Promotions give employees the opportunity to be leaders, but they don’t
make them into leaders.
“Someone can be given a leader’s title,
but effective leadership is much more than
a title or a position,” says Dr. Paul Otte, executive director of the Franklin University
Leadership Center and president of Franklin University. “It’s an ongoing process that
requires leadership development.”
Effective leadership at all levels is incredibly valuable because it maximizes the
potential of every person in the organization. Just like financial analysts make great
efforts to increase the return on monetary
assets, skilled leaders work diligently to
leverage the full potential of their organizations’ most important assets — their people.
Smart Business discussed with Otte the
importance of leadership development
within an organization.
Why should companies invest in leadership
education?
Should you entrust your most important
asset, your employees, to someone who
isn’t prepared to lead them? Think about
other individuals who have responsibility
for people: police, fire, military, school bus
drivers, pilots. There is a public outcry if
these people fail in their responsibilities.
People in each of these positions are
required to participate in ongoing development.
Shouldn’t the same be true for leadership?
Our organizations have an obligation, and
an incentive, to assure that those who lead
are prepared for their responsibilities. Lives
may not be lost, but if leadership fails,
careers can be destroyed or never fulfilled,
and companies can incur significant losses
that are tangible — such as financial — and
intangible — such as employee morale.
How can leadership development have a significant return on investment (ROI) for an
organization?
Leadership development can produce a
measurable ROI when organizations shift
their focus from just having employees
attend leadership events to creating leadership development programs. That means
changing the emphasis from merely receiving information to applying the information. If an organization simply sends people
to leadership events or puts on events
themselves without emphasizing how to
apply the information, the return can be
minimal. The key is to have a plan that will
yield the maximum results.
How can businesses create or refine their
leadership development programs to be
more effective?
Like anything else, it requires a commitment. It begins with identifying people who
have demonstrated leadership potential.
There’s something almost self-fulfilling in
telling people they have been selected for a
leadership development opportunity. Some
organizations are reluctant to identify their
potential leaders, but identifying people
builds commitment: from the organization
to the person and the person to the organization.
Then organizations need to decide how
much to commit. How many people are
they willing to develop, and how much time
are they willing to provide each of them?
One way is to decide what percentage of a person’s time they want to fill with leadership development. In a 2,000 work-hour
year, an employee with 1 percent of his or
her time spent on leadership development
would participate in a total of 20 hours. If
company decision-makers want to raise
the leadership development ‘bar’ for this
same group of individuals, they could
match the time to 2 percent, or 40 hours,
per year.
A basic leadership development program
(1 percent level) helps individuals understand how they can apply what they have
learned to leading people within their sphere
of influence. A matching program (2 percent
level) gives the organization the opportunity
to select topics that are based on their business needs. For example, an organization
going through rapid change will want to
include topics like: why people resist
change, overcoming fears, communicating
change, dealing with uncertainty or building
commitment at the conceptual level.
A great way to implement this approach is
through a leadership development program
at an educational institution that emphasizes leadership in its curriculum. For
instance, an employee could get a jump-start with an all-day leadership conference
and then participate in monthly leadership
seminars coupled with follow-up sessions
to help him or her apply the lessons.
What if someone cannot be identifed to
develop these additional programs?
Educational institutions that specialize in
leadership development have a variety of
activities and exercises developed to
address topics like the ones previously
mentioned. Franklin University has invested millions of dollars in creating a leadership development curriculum that businesses can tailor to fit their needs.
DR. PAUL OTTE is the president of Franklin University and
executive director of the Franklin University Leadership Center,
which serves as both a catalyst and a major resource dedicated to
raising the level of leadership in central Ohio. The Center serves
organizations in the four sectors of business, community, government and education. Leadership resources and information
can be found at www.leadership.franklin.edu or by calling (614)
947-6888.