Executive Development Index predicts focus on leadership development
Apr, 2007
In our latest Executive Development Index, executive development will help organisations to win the "war for talent" and achieve cultural change and transformation.
Thirty-four organisations participated in our latest Executive Development Index, 30 ASX top 100 listed companies, and four public sector organisations. The Index provides a reading on trends in the executive development practices of Australian organisations.
The survey focused on development at the top levels of the organisation, development practices more generally throughout the organisation, as well as some current trends such as return on investment.
As might be expected, organisations are at different stages and phases in their executive development strategies. In some organisations, executive development has attained legitimacy at the most senior levels, and support and focus are provided, including the gearing up of internal learning and development teams. In other organisations, for reasons as varied as an organisation's lifecycle and lack of CEO interest, executive development has little support.
The findings show that executive development is increasingly being positioned at a strategic level within organisations. Some organisations are using executive development to achieve cultural change or organisational transformation. Their programs are more integrated into the organisational context, with projects and actual business opportunities being used more commonly as the vehicle for development, and programs increasingly designed and delivered internally.
The ‘war for talent' has increased the pressure on organisations to develop their senior staff, for succession and retention purposes. As the pressures and challenges at the top of organisations have increased, there has been a concomitant increase in the perceived need for their development. Executives ‘have made it' is no longer the prevailing view, and CEOs and Executive teams are becoming more engaged in development.
Executive teams are deeply engaged in succession processes, with workshops examining the successor pool being held on a regular basis, and development plans and progress for more senior managers being tracked at that level. Succession is the primary role for executive development.
Measurement remains a vexed issue for the executive development function within organisations. While many survey respondents identified the importance of a variety of measures, such as identifying the impact of development strategies, and return on investment, fewer had robust measures directly aligned to the activity in question. There seemed more hype than reality to measurement. In some organisations, it seemed that the CEO and/or executive team had identified executive development as having strategic priority for the organisation's future success and in those organisations measurement was not of particular importance; statements such as ‘it's a leap of faith' were common in those organisations.
Leadership was a standout response in relation to the focus of development for both the top cadre and throughout the organisation. Strategy development and execution were also common responses.
The biggest hurdle to development is time, indicating that, notwithstanding its increased prominence within organisations, executive development still has a way to go before it has attained legitimacy in senior executives' time use.
Gaining a qualification through program participation is not particularly important. Most organisations provide support to managers to pursue further qualifications on an individual basis and in accordance with an assistance policy.
For more information on the Executive Development Index, please contact Karen Morley, Executive Director, Melbourne Business School Centre for Leadership Development. Tel: +61 3 9215 1391 and email: k.morley@mbs.edu
