SURVEYS & RESEARCH - Summary Of Research Findings

Leadership Development Survey

UK plc leaders lack the necessary coaching skills to positively impact the bottom lin London, 24 May 2004

Organisations need to ensure that their leaders have the required skills to lead their companies into the twenty first century. A major survey launched in London today reveals that while 58% of organisations use coaching as part of their future leaders development programme, over 50% of organisations rate their top leaders as weak at prioritising and spending time coaching and developing others.

Leaders were rated as under-performing or performing only moderately on five key leadership success dimensions. Most organisations cited issues relating to leadership, motivating and engaging people, and talent management as the significant challenge facing top leaders in the next five years.

Leaders in the 21st Century: Building a Leadership Pipeline, a survey carried out by Human Qualities, a firm of Business Psychologists working with blue-chip clients, surveyed senior HR and development directors in over fifty leading UK and international organisations.

Over half the organisations surveyed spent more than £6,000 per head on senior leader development, and over 60% allowed between six and twenty one days development time per leader. However, the feedback in relation to “common complaints about top leaders” confirmed that leadership development investments were not getting the desired results.

Kate Oliver, Partner at Human Qualities said: “In the War for Talent, time is running out for organisations that do not invest in coaching. Organisational growth and success depends on leaders fully leveraging the talent within their businesses. The single best way to achieve this is through embedding a culture of coaching throughout the organisation.”