The Impact of Starting Leadership Development Earlier: Easier Recruiting, Better Retention, and...

© 2016 Zenger Folkman

The Impact of Starting Leadership Development Earlier:

Easier Recruiting, Better Retention, and Higher Performance

Dr. Jack ZengerChief Executive Officer

Zenger Folkman

2

©2015 QUALTRICS LLC.

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Housekeeping

Dr. Jack ZengerChief Executive Officer

Jack Zenger, D.B.A., is a world-renowned behavioral scientist, bestselling author, consultant, and a national columnist for Forbes and Harvard Business Review. With more than five decades of experience in leadership development, he is recognized as a world expert in the field of people development and organizational behavior. His ability to connect with Executives and audiences though compelling research and inspiring stories make him an influential and highly sought-after consultant and speaker.For more go to: http://zengerfolkman.com/jack/



A Client’s Retrospective View

Q: You have had great success in your development of leaders. Your leaders have improved at a statistically significant level on all the competencies we measure. What would you do differently, if you were doing all this again?

A: We would begin earlier in the leader’s career.


The Urgent Need of Leadership

• 60 percent of companies are facing leadership shortages that impede their performance.

• 31 percent say developing leaders is their largest talent issue (Deloitte).

• 10,000 baby boomers retire every day.• Recruiting and retention becoming a serious challenge.


What Helps Recruit and Retain Leaders?


How Might This Be Solved?

Solution• Emphasize leadership development as a core

component of firm’s value proposition.• Accelerate the development process.


Potential Groups

1. Supervisors and

Team Leads

2. Individual Contributors


Young Supervisors


Average Age at Different Levels

Supervisors

Managers

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45


When do managers first receive leadership training?On average, at age 42—about 10 years after they began supervising people.

At What Age Do We Start Developing Leaders Now?

25 & Under

26-30 31-35 36-40 41-45 46-50 51-55 56-60 60 & Over

Age

Source Zenger Folkman Training Database HBR.ORG

2.5%

7.8

13.6

18.519.0

15.9

13.1

6.7

2.9


When Do We Start Developing Leaders?

• The average supervisor would typically wait 9 years before participating in anything but a basic development program.

• Most organizations are waiting until leaders move beyond the supervisory level before starting serious development.


• Set expectations—everyone will progress.

• Take development plans seriously.

• Everyone is involved in everyone’s development.

1. Challenge: Create a Culture That Values Development


• Powerful recruiting tool.• Strong force for retention.• Improves leaders’ performance.

2. Start Leadership Development Earlier


• Every employee has the right to work with an excellent boss.

• Learning by trial and error leads to unnecessary mistakes.

• We rely heavily on prior role models a leader has had.

• Graduates from the even the best universities have seldom had leadership development.

3. Fewer Painful Mistakes are Made


• Noticeable difference in those who learn a skill at a young age versus an older age.

• Instruction followed by deliberate, correct practice creates elevated levels of skill.

4. Good Habits are Acquired Early


We have compelling data proving a strong relationship between leadership skills and:• Employee engagement• Employee retention• Customer satisfaction• Improved productivity• Greater innovationBeginning a decade earlier means the organization benefits from a longer period of stronger leadership.

5. Organizations Perform Better


• At the current time, we practice a ”sink or swim” approach.

• How many leaders who failed could have been saved with “early-on” development that gave them the basics for leading effectively?

6. Fewer Failures


What Needs to Change?

Continue to emphasize promotions from within.• Evidence shows that promotions from within

work better.• Identify early those with leadership potential.• Provide more formal and informal development

opportunities at a younger age.


Focus More Attention on Younger Staff

Classic breakdown of generational groups:1. Traditionalists Born from 1930 to 19452. Baby Boomers Born from 1946 to 19653. Gen X Born from 1966 to 19814. Gen Y (Millennials) Born from 1982 to 2000

• Today we are devoting roughly 88 percent of our development effort to Gen X and older.

• Only 12 percent to Gen Y.


Individual Contributors


Are they leaders? Do they influence others?Is “Individual Contributor

Leader” an oxymoron?

Forgotten Leaders Analyst

Senior Accountant

Engineer

Chemist

Senior Scientist


How Important are Individual Contributors?

• Accomplish the lion’s share of work.• Provide vital leadership.• Pool for future leaders.• Leadership occurs at all levels.


Charles A. O’Reilly of Stanford University, “Competitive advantage comes not from

attracting unusual talent, but from utilizing the people already there.”

Organizational Success Depends on Them

Peter Drucker observed: “The most effective organizations are those that enable ordinary people to do extraordinary things.”


Results from 654 Individual Contributors—the greater the level

of competencies, the more productive they are.

Impact of Competencies on Productivity

1st - 9th

10th - 19th

20th - 29th

30th - 39th

40th - 49th

50th - 59th

60th - 69th

70th - 79th

80th - 89th

90th - 100th

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

0%5% 7% 8%

15%

30% 29%

49%

63%

81%

Managers’ overall ratings of individual contributors’ competencies

Percentage rated in the top 10% in

Productivity


How Can We Best Develop Leaders?

• Everyone expected to grow.• Multi-rater assessment & feedback.• Identify fatal flaws.• Focus on strengths.• Follow-up coaching.• Managerial involvement.• Using current position as the classroom.• Action learning projects.


Retention of Individual Contributors

• Extremely vulnerable if not cared for.• Loss can be extremely damaging.• Everyone’s work needs meaning, purpose, and

opportunity for mastery.• Need to be treated with respect and dignity.• Development programs can have a substantial

positive impact.


Conclusions About Early Development

• Huge leg up in recruiting.• Moves people from having only a job, to having

a career.• Greater skills increase individual and

organizational productivity.• Development elevates retention.


Thank YouContact us at [email protected]

orwww.zengerfolkman.com

Better Leaders.Better Results.Our strengths-based leadership development programs are built with research gathered on more that 85,000 global leaders suing over a million 360-degree assessments. These finding are delivered through our unique cross-training approach that is proven to increase leadership effectiveness.

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