Divert your ‘Leadership Development’ dollar.
Leadership development is at least a 14 billion-dollar industry in US alone*. Unlike advertising spend, which, famously, is only 50%…
Leadership development is at least a 14 billion-dollar industry in US alone*. Unlike advertising spend, which, famously, is only 50% well-spent, money spent on leadership development has a poorer record of effectiveness.
After spending billions of dollars, companies continue to lament the lack of effective leaders. Yet, the spend on leadership development does not stop. It just increases. And, the vicious cycle just goes on.
Why is anyone not able to see through this charade of leadership development?
Because this charade works on the same principle and dynamic that drives the proliferation of the self-help industry. With the number of books and soul-dripping blogs written on self-help, one would expect, by now, for everyone to be a positive thinker, with razor-sharp focus, unrelenting determination, a great relationship builder and networker, all the while exercising every day, being mindful and minimizing the consumption of carbohydrates.
Do such people exist? Yes. But, it is a fraction of the number of people who read self-help literature.
The definition of a leader, axiomatically, is one who leads. Leading means doing something that has not been done before. Of course, inherent in doing something new is taking the relevant people with you to the new destination. The problem is that the billions of dollars poured into leadership development have been focused on building the capability of ‘taking the people with you’. That comes later. Leadership’s first requirement is the creation of a new idea, a new destination.
Creating a new idea, a new destination is central to the notion of leadership. Leadership development’s fatal flaw has been that it focuses on the act of mobilizing people and ignores the requirement of a new idea as the first and necessary condition of leadership.
Current efforts on leadership development are structured on the premise that you can lead someone to become a leader. That contradiction does not work. The entire super-structure of leadership development is built on this contradiction. Seems like, leadership development is an oxymoron.
A leader is born along with the birth of a new idea.
To create leaders, you first need to create a business that is a fertile ground for new ideas. Leaders, regardless of dollars spent on leadership development, will not germinate in the sands of an organization desert.
I recommend that you divert your ‘leadership development’ dollar either to building capabilities such as strategy, innovation and technology or let it fall straight to the bottom line.
*Leadership Development Factbook 2012: Benchmarks and Trends in US Leadership Development, Bersin by Deliotte, July 2012.
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