Introductory Guide to Expert Leadership Development Solutions

Work and workplaces are changing, and it’s happening fast. We’re all experiencing it—remote, flexible, hybrid work practices; cloud-driven digital transformation; AI; big data for informing decision-making in new ways across entire organizations and industries. To call this change ‘monumental’ would be an understatement. 

And there’s something else to note: the rate of change is not going to change.  

Accordingly, the suite of attributes required from today’s business leaders is strikingly different to those of years gone by. As well as demonstrating an ability to identify and maximize opportunities for growth alongside sound business acumen and judgement, employees, shareholders, and stakeholders expect this next generation of leaders to be adaptable, resilient, empathic, and attuned to the needs of a diverse, and more inclusive, workforce.   

The new world of work—and the culture that supports it to thrive and drive organizational growth—demands new ways of thinking about what leadership means. Not only this, a growing body of data-informed evidence is leading us to challenge the existing ways in which leadership talent is identified, nurtured, and advanced. 

Adapting to change is the name of the game, and what elevates certain organizations above the rest is their leadership. And great leadership comes from exceptional leadership development.  

The Focus on Leadership Development 

Leadership development is as much about getting the best out of your current leadership as it is about identifying and developing the leaders of the future within your organization.  

Whether it’s change brought about by technology upgrades, a restructure of your business, or focusing on your sustainability commitments, effective leadership development is about crafting leaders with the attributes to successfully lead your organization through change. It’s about ensuring you have the leadership pipeline necessary for your business to survive, evolve, and grow.   

How Do You Nurture Great Leaders? 

Organizations who understand leadership development are increasingly putting the focus on a more human-centered approach to their training. This better equips leaders with the skills and insights to guide their teams through change with empathy, compassion, and understanding. It creates leaders who can tackle complex challenges, energize, and engage the change-weary, and encourage the collective genius within organizations to flourish. It develops leaders at every level capable of creating a culture that embraces transformation and is ready to tackle a range of future challenges. 

The human-centered approach to leadership development is multi-faceted. One part of it focuses on creating practical and enjoyable ways of learning for CEOs and senior executives. This kind of technique helps leaders to identify and clarify their priorities at an individual, team, and organizational level. Additionally, a human-centered development encourages the type of trailblazing that’s needed to rise to the challenges of our world of work, and then apply what has been learned to drive strategic growth.  

Human-centric approaches to leadership development also feature programs that have huge benefits for new and mid-level managers—for nurturing the unique skillset needed in their roles, and linking assessment, development, and coaching together to provide a more meaningful learning experience, and potentially advance them up the leadership ladder.  

The Learning Is only Part of the Picture 

Identifying the people with the right skillset and mindset to succeed as leaders is an equally important part of leadership development. Understanding what your organization’s strategic goals are, and what’s needed to achieve them, is a fundamental element when putting together a leadership development program. Knowing where your business is currently sitting is also imperative.  

Creating a leadership development program that will help you bring all these parts of the picture together requires specialist know-how. A lot of businesses fall into the trap of thinking they can save money by developing their leaders in-house, but it’s constantly being shown that partnering with organizations who specialize in talent identification and development deliver better results.  

What Should a Good Leadership Development Solution Partner Do? 

A good leadership development partner should give your organization’s leaders and managers the insights and skills they need to achieve the goals that matter to your business. Part of that involves your leadership partner having a crystal-clear understanding of the outcomes that matter most to you and knowing the kind of talent that’s required to realize your business strategy. There’s no reward in cutting corners. 
 
The Korn Ferry Leadership Development Handbook outlines what you need know when sourcing an external leadership development specialist, so you get the maximum impact for your organization. The guide also offers insights to help you and your business understand how close you are to having a leadership team that can deliver the success you want. Similarly, it looks at what you need to weigh up when making a partnering decision to get your leadership where you want to go and provides a deep dive into how Korn Ferry’s methodology works. 

Leadership development is fundamental to the success of any organization. The consequences of partnering with someone who understands how to put meaningful and effective leadership development into place cannot be overstated.

Download our handbook to discover the Korn Ferry approach to leadership development.