What is leadership development?

It is generally accepted that enhancing leadership capability is central to improved management, investment, productivity, delivery and quality across both the public and private sectors. An effective approach to leadership development involves processes and opportunities that guide potential leaders to learn and apply the skills they need it to deliver the corporate vision and mission as well as organisational values and strategies.

But leadership development is not a static set of methodologies that are simply applied and result in people achieving mastery in one easy step. To stay competitive, businesses need to be flexible and innovative in developing their leaders. ‘Change’ these days is the new ‘normal’ and organisations recognise the need to take a holistic view of how they develop leaders and how they integrate learning opportunities (both formal and informal) with the organisation’s strategic imperatives.

Why should you invest in leadership development?

The imperative to enhance leadership capability arises from challenges facing business – such as changes in the external environment (eg, increased demand or increased competition), the changing nature of work (eg, more use of IT, less manual work), the need to ‘do more with less’ (eg, austerity measures), continuous restructuring, global challenges and so on.

Leadership development can help people to focus on their individual ability to get things done, that is, to accomplish tasks and be role models as leaders, but also to see their broader role in making the team and organisation more effective.

What if you don’t bother?

Sometimes to see that you need something, such as strong leadership, it is prudent to examine what happens when it is missing. There are many examples of companies going under because of poor management, inept or corrupt leaders, poor communication skills, or a bad atmosphere set in the company.