To drive strategic change, financial performance and operational excellence, leadership development has always been necessary. However, given the unrelenting pace of technological amendment and economic process in association with nursing anemic world economy, organizations currently would like leaders who can effectively respond to constantly evolving business opportunities and threats and plan a way to sustain growth.
Leadership development means teaching of leadership qualities together with communication and ability to encourage others, to a person who could or might not use the learned skills in a very leadership position.
Leadership development could be a systematic approach to increase the capability of people in leadership roles in an organization and like all approaches it is not achieved through one stage or step, rather through a journey.
There is no single best way to lead; there are wide types of leadership models. However, the systematic approach to leadership development has proved eminently for several firms operating towards a set of preferred outcomes through a broad series of approaches to attain leadership. Unlike alternative approaches, it takes under consideration the different expectations of leaders, moreover as distinctive structure practices to form a system that enables them (and the organization as a whole) to perform at peak potency.
Leadership roles facilitate execution of a company’s strategy through building arrangement, captivating mindshare and growing the capabilities of others. Leadership roles are also formal, with the corresponding authority to make selections and take responsibility, or they may be informal roles with little official authority.
Harry Truman described leadership as “the ability to get other people to do what they don’t want to do and like it.”
Leadership development is believed to be a key to business success. A study by the center for creative leadership holds that 65 % of the firms with mature leadership development programs drove improved business results as compared to 6 % of the firms without such a program. Similarly, eighty six of corporations with leadership development programs responded quickly to dynamic market conditions, whereas, solely fifty two of corporations with immature programs were ready to do so.
Different personal traits and characteristics facilitate or hinder a personality’s leadership effectiveness and need formalized programs for developing leadership competencies.
The success of leadership development efforts have been connected to 3 variables:
1. Individual learner characteristics
2. Quality and nature of the leadership development program
3. Support for behavioral modification from the leader’s supervisor.
Among key ideas in leadership development one could find:
• Experiential learning: Positioning the individual within the focus of the learning process, inquiring the four stages of experiential learning:
1. Concrete understanding.
2. Observation and reflection.
3. Developing abstract ideas.
4. Testing in new conditions.
• Self efficacy: The correct coaching and training ought to achieve ‘self efficacy’ in the trainee, as Albert Bandura formulated, an individual’s belief regarding his capabilities to produce effects.
• Visioning: Developing the power to formulate a transparent image of the aspired future of a company unit.
• Attitude: Attitude plays a significant role in being a leader.At a collective level, leadership also can be developed by strengthening the association or alignment between the efforts of individual leader and the systems through that they influence organizational operations. This led to a demarcation between leader development and leadership development.
Basically, the leadership development depends on the willingness and efforts of individuals (including followers) to become leaders. In addition to, it also needs to concentrate on the social linkages within the team.
To make leadership development program successful, organizations need to embed changes throughout the organization and should connect leadership strategy with business strategy. Organizations should orient these programs around current business and strategic issues to make them contextual and relevant.
