Critical leadership issue
Name
Instructor
Course
Date
Good leadership is a top human capital concern in many organizations. It is the number one talent issue organizations face today since it is an important aspect of organizations. The most critical leadership facing organizations in the second decade of the 21st century is leadership development. Leadership development involves the enhancement of the quality of leadership within the organization (Storey, 2004). High performance organizations have some processes in place to identify leadership development gaps. Such mechanisms in place are a clear indication that most organizations are struggling to make sure they grow their future leaders.
Finding and developing good leaders in an organization is termed as a top challenge for organizations. Organizations are struggling to come up with a solution, but the problem is only getting worse. Organizations face the challenge of developing leaders that have a high flexibility as well as a global fluency.
Organizations have to ensure that their leaders possess skills that enable them understand and also adapt to the technology that is rapidly changing. Today, leadership is taking a broader meaning compared to what it did previously. Organizations need to develop leaders in all levels by bringing in younger leaders into the organizations. There is also the need for development of leaders globally in order to make sure they remain relevant and engaged for a longer period (Amagoh, 2012).
The 21st century leadership is not the same as before as leaders are required to have global flexibility and fluency. They are also required to understand the new fields and disciplines that are coming up in the 21st century (Vries, 2011).
Leadership development is a challenge to many organizations as it ends up failing. Most organizations concentrate on training of their leaders instead of their development. Training is the number one reason why leadership development is not successful. In many occasions, training is termed as being productive but in the real sense it is not. In most organizations, training and development are considered to be synonymous which is not true. Training usually focuses on best practices but development emphasizes on next practices. Leadership development fails in organization as it is substituted with training (Amagoh, 2012). Organizations do not understand that these two are different and one can not substitute the other. They concentrate of training and assume it is a way of development and hence it fails. For leadership development to be effective there are specific aspects that organizations need to focus on to develop leaders. These aspects are development of global leaders locally, developing leaders at all levels and development of a succession mindset. If organizations want to realize growth in the global world, they need to develop global leaders.
Leadership development is the most critical issue than any other the management of an organization faces. First, there is an increased pace of changes in the economy, organizations treat leadership development as a survival tactic. Successful leadership development enables an organization to be able to survive in the changing business world. It also ensures that the organization is able to outperform its competitors with an increased revenue, profitability, market share and rising stock price (Vries, 2011).
Leadership development also provides a business opportunity for the organization in terms of sustained performance. It enables the organization to grow a culture of innovation, customer satisfaction, operational excellence and continuous improvement. Leadership development provides an effective and strong succession planning within the organization.
Globalization is on the rise in the world today hence there is need to develop global leaders at the local level. With leadership development, organizations are able to produce leaders who are competent in the local and global markets. These leaders are effective in the organization as they have a global mindset of working hence they are more productive. Effective leadership development provides an organization with leaders that mentor, coach and develop other leaders within the organization. It provides a constant and steady flow of leaders in the organization at all levels (Vries, 2011).
Leadership development is also important because it provides an opportunity for developing competencies of leaders. Most of the leadership aspects are behavioral and hence they can be developed. Leadership competencies are more than just a set of leadership skills. They are also opportunities and risks faced by a leader. Leaders in an organization need to develop competencies in order to be able to make appropriate decisions and solve problems (Amagoh, 2012). The market environment today places an importance of flexibility, speed and ability of leading in situations that are uncertain. The flattening of organizations has made leadership skills crucial at every level. Therefore, leadership development is important as it provides an opportunity for leaders to develop these required skills (Storey, 2004)
Without leadership development, an organization can not perform well. Leadership is all in the mind and hence good leaders have to be developed. Leadership development has to be conducted appropriately in order for it to be effective. Organizations have to bridge the leadership development gaps so that they can remain competent in the market. Leaders are an important part of any organization and hence there is need for constant leadership development so as to achieve the best results. Organizations carry out leadership development appropriately have a potential of realizing great success.
References
Amagoh, F. (2012). Leadership development and leadership effectiveness. Management Decision, 989-999.
Top of Form
Bottom of Form
Storey, J. (2004). Leadership in organizations current issues and key trends. London: Routledge.
Top of Form
Bottom of Form
Vries, M. (2011). Leadership development. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.
