Filling the Leadership Pipeline

While 77 percent of major American companies said they had a leadership development process, less than a third of them believed it was effective, according to consulting firm Hewitt Associates cited in Sunday's New York Times.

"There's an underwhelming level of investment in developing great leaders," proclaims Marc Effron of Hewitt. Senior executives, he charges, are "more concerned with building a legacy based on their own actions versus a pipeline of leaders."

Building leaders is an intentional activity, and the responsibility of every leader. It is the result of a long-term, day in and day out, cumulative process.

Developing the leadership of your associates means giving people opportunities through special assignments, increasing levels of responsibility, and can be as simple as occasionally asking growth-stimulating questions such as, "What do you think are the key issues in this matter?," or, "How would you handle this situation?," or, "What would you recommend I do about this?"

It's always a good time to provide your associates with growth opportunities. If you don't have a deep bench of leadership talent, now is the time to start developing one. The more capable the people around you to assume your responsibilities, the freer you are to progress yourself.

Lead Well® helps organizations to improve measurable results by developing their current and future leaders. For more information, please contact us. By phone, toll-free in the USA: 1-888-LeadWell (532-3935), or 1-609-716-9490. By email, Info@LeadWell.com.

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Don Blohowiak, a management consultant and popular conference speaker, is the author of several business books. The executive director of the Lead Well® Institute in Princeton, NJ, he may be reached at http://www.LeadWell.com/.

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