Borderless Leadership Development Survey 2016: Executives demand improvement in the development of leaders

Mobilk - A surprising 44% of executives characterize leadership

development in their organization as poor, and more than half describe it as ineffective,

according to the 2016 Leadership Development Survey conducted by Borderless

Research℠.

The survey captured insights from close to 1,000 senior executives across a range of

industries. The high rate of response and depth of feedback demonstrate that leadership

development is of high relevance and is considered a key enabler of business strategy

and growth.

Key findings

• Leadership Development is believed to be a main driver for ensuring delivery of

business results (43%) and business growth (20%).

• Nearly half of respondents (44%) characterize leadership development in their

organization as poor, and more than half (54%) describe it as ineffective.

• A large majority (nearly 60%) are dissatisfied with their organization’s investment in

leadership development activities, and more than 65% state that the level of their

organization’s investment in these activities has, in recent years, declined or

stagnated.

• 29% of respondents are not aware of their organization having any kind of

leadership coaching or mentoring program.

• A majority (56%) believe support from top management to be a critical success

factor for ensuring effective leadership development within organizations.

The Borderless perspective

The level of satisfaction with the effectiveness of and investment in leadership

development is low, suggesting that either too little effort is made by organizations to

establish leadership development programs or that what has been established fails to

meet the expectations of their executives.

“In prioritizing all of the elements that go into building a successful business, it would seem

that many corporate heads consider leadership development to be a low priority ‘nice

to have’ instead of a strategic imperative,” says Niels-Peter van Doorn, Head of

Leadership Consulting at Borderless.

While most argue that effective leadership is necessary to achieve positive business

results, the lack of focus on development suggests that leaders are expected to possess 

all essential leadership skills innately. This is reflected in corporate tendencies to “hire in”

senior executives instead of growing and advancing executives from within. “Overreliance

on external hiring can frustrate and demotivate teams, and could consequently

exacerbate internal organizational challenges,” Niels-Peter cautions.

To that end, Borderless offers the following six recommendations to establish robust

leadership development programs:

1. In building leadership programs, a balanced approach focusing on both

business acumen and soft skills and understanding the interrelationships

between these two elements, is required.

2. The active involvement of top executives in leadership development is

necessary, and accountability for it should be held by the CEO.

3. Organizations must accelerate the development of less experienced

executives to fill the emerging leadership gap, accentuated by ageing

executive populations in many ‘traditional’ industries.

4. Effective leadership development programs need to be grounded in real-life

challenges.

5. Job rotation, which has the added advantage of creating higher levels of

understanding and cooperation between functions, deserves higher priority if

organizations are to develop executives with broad-based general

management skills.

6. If leadership development drives profitability and growth, then active

engagement in leadership development should never be optional.