Leadership Development Model Proposal

Introduction

A leader is a person who has been given a mantle via appointment, election or any other means to guide, support and lead a group of people with the aim of achieving a common goal and objective. Chemmers (1997) believes that leadership is both a practical and research skills encompassing the ability of an individual to lead, guide and pilot the affairs of an organization. He went to further to opine that leadership is having the attitude to support others to achieve a particular set goals and objective.

Leadership development is having the necessary training in other to be able to function effectively as a leader, Day (2000) views leadership development as the expansion of a person capacity in other to function effectively as a leader Most organization that has the ability to function in a large scale have invested so much in leadership development. Leadership development has a lot of merits as it helps to train knowledgeable leaders who have the passion to carry out the leadership trait and responsibility of a firm without fear or favor. It is every imperative to say that leader development is a subset of leadership development which has a broader perspective and views. It is based on this that (McCauley et al. 2010) opines that leadership development is defined as the expansion of a group’s capacity to produce direction, alignment, and commitment in contrast to leader development which is the expansion of a one’s ability to be effective in leadership roles and processes. For leadership development to e effective it needs to e built on laid down models which has to be followed effectively in other to achieve the organization goals and objectives. These models can be combined or used individually but the over all aim of the model is to achieve a laid down structure on which the leader can follow effectively

The various leadership models according to Robert Tomasko (2018) includes

1.  Intellectual construct-based
2. Learning-lab-based
3. Business issue-based
4. Strategy-based
5. Career stage-based
6. Leaders-developing-leaders
7. Pantheon of leaders

These various model have their own of shaping an organization depending on the organization one is trying to invest on. Let us narrow down to the organization I tend to invest on which is the production industry. The production industry is a very large and complicated industry that needs an experienced amount of leadership in other to carry the organization forward. For these to e effective the leadership model suitable and more productive to work with is the strategy based model. The strategy based model is based on the leader building his system of leadership on a laid down and systematic leadership style which the followers follow in other to achieve a desired result. The strategy based model uses a lot of consultancy to achieve his desired result, the leaders study their successes and failures, build on their success and develop modalities on how to minimize the failure rate in the organization.

Leadership Development Models

Many authors have several models they opined we going to look critically at the leadership development model as stated early, look at their objectives and their over all content. This models was worked on by Robert Tomasko (2002).They include

1. Intellectual construct-based:

This model is based on a set of concepts of leaders needs to know before embarking on leadership position. The contents include

• Strategic thinking and planning
• Target setting
• Performance measurement and control
• Organizing the work of others
• Systems thinking
• Change management
• Emotional intelligence (self mastery and relationship skills)
• Decision making and problem solving
• Negotiation
• Motivating others
• Presentation techniques
• Time management
• Cross-cultural sensitivity and communication
• Effective meeting leadership
• Influenced by a theory of leadership
• Managers vs. leaders
• Transactional vs. transformational leaders
• Situational/contingency
• Personality psychology topologies
• Company-specific norms

This form of model is best practiced by employees which have limited amount of time but wants to make impact within a short distance

 2. Learning-lab-based:

This is best for leaders in who situations have a controlled setting. The contents entails

• · Simulations of business leadership situations in a controlled setting
• · Allow for experimentation with new behaviors
• · Put participants in touch with personal passions and power
• · Feedback-rich opportunities for awareness and reflection
• · Team-oriented

3. Business issue-based:

This is best for leaders who has the tenacity to constructs programs to deliver a specific benefit. The content include

•  * Leading corporate renewal
• * Orchestrating winning performance
• * Mobilizing people
• * Managing the innovation process: from idea and technology to market
• * Accelerating international growth

 4. Strategy-based:

• The strategy is based on strategic planning in order to achieve the company specific task. The content includes
•  Grow in consulting – study consulting skills
• Broaden employee gene pool – study how to create a multicultural work force
• Grow in Europe – study European cultures and business practices
• Grow through acquisition and partnership – study successes and failures in alliance-creation and acquisition-assimilation
• Grow by doing more of the same – study best-of-the-best practices now in place/spread them

5. Career stage-based:

This leadership skill is stage specific and the content include

• * Movement from stage-to-stage requires acquisition of some new skills and unlearning of some old ones
• * Manage self to manage others
• * Manage others to managing managers
• * Managing managers to managing a function
• * Managing a function to managing a business
• * Managing a business to managing a group of businesses
• * Managing a group to managing an enterprise

6. ‘Leaders-developing-leaders’:

The contents include

• Must be learned holistically, not by analysis of components
• Must not confuse concepts about leadership with leadership
• Don’t struggle to define and analyze leadership
• Instead, consider it something that is present and must be encouraged in the future
•  Community service and social development components
• Consideration of how business leaders can also have a strong family life
• Discussions of the ethical dilemmas involved in making tough business decisions

7. Pantheon of leaders:

The content include

• The nature of effective leadership will vary with the situation
• Learning only by role modeling current leaders produces clones
• Leader’s mistakes can teach as much as their successes
• Content of these programs goes beyond reflection by current leaders
• Designate a pantheon of leaders whose actions will be studied, individuals within the company and in other industries, as well as a range of political, social and historical personalities.
• Adjust the characters in the pantheon regularly, as the business’ challenges change.

Basic Element Of Leadership Development

It is very important to train leaders, a well trained leader will increase the productivity of an organization, increase employee engagement and also create a clear leadership format other followers can follow.

Tess Taylor (2017) opined that the various elements of leadership training a leader needs to undergo in order to have the basic elements of leadership includes

• Small, focused and supportive leadership groups

When a company decides to start a leadership development program, it’s better to start small. Create a core group of those who are already in leadership roles, limited to 12, and this forms the foundation of the program. A small group can be more effective because each individual has added attention and time to work on his or her skills. The small group also allows for greater support and connection among members.

• Instructors with years of experience leading

The best leadership development programs include a strong central leader and a secondary leader, who share years of experience and have effective instruction skills. Look to leaders in the industry who possess this experience and skill working with people. Peter Drucker once said, “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right thing.’ Make sure instructors are training leaders to lead others, not teaching basic management skills.

• Multiple methods of learning leadership concepts

Every person in the leadership training program will come with different ways of learning new concepts, absorbing and sharing information, and seeing the world. Create a multi-media training program that brings in the best of all forms of learning, from written materials to in-person conference participation. Make leadership training fun and something that all participants can get excited about.

• Clear goals and milestones for all leader participants

Each person who is learning in the leadership development program should have sat down with a mentor to decide on short and long term goals. So too, there should be a way to measure successes, with regular milestones. According to Christopher Pappas, founder of the eLearning Network, adult learners, “generally prefer practical knowledge that will improve their skills, facilitate their work and boost their confidence.” Use this as a way to measure success.

Methods for identifying future leaders

A sustainable leadership development program will always be looking to the development of future leaders once the core group has attained their goals. In this video, published by Harvard Business, Claudio Fernandez-Araoz, Senior Adviser, Egon Zehnder International provides several tips for identifying future leaders to bring into the fold. He calls them ‘high potential employees’.

Once leaders have gone through the training program, they should receive ongoing support and meet with their small groups on a monthly basis. When a company invests so much into developing leaders, they will be able to transfer these traits to their jobs immediately, but they still need guidance and support to succeed. Retention of leaders is good for business.

Based on the above training Richard Hilton (2018) gave the basic leadership elements as follows

• 1. Investment in Development

You cannot be a good leader without proper investment in development

While it may seem like a fairly obvious point, successful leadership development requires financial investment. In fact, the 2017 CSO Insights Sales Manager Enablement Report reveals that companies need to make an annual investment of around $5,000 per person to raise win rates and quota attainment significantly above average.

Despite this, the same study found that 18.6 percent of businesses provide no training for sales managers whatsoever, compared to just 5.5 percent of businesses that offer no training for frontline sales staff. As with any employee development strategy, organisations looking to develop leadership prospects must be willing to spend.

• 2. Putting Learning Into Practice

When a leader stops learning, he starts fading. It is very important a leader inputs learning into practice, in other to have a successful leadership programme

Another of the most important elements of a successful leadership development programme is the provision of opportunities to put newly learned skills and information into practical use quickly and regularly. Without adequate reinforcement activity, studies show that 87 percent of new information is lost within 30 days. Putting information into practice helps to increase retention, boost confidence and replace unwanted habits.

According to research carried out by McKinsey, organisations that have successful leadership development programmes in place are between four and five times more likely to require those in development to actually apply learned information over an extended period of time and put it into practice over the course of the working day.

• 3. Role Models to Study

There is no way a leader can function effectively without having a mentor to look up to

In order to develop some of the behaviours that are most likely to lead to success within leadership positions, candidates need to have role models to study and learn from. In fact, the aforementioned McKinsey research found that successful leadership programmes were around six times more likely to involve senior leaders serving as mentors or coaches, assisting both directly and indirectly with the development process.

One-to-one coaching sessions can help by providing mentors with the opportunity to assess performance and work with candidates to establish clear, measurable goals, specific to them. By exhibiting desired leadership behaviours themselves, these coaches and mentors can also provide an example for those in development to aspire towards.

• 4. Continued Learning and Development

The next key element that is included within all truly great leadership development programmes is the scope for continued learning and development. Programmes should not simply be delivered when development is desirable, with a clear start and end point. Instead, they should be designed so there is constant scope for learning and so that candidates also have paths for further progression into other roles within the organisation in the future.

“Define plans to sustain the impact of investments in staff development over time,” says Harry Dunklin, a Partner in the Sales Consulting Practice at Miller Heiman Group, writing for the company’s blog. “Build review and practice into all your development programmes. Develop plans and paths for progression and transition.”

• 5. Effective Use of Technology

Finally, one of the most essential aspects of a modern leadership development programme is the use of technology to support employee development efforts. This technology may include CRM software, communications technology and various other tools for tracking and monitoring actual performance against goals or targets.

In particular, technology has the potential to assist in analysing performance data, and allowing senior leaders to deliver just-in-time training and coaching solutions. A significant benefit of this is the ability to identify problems quickly, before they become bigger issues. It also allows senior leaders to deliver feedback in a timely fashion, when it is most relevant to the learner and at the point when it is most likely to be taken on board and acted upon.

Required Elements of Effective Development Programs

The required elements for development programs that needs to be considered would be discussed under the following headings

1. Assessment: After a development programme is carried out, it is very imperative that assessment is carried out in other to ascertain if the leaders that attended actually have a good knowledge of the developmental programme organized
2. Awareness: The leaders have to be aware of the various development programs and also relate or communicate it to their followers
3. Rich experiences: After the development process it should create a rich experience
4. Opportunity to practice: Also there should be an opportunity to practice, this will go a long way in making sure that what was learnt is actually assimilated by the students
5. Feedback and follow-up: There should be proper feed back system and the leaders should also do a follow up to their subordinates
6. Support from the organization: There should be enough support from the organization in other to enable the leader have the capacity to carry out his task effectively.

Methods Of Leaders Development

For there to be effective leadership there must be laid down methods on how the leader must follow.

Wright (2015) worked on top five leadership development method linking it to business, she opined that few people are born leaders. In most cases, leadership skills and qualities are developed through hard work and persistence, but there’s no point putting in all that effort if you’re not must utilizing the most effective learning and development methods. The various ways according to Wright (2005) of developing leaders include the following

1. Workplace developmental assignments

As a new generation of leaders prepares to take their places as managers, more time and effort is being directed at training leaders, mentors and managers within organizations, from global corporations to local businesses.

One of the most effective methods for developing leadership potential within any sized organization is by giving aspiring managers on-the-job assignments that allow them to experience key challenges they will continue to face as professionals.

Those who are ready to step up and lead will adapt their skills to various situations throughout the assignment, showing they can put two key leadership qualities into practice – flexibility and initiative.

2. Formal Training Courses

Formal training courses are effective for disseminating knowledge and motivating groups of people, as well as providing individuals with the opportunity to receive a qualification or certificate upon completion. The information offered in a formal course should be up-to-date and relevant to the participant’s work challenges, so they have the chance to benefit in a professional capacity while contributing to their organization’s success.

3. Coaching from the current manager

There are few people who understand the unique challenges and needs within a professional setting more than the current managers. This insight makes them perfectly suited to coaching up-and-coming leaders.

According to the Institute of Leadership and Management, as many as 80% of organizations now use coaching as a training tool. The likelihood that coaching will be utilized increases with the number of individuals within an organization.

4. Coaching from external mentors and coaches

One of the greatest benefits of utilizing the resources of an external coach or mentor is that these professionals have been trained specifically to coach or mentor. It is one thing having the knowledge to share with others, but having the skill to share the information in the most beneficial way is an entirely different story.

Effective coaching is not about instructing or teaching – it is about guiding, questioning and facilitating the learning process. It is a skill that needs to be learned, just like leadership itself.

5. Mentoring from other internal sources (not their direct manager)

Coaching from a direct manager is a common way organizations develop their people. However, a company can increase the sharing of knowledge and experience further by allowing other mentors from within the organization to provide input.

The mentoring relationship requires a sensitive power balance and, according to Forbes, it should be mentee-driven, with the mentee becoming the driving force in terms of the direction and focus of the relationship.

Development and Culture

In leadership there is no way culture can be separated from it, Culture as normally expressed is the way of people see it or behave or in a nut shell one can opine that culture is the way of people’s life. For leaders to properly develop in their methodology of leading , one must consider the culture and race of the leader and use it as a platform towards training the leader.

Summary And Conclusion

There are many reasons for using a valid feedback instrument as part of this Leadership Development Model and Process, despite the pitfalls. Feedback from such an instrument provides people with formal assessment data from multiple perspectives and enables them to set developmental goals. Given an organizational context that supports efforts to work toward those goals, the outcomes include improvement of leadership capabilities in the organization as well as increased leadership bench strength. Leadership development is seen by the researcher as a process requiring both a variety of developmental experiences as well as the ability to learn from experience. The latter is the inherent element that the individual brings to the development process. The Holistic Model and Process for Leadership Development discussed in this article, follows a systems approach and is based on the Social Learning Theory and High Performance Leadership Competencies underpinned by a learning organization philosophy as described in write-up.

References

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