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Top 8 leadership development measures for maximum effect
An expert survey shows which eight measures will dramatically increase your success rate in leadership development.
We can all agree that successful management and leadership development is not easy. In light of this, the American flagship business publication McKinsey Quarterly has asked what measures 510 executives across the world think are most effective in making the most of managerial development. The results show that in practice there are over 50 different measures that should be implemented to get the top effect of a management programme. But don’t worry, some measures are better than others – and their cumulative effect has even greater impact.
It seems that in order to increase the management development success rate to 80%, more than 40 measures have to be taken; to increase the success rate to 30%, you must carry out over 25 measures.
‘But what makes the choice of action simple is that there are a few measures that are much more important than all the others. These measures have a formidable multiplier effect.’
Top 8 measures with large multiplier effect:
- Focus on leadership behaviour that is most critical of performance
- Ensure that the management programme covers the whole organisation
- Ensure that the programme reaches all management levels
- Encourage individuals to practice new behaviours to become better leaders
- Review how to develop managerial skills
- Develop formal HR systems to enhance the leadership model
- Demonstrate best practices/role models for good management (e.g. coaching)
- Create projects that challenge participants; apply learning in new settings
Source: Feser, C., Nielsen, N. & Rennie, M. (2017) McKinsey Quarterly: What’s Missing In Leadership Development?
Eight steps in a list can make leadership development seem simple. But at Maze, we’ve seen that many businesses are struggling to get the full effect from their management programmes.
‘Good management should lead to something concrete and produce a measurable result in the form of an improved KPI.’
Given our experience, there were few surprises on McKinsey’s list. Focus on concrete behavior, including the entire organization, best practice and high levels of training are something which we know works – these measures are pivotal in the Maze method.
We base our business on what the best practice management is in relation to a chosen KPI- for example focussing on customers or employees or implementation of processes. It’s about specific management activities, which can be copied by all, and be measurable.
Using statistical methods we find which of many different activities actually give the greatest effect. We focus all the effort on those and follow-up over time with system support. The entire organisation is involved, and all levels of the organisation are part of the follow-up process; feedback on management is an important tool. As part of the follow-up, the manager will also practice, and rehearse, to become a better leader, through commitment and follow-up to his own leader.
System support ensures continuity, and is supported by our training options, training companions and gamification. And together with our customers we create a welcoming, workable social setting for good training.
‘We work hard to improve a chosen KPI, no matter which KPI and where in the value chain we are.’
