Skip navigation
The State Of Leadership Development
Leadership IQ surveyed 21,008 employees to assess how well their leaders were performing in seven key leadership areas...
In this Leadership IQ study, we surveyed 21,008 employees to assess how well their leaders were performing in seven key leadership areas. And we discovered that the typical leadership development program has NOT adequately transferred the leadership skills that we need to navigate the most challenging economy in 100 years. A leadership development program must equip leaders to seek innovation, communicate transparently, align their vision, and constructively solve problems, and that has not happened. While these should be core elements of any leadership training, the average development program has not sufficiently addressed them. Among the key findings, we discovered...
- Only 29% of employees say their leader is always open to using ideas/practices from outside the company to improve performance.
- Only 16% say their leader always removes the roadblocks to their success.
- Only 20% say their leader always takes an active role in helping employees to grow and develop their full potential.
- • Only 29% say their leader's vision for the future always seems to be aligned with the organization's.
- Only 27% say their leader always encourages and recognizes suggestions for improvement.
- Only 26% say their leader always responds constructively when employees share their work problems.
- Only 20% say their leader always shares the challenges we're facing.
The data shows that the traditional leadership development program has left many leaders without the requisite leadership skill to manage these unprecedented times. If organizations want to survive the current chaos, their leadership development solution will need to address these seven issues.
Interestingly, the study results were consistent regardless of whether people were working remotely or in the office. So it's reasonable to assume that these challenges with leadership development training are not solely a function of having people suddenly working from home. Instead, these seem to be deeper issues with leader development. Also, these results were consistent across leadership role, so senior leaders faced these issues as much as a middle manager or future leader.
STUDY METHODOLOGY
Analyses of companies' leadership development typically ask OD, training, or HR leaders about the programs they've implemented. But that's a measure of the company's activities, not whether those activities have been successful. Instead, we surveyed 21,008 employees (the people directly impacted by a leadership development solution) to measure the success of leadership development. We selected seven leadership competencies (aka dimensions of leadership behavior) for this study based on how well they statistically predicted employee effort and inspiration. As you'll see in the regression lines below, each of these seven dimensions is highly predictive of employee performance. Leadership IQ surveyed 21,008 employees and leaders in the United States during the month of June, 2020. Respondents answered 49 questions on a sliding 7-point scale about a variety of leadership development and employee engagement topics. Respondents represented the following demographics. GENDER: Female (58%), Male (42%) -- COMPANY SIZE [EMPLOYEES]: 1-9 (3%), 10-50 (9%), 51-100 (11%), 101-500 (23%), 501-2,000 (17%), 2,001-5,000 (11%), 5,001-10,000 (8%), 10,000+ (18%) -- POSITION: Administrative/Support personnel (13%), Professional (47%), Manager (18%), Director (12%), Top Level Executive & Vice President (10%). The margin of error is plus or minus 2 percentage points.
video overview of the state of leadership development in 2020
Finding #1: More Leaders Need To Be Open To Using Ideas From Outside Their Organization
Seemingly every day, a new set of challenges emerges for leaders. Not even with strong leadership can a senior leader or manager hope to have all the answers ready-to-go, especially as the future becomes increasingly unpredictable. Great leaders seek solutions from both inside and outside their organization. However, it's clear from the data that the standard leadership development program has not sufficiently emphasized that point to senior leaders and managers.
A majority of employees feel that their leader is not open enough to using ideas or practices from outside the organization. And only 29% of employees say that their leader is always open to using ideas/practices from outside the company to improve performance. Why is this such a critical leadership ability? In addition to its obvious impact on innovation, it's also a key driver of employees' inspiration and effort.
As you can see in the below regression line, the more a leader is open to using ideas from outside the organization, the more an employee will be inspired to give their best effort at work. In essence, a leadership development initiative can actually improve an organization's capacity for innovation. And it should be noted that this is a key piece of transformational leadership.
Finding #2: Leaders Need To Do Better At Removing The Roadblocks To Their Employees’ Success
In the current turbulence, employees are encountering roadblocks like never before. Whether it's working from home, health anxieties, reduced staff, etc., every day brings new problems that require solving. Few things are more frustrating for employees than to feel like they're running in quicksand and that's why any leadership learning experience needs to convey how to handle these situations. But it's clear from the data that, thus far, leadership development efforts have not amply taught leaders how to remove those roadblocks to increase employees' effectiveness.
A majority of employees feel that their leader is not doing enough to remove the roadblocks to their success. And only 16% of employees say that their leader always removes the roadblocks to their success. By contrast, 26% of employees say that their leader never or rarely removes those roadblocks. While removing roadblocks and frustrations is one of a few key leadership competencies, it's also one of the most practical skills. It doesn't require deep training in emotional intelligence or leadership styles, it simply require a willingness to identify and eliminate employees' roadblocks.
Why is leadership development so important? Removing an employee's roadblocks is one of the fastest ways to increase both their engagement and their productivity, and also reduce burnout. It's also a key driver of employees' inspiration and effort. Sometimes roadblocks are inexorably tied to organizational structures or a leadership strategy, but many are simply a lack of resources, lack of mentoring, or inefficient processes in. a business unit. As you can see in the below regression line, the more a leader removes employees' roadblocks, the more an employee will be inspired to give their best effort at work.
Finding #3: Leaders Need To Take A More Active Role In Helping Employees To Grow And Develop Their Full Potential
As many companies focus primarily on short-term business success, it's not surprising that employees don't feel like their leaders are doing a great job of helping them grow and develop their full potential and achieve career goals. However, the research is clear that a key predictor of long-term business success is employee mentoring and development. The present study shows that the typical leadership development solution hasn't adequately instilled that thinking in their leaders.
A majority of employees feel that their leader is not taking an active role in helping them to grow and develop their full potential (which is key for employees achieving their career goals). Only 20% of employees say that their leader always takes an active role in helping them to grow and develop their full potential. By contrast, 29% of employees say that their leader never or rarely takes an active role in helping them grow. And this isn't just professional development or coaching, these leadership traits can manifest in activities as simple as daily mentoring or using emotional intelligence when an employee struggles with a task or lacks competency to perform certain types of work.
Why is this leadership skill so important? As you can see in the below regression line, the more a leader takes an active role in coaching and helping employees to grow and develop their full potential, the more an employee will be inspired to give their best effort at work. And previous research has found that when employees are learning new skills, they're far more likely to be engaged at work. The more that leaders can learn this skill, the more employee engagement they'll see. Ironically, executive education programs, for example, are predicated on delivering professional development and growth. Now it's time for internal faculty to emphasize this point in their own leadership excellence initiatives.
Finding #4: There’s Not Enough Alignment Between Leaders’ And The Organization’s Visions For The Future
In this current environment, companies are fundamentally rethinking their leadership strategy, visions, and core values. And one of the critical roles of a leadership program is to ensure that leaders at all levels are fully aligned with whatever the current strategy and core values happen to be. However, it's clear from the data that the standard leadership development strategy has not sufficiently aligned leaders' and the organization's visions.
A majority of employees feel that their leader's vision for the future is not aligned with the organization's. Only 29% of employees say that their leader's vision for the future seems to be aligned with the organization's. By contrast, 16% say their leader's vision for the future is never or rarely aligned with the organization's.
Why does leadership development need to address this issue? As you can see in the below regression line, the more a leader's vision for the future seems to be aligned with the organization's, the more an employee will be inspired to give their best effort at work. And imagine a leadership team with competing visions; the chances that they will successfully execute on a business strategy are incredibly small. And competing visions can tear apart even the strongest organizational culture.
Finding #5: More Leaders Need To Encourage And Recognize Suggestions For Improvement
Thriving amid this environment will require good suggestions for improvement from every single employee. This is clearly a case where the more good ideas a company has, the better their chances of success. However, it's clear from the data that initiatives for developing leaders have not sufficiently emphasized that point to executives and managers.
A majority of employees feel that their leader does not encourage and recognize suggestions for improvement. Only 27% of employees say that their leader always encourages and recognizes suggestions for improvement. One note here is that someone may have a leadership style that is less solicitous and democratic, however, even hard-charging and mildly autocratic leadership styles need to recognize the need for listening to suggestions for improvement. Executive coaching can help leaders grasp this point, but daily practice will also be required.
Why is this leadership capability so important? Encouraging and recognizing suggestions for improvement is a big driver of innovation, and it's also a key driver of employees' inspiration and effort. As you can see in the below regression line, the more a leader encourages and recognizes suggestions for improvement, the more an employee will be inspired to give their best effort at work.
Finding #6: Leaders Need To Respond More Constructively When Employees Share Their Problems
Employees are facing more problems than ever before. Whether it's learning how to work from home effectively, cope with pandemic-related procedures, etc., there's no shortage of problems for leaders to solve. And yet, if leaders don't respond constructively when employees share those problems, not only will the problems remain (or worsen), but trust can be shattered. Among the more powerful leadership qualities that someone can have are being able to respond constructively when presented with problems. And it's clear from the data that the classic leadership development strategy has not sufficiently emphasized this point. . Sadly, leadership program participants can leave a week of training and still not know how to respond constructively when faced with employee problems.
A majority of employees feel that their leader does not respond constructively when employees share their work problems. Only 26% of employees say that their leader always responds constructively when employees share their work problems. By contrast, 18% say their leader never or rarely responds constructively when employees share their work problems.
Why does a leadership training program need to work on this issue? Not only is this topic a key to actually solving an organization's problems and exhibiting emotional intelligence, it's also a key driver of employees' inspiration and effort. As you can see in the below regression line, the more a leader responds constructively when employees share their work problems, the more an employee will be inspired to give their best effort at work. And previous research has discovered that this issue is a key to building trust between leaders and employees.
Finding #7: More Leaders Need To Openly Share The Challenges They’re Facing
A key to being an effective leader in any crisis situation is open, honest and transparent communication. Ironically, the more followers clearly understand the challenges they're facing, the more apt they are to elevate their performance to meet those challenges. But when they're kept in the dark, anxiety and rumination can run wild. And it's clear from the data that leadership development has not sufficiently emphasized the need for transparent communication to executives and managers.
A majority of employees feel that their leader does not openly share the challenges we're facing. Only 20% of employees say that their leader always openly shares the challenges we're facing. By contrast, 21% of employees say that their leader never or rarely openly shares the challenges we're facing. Effective leadership on this competency requires more than just communication skills; it requires leadership qualities like transparency, candor, and confidence. And this is a competency that an emerging leader may particularly struggle with.
Why is this such a critical leadership skill? As you can see in the below regression line, the more a leader openly shares the challenges we're facing, the more an employee will be inspired to give their best effort at work. And related research has found that when an employee believes their company openly shares the challenges facing it, that employee is about 10 times more likely to recommend it as a great employer.
Why is leadership development important?
The short answer to "why is leadership development important" is that a majority of managers and executives lack the necessary leadership skill to inspire the best performance from their employees and teams.
For example, in the famous study, Why The CEO Gets Fired, Board members revealed that financial performance is NOT the major reason why CEOs get fired. In fact, on the list of the top 5 reasons why CEOs get fired, all five of the issues were softer types of leadership skills. Poor change management accounted for 31% of CEO terminations, 28% were let go for ignoring customers, 27% for tolerating low performers, 23% for denying reality, 22% for too much talk and not enough action. None of the CEOs in that study were fired for lacking financial or operational acumen; it was overwhelmingly a case of leadership.
When we see data like this, it begs the question, "how are leaders developed if these CEOs have great financial and operational skills, but lack the softer leadership skills?"
Developing leaders is a priority if you have this list
A lot of leaders get uncomfortable when faced with identifying and developing potential leaders (aka succession planning). It can be tough to admit, but fear of being rendered useless can make leaders territorial; they keep for themselves the best leadership opportunities that encourage growth on the job, secretly afraid to share and to let others shine. Or they claim they're so busy leading the organization's success that there's just no time to train anyone or create a succession plan.
As a general rule, if you don't have 2 or 3 succession planning candidates for most key leadership roles or management positions coming up, it's time to fix that. Start by applying these 4 categories of succession planning assessment to the people you lead. For best results, these metrics should be updated yearly:
Category 1: Ready Now:
These are the folks who are ready to move into a leadership position. They should be considered for the best positions and assignments coming available.
Category 2: Ready Soon:
With the help of some leadership development opportunities these folks will soon make the leap to "Ready Now."
Category 3: Keep Watching:
These folks need some nudging with leadership development experiences and mentoring.
Category 4: No Interest In Leadership:
Focus team member on growing and developing their skills without pushing them into leadership roles.
If you can identify candidates in each category, then developing leaders is a priority for you. If you don't have anyone in Category 1, then it's time to accelerate your leadership development efforts.
Leadership development is not working
As you saw in the charts at the beginning of this study, the data is very clear that leadership development is not working, at least in a great many organizations. If leadership development were working successfully, we wouldn't see results like:
- Only 16% say their leader always removes the roadblocks to their success.
- Only 20% say their leader always takes an active role in helping employees to grow and develop their full potential.
- Only 27% say their leader always encourages and recognizes suggestions for improvement.
- Only 26% say their leader always responds constructively when employees share their work problems.
If you're worried that leadership development is not working at your organization, there's a simple way to find out. Using the questions we listed above in the Leadership IQ study, survey a sample (or all) of your employees. Essentially, ask the people who most directly experience the work of your leaders (aka employees) how they think your leaders are performing. Questions for assessing leadership include:
- "My leader's vision for the future seems to be aligned with the organization's."
- "My leader is open to using ideas/practices from outside our company to improve performance."
- "My leader takes an active role in helping me to grow and develop my full potential."
- "When I share my work problems with my leader, they respond constructively."
- "My leader encourages and recognizes suggestions for improvement."
- "My leader removes the roadblocks to my success."
- "My leader openly shares the challenges we're facing."
What are the components of leadership development?
A great leadership development program will teach leaders how to accomplish both Transformational and Transactional leadership, because leader development in the real world will require using both aspects.
Transformational Leadership focuses on the psychological and intrinsic aspects and is about the relationships leaders build with their people. Transformational leadership fundamentally requires four categories of activity:
- Aspiration: Employees understand how the work they do makes a difference in people's lives.
- Inspiration: Employees are confident they can solve any problem or challenge.
- Stimulation: Employees are challenged to grow and achieve beyond their own expectations
- Idealization Employees are proud to be associated with the boss and feel pride to be part of the
By contrast, transactional leaders look at the actions employees take and react accordingly (for example, setting rules and expectations, tackling low performers and rewarding high performers). Transactional leadership fundamentally requires four categories of activity:
- Definition: Each employee knows exactly what actions he/she should undertake to fulfill organizational strategy and vision.
- Diagnosis: Each employee knows whether his/her performance is where it should be.
- Development: Deliver Constructive feedback to help employees improve performance.
- Reinforcement: Hold employees accountable for their performance with critical feedback and positive reinforcement.
The lasting impact of leadership development
For leadership development to have a lasting impact, efforts must be taken to keep learning and growth alive. This doesn't mean training the same leaders on the same skills over and over, but development of leadership does mean keeping leaders in a learning mode. One technique for doing this is to install a peer-to-peer leadership development program.
Leadership IQ's version of this program is called Leadership Grand Rounds, and it's a group leadership experience that brings together a group of 8 to 10 leaders, managers and executives for the purposes of peer-to-peer learning and support. More than the typical continuing education, participants have monthly meetings employing certain protocols in order to support a trusting environment so that tough managerial and professional growth issues can be safely explored. Each Grand Rounds Forum supports values such as group commitment and personal responsibility in order to foster each member's commitment to their group and their willingness to openly share their experiences so they can learn from each other.
Size: Each Grand Rounds Forum is roughly 5-10 people. Smaller groups often lack a breadth of experience while larger groups can become difficult to manage.
Purpose: The purpose of each Grand Rounds Forum is to helps its participants solve current and tough leadership challenges and provide peer-led leadership coaching. By learning from each other's experiences, leaders develop better practices for tackling tough issues. In addition, these forums become effective mechanisms for senior leaders to communicate new strategies to managers. Finally, these groups are terrific ways for new leaders to assimilate into the organization's culture and methods.
Frequency: Each Grand Rounds Forum meets once a month for 2-3 hours. It can be helpful for an HR professional or similar person to ensure that the group meets as scheduled.
Forming Groups: Grand Rounds Forums are typically created geographically, by groups can also be formed according to rank or division. It's often helpful to get some guidance from your HR professional on the best mix of leaders and/or potential leaders.
Protocols: Each Grand Rounds Forum elects a Moderator (or this role can be fulfilled by hr professionals). This role is responsible for keeping the group on track, initiating dispute resolution, and communicating with corporate leadership. Rank or title is not important; rather organizational skills and credibility within the group are critical. And for HR professionals, credibility is important.
Presentations: Groups will typically explore 1-3 managerial challenges per month. Issues are presented by individual group members, and then the Grand Rounds Forum uses a formal experience-sharing technique to problem solve the issue. One or two of the managerial challenges are typically selected the prior month, with one slot reserved for immediate problems facing a member. Each forum is taught how to present their managerial challenges to maximize the learning opportunity.
How is leadership developed?
Typically, leadership (and leadership potential) is developed through formal training and/or experience (or even a formal leadership academy). But there's a hybrid option that Leadership IQ calls a "Manager for a Day Program." As the name suggests, each leader in the company will choose up to five of their best employees, with an emphasis on the Category 1: Ready Now people from the previous section.
Getting the Manager for a Day Program rolling is easy. Once you identify your Ready Now employees, say to them, "One day a week I'm going to have each of you work with me. You're going to shadow me and start to take over some of the management activities that I might otherwise do." So if you have five really great high performers who have good leadership potential, you'll give Bob Monday, Sally Tuesday, Frank Wednesday, Jane Thursday, and so on. You'll say, "Okay, Bob, on Mondays you're going to work with me on ABC management activity. Sally, you're going to work with me on Tuesdays on XYZ management activity, et cetera."
The Manager for a Day Program accomplishes a couple of things. Number one, it gives these high performing employees in the Ready Now category ample opportunity to get a taste of what it's like to actually perform in a management role.
Leadership activities are often quite different than individual contributor activities. Organizations will often promote folks, assigning them to a multi-person team, when all they know is how to be an individual contributor. It's a set up for failure.
Manager for a Day helps to ease people with leadership potential into the job, providing a little sampling, a realistic preview that gives Ready Now level employees a flavor for the job. And you're going to find that once they get a taste for the job, not everybody actually wants to be a manager. Not everybody wants to take that next level up in the corporate hierarchy. And that's good information to have.
Having your best people working alongside you as Manager for a Day also helps alleviate that wonky feeling about succession planning that invites territorial behavior. It creates a safe space that allows leaders to become more comfortable with leadership competencies like delegating and empowering. If you just take succession planning in the abstract and try to deduce who could potentially fill your job, the natural human reaction is, "I'll tell you who could fill my job. Me! I fill my job. I don't want anyone else to fill my job." But when you start to involve your best people working alongside of the company's current great leaders, it makes managers and executives a lot more comfortable with this person as they start to see the role they can fill and how they work in that role. And when you have your 3, 4 or 5 best people helping you out, your job gets a lot easier as well!
What are the main methods used in leadership development?
A great leadership development program will blend a variety of teaching, learning, feedback and experience methods. Here are some of the methods we use at Leadership IQ:
Socratic Teaching
Imagine that you need to teach leaders how to manage narcissists on their team. In cases like this, participants will need to learn detailed and specific scripts, infused with psychology, linguistics, and more. And in the development of a leader, there is no substitute for an experienced teacher sharing the step-by-step flow of those scripts. However, we infuse our leadership and development trainings with Socratic questioning to engage audiences, keep them highly attentive, and ensure that each program participant is learning and absorbing the content.
Data Feedback
Employee engagement surveys, 360 degree feedback, pre-surveys, and leadership styles assessments can all be used to help leaders identify their blind spots and training needs.
Peer-To-Peer Learning
This is a group leadership experience that brings together a group of 8 to 10 leaders, managers and executives for the purposes of peer-to-peer learning and leadership coaching.
Group Discussion
Discussing difficult, complex and challenging leadership situations in a group setting not only helps leaders think through possible solutions, it also acclimates leaders to the collaborative that most leadership problems get solved. Group discussions can also be used to develop a leadership strategy, implement employee engagement results, and more.
Action Planning
At the end of every leadership development session, program participants should complete an Action Planning Worksheet to identify what specific steps they're going to take to implement the tools from this module.
One-on-One Role Play
Certain leadership skills, like conducting motivation conversations & stay interviews, do require some real-time practice to become comfortable with the techniques. In those cases, role playing exercises can be a helpful leadership training exercise for program participants.
Case Studies
Showcasing specific situations and asking leaders to think through various alternatives is often a useful exercise in leadership training.
Related Posts
- Leadership Styles Quiz: Which Of These Different Leadership Styles Do You Use?
- Communication Styles Quiz And Research: Which Of These Different Communication Styles Do You Use?
- Types Of Power Quiz: Do You Use Referent Power, Reward Power, Coercive Power, Legitimate Power, Expert Power or Information Power?
- Quiz: What Motivates You?
- Why New Hires Fail (The Landmark "Hiring For Attitude" Study Updated With New Data)
- Are SMART Goals Dumb?
- Employee Engagement Is Higher For Low Performers In 42% Of Companies
- Quiz: What's Your Organizational Culture?
