department or geographical area or with other leadership responsibilities
Key tasks
Creating a high-performing workplace by:
making critical decisions about opportunities afforded by communication and information technology
ensuring the success of organisational change
creating a culture of lifelong learning for all employees
ensuring engaged and healthy employees

5. THE LEADERSHIP PIPELINE: FIRST-LINE LEVEL
First line leadership
Team leaders and others with people leadership responsibilities.
Key tasks
Creating a workplace context in which individuals and teams can collectively achieve high performance
Ensuring that individuals and team have the attitudes, motivation and opportunity to apply their knowledge and skills to ‘going the extra mile’ for the organisation
Encouraging and supporting individuals and teams in the use of discretionary power

6. Research findings: KEY FAILINGS IN LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT ACROSS THE WORLD
Lack of appropriate leadership development strategies
Poor implementation and evaluation of leadership development programmes
Lack of effective succession planning
Neglect of multinational leaders
Poor partnership between HR and corporate leaders

7. Leadership and management development: RESEARCH-RELATED ISSUES
Much MD practice in the UK lacks a convincing evidence base.
MD practice makes little use of qualitative research findings.
Researchers fail to agree on what ‘leadership’ constitutes.
Most research ignores the middle and first-line levels of the leadership pipeline.
Much MD practice is based on inappropriate management models and is unclear about what managers actually do in the particular organisation.
MD programmes can serve as an instrument of control exercised by senior management over those in lesser positions. This makes it hard to ensure their objective evaluation.

8. DEVELOPING LMD STRATEGY: THE STARTING POINT (Beard and Irvine, 2005)
What do we mean by ‘leadership’ and ‘management’ in this organisation?
What is the culture of our organisation – or what shift in culture do we want our LMD strategy to help us achieve?
What are the best methods of developing individuals in the leadership and management skills and behaviours needed at key transition points in the leadership pipeline?
How can we evaluate our LMD effectively, in terms both of whether training and learning needs were accurately identified and of the impact of that activity on the business and on individuals?

9. PRINCIPLES TO GUIDE LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT

10. The Hays Consultancy case: TASK 1: KEY QUESTIONS TO ASK
What specific outcomes for the business were the three enhanced sets of skills intended to achieve, and what measures were used to operationalise and measure them?
Who decided on the measures and their implementation?
What specific outcomes were set to change the culture and behaviours of top management, and how were they measured?
When were outcomes measured?
What systems, processes and procedures are there in the workplace to ensure that participants’ action plans are carried through and are regularly updated?
What will the company do to identify and develop those with the potential to enter the leadership pipeline in future?

11. The Hays Consultancy case: TASK 2: KEY INFORMATION NEEDED
Programme design and methods reflect a strategy of experiential learning. Will new leadership tasks and methods be supported or initiated by changes in business processes, and will unlearning and relearning be supported by organisational systems?
How will desired changes in values, attitudes and behaviour be reinforced after the programme?
Do the programme’s methods encourage lateral thinking and double- loop learning?
What criteria determined the use of the development methods mentioned, and were any other methods of work-based learning included?
On what basis was the leadership competency framework produced, and what has been the organisational impact of the competencies?
Was there an assignment component in the programme, and is any intended for the programme now being rolled out?

12. Educational programmes can provide value for:
potential managers
managers involved in structural and role change
managers who are set in their ways
managers preparing for more strategic roles

13. RESPONSE TO THE COMPLACENT MANAGER . . .
Organisationally-based development must have a clear strategic focus
New tasks and methods in which leaders and managers are being developed need the support of changes in business and HR processes and practices
Educational programmes can play an important part in leadership and management development
There must be an organisational culture which ensures that unlearning can occur and that new learning can be effectively applied in the workplace
There must be regular monitoring and effective evaluation of the business and individual outcomes of any development strategy or programme

14. SEVEN AREAS OF IMPACT FOR LMD
1 Integration of LMD strategy with talent and career management and other areas of HR strategy
2 Active involvement of business units as well as the centre in planning, operating and evaluating the LMD system
3 Proactivity of HR professionals in interpreting business priorities and translating them into LMD policies and practices
4 Close partnership between HR professionals and business leaders to achieve the necessary cultural change
5 Operational leaders and managers competent to train and develop others and to implement LMD strategy in their workplaces
6 Formal LMD programmes that encompass a critical mass
7 Measurement of key outcomes of LMD strategy, and monitoring and evaluation of the operation of the whole LMD system