‘excellent’ capabilities and the organisations financial performance, while merely ‘good’ performance showed no correlation.
priorities. They have a structure, a timetable, a support system, and control points. The challenge most organisations face is that people get excited about ambitious new strategies and visions, but ask what’s going to happen next. This places pressure on management to show that the vision will lead to action, and that they are serious about implementing it, not just trying to be trendy. In this situation, a leadership development programme may serve to prove that things are changing. When implementing strategy, the timeline is important. It’s vital that the organisation gets moving in weeks, and achieves a concrete milestones within months. This may be as simple as announcing that a task force has been launched – another thing with which leadership programmess can help. Goals provide focus Leadership programmes are not only a great way to make people feel included, but also a way to channel the organisation’s energies in the right direction. But this only works if the programme is directly linked to the organisation’s ambitions – so the more concrete objectives organisation can present, the better. Effective goals are always measurable because it helps identify what must happen to achieve results. Leadership skills impact the bottom line As I’ve already stated, leadership development is proven to help organisations achieve their business development goals, but it also gives backing to the entire management team responsible for implementing the organisations strategy. Research carried out by Mckinsey & Company and Egon Zehnder in 2011 revealed that while talent is always important, only exceptional talent makes a real difference. According to the report, there was a high correlation between executives with
In appraising leadership development, we should move from measuring intellection and cognitive skills to evaluating the concrete actions taken and the results achieved. The real impact of a leadership development programme should manifest itself in improved business development performance. What does this mean for Business Schools? If more organisations adopt the idea that leadership development and business development go hand in hand, then they will start to rely on Business Schools more and more to provide them with the education to support this. Combining leadership and business development benefits both the organisation and the Business School. It benefits the organisation because, as I said earlier, leadership development and business development are two sides of the same coin. By using leadership programmes to develop the leaders within a business, you will help the business to succeed, because a good leader will implement vision and values, ensure effective communication, and motivate employees. It will benefit the Business School because more people will attend the School, but it also brings in a variety of different voices who have had experience in different industries. Working together with an organisation allows them to bring in real-world problems, discuss and come up with a solution – which will then benefit the individual when they face a similar problem in their job. By combining leadership and business development, you are truly enhancing their education.
PEKKA MATTILA is the Group Managing Director of Aalto University Executive Education and serves as a Professor of Practice at the Aalto University School of Business. He works frequently with European, Asian, African, and North American executive audiences on themes ranging from strategic management and agility, strategy co-creation, business model innovation, and executive leadership to top team dynamics, change management, organisational culture, and strategic marketing.
Leadership programmes are not only a great way to get people involved and make them feel included, but also to channel the organisation’s energies in the right direction
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