Development of ‘quality leaders’ is biggest corporate challenge for 2014
Nearly a third of executives plan to increase their learning and development budgets this year, as developing leadership capability becomes the greatest business challenge for global companies.
Just 36 per cent of respondents to Henley Business School’s Corporate Learning Priorities survey said international competition would be the greatest challenge over the next three years, compared to 71 per cent who are concerned with overall leadership ability.
The results – from a survey of more than 350 executives, from 38 countries, 60 per cent of which were in HR roles – suggest that organisational priorities had shifted over the past year.
Forty eight per cent more respondents expect L&D budgets to be larger this year, compared to 2013, and the majority of this spend will go on individual and team coaching with 83 per cent and 55 per cent of executives planning to use these methods.
Retaining talent and maintaining employee engagement continues to top the list of management objectives for 2014, supporting the drive for growth and competitive advantage.
Perhaps the biggest shift shown in this year’s results is the focus on developing leadership as a whole. In 2013, 89 per cent of respondents said that ‘senior leaders’ were the group most likely to be included in corporate learning and executive education plans.
However, this differentiation has decreased this year. “The almost equal emphasis placed by organisations on the development of leadership capabilities for senior managers, middle managers and high potentials alike reflects our experience at Henley Business School that it is just not enough to produce outstanding individual leaders,” said Nick Holley, co-director, Henley Centre for HR Excellence.
Holley said that emphasis must be placed on developing the leadership capabilities of the whole organisation to get the best return on investment for shareholders. As well as utilising development tools, investment in research and development functions could “play its part in delivering outstanding organisational performance,” he added.
According to the survey results, investment in L&D is the key to accelerating growth of organisations emerging from the economic downturn, and this is true for both SMEs and the largest organisations, said professor Bernd Vogel, director Henley Centre of Engaging Leadership.
“Even when we looked at the organisations’ very senior people the message is ‘investment, investment, investment’ – in leadership development, in team development and in forward-thinking focus and executing strategy,” he said
“And with the concentration on management teams in particular, businesses have identified a new way of developing leadership capability – through collective effectiveness,” Vogel added.