Companies Need More Leaders During a Recession - How to Develop Them Fast

Over 50 percent of employers are experiencing a leadership shortage so severe that it is negatively impacting their company's performance. Companies must simply do a better job of accelerating the development of leaders throughout their organization if they are going to survive and thrive during the current recession. Leadership development initiatives are one very important avenue for developing these needed resources quickly.
Having spent over 20 years as an executive coach in Silicon Valley, I have had the opportunity to participate in many leadership coaching programs. Some of these efforts became core to the company's success; others quickly died off or became programs without widespread support or participation.
Follow these ten recommendations to increase the likelihood that your leadership development initiative will produce the leaders you need quickly.
Make it relevant to the company culture. Launch an organizational survey and collect data to determine how leadership, coaching, and development are viewed at your company and what organizational obstacles may exist. Your overall design of the program should mirror the culture of the organization and take into account the survey data. Relevance is key to success.Develop a business case. Specifically outline why leadership development is needed, share information on the impact of leadership development activities, and clarify the metrics on how you will measure that impact. You need to have evidence that the effort is a good return on investment to get needed support
Focus on what is most important. Determine what competencies are critical to your business model and make them the foundation of what you do. Focus on what is really important and avoid buying a "one size fits all" model from a training vendor. Use the competency model to drive your efforts. This will insure consistency across the organization and the ability to leverage and align other training methodologies and content
Differentiate between Performance Counseling and Coaching. Don't make the mistake of unintentionally branding your new initiative as charm school for problem children. Performance coaching addresses problem behaviors or gaps in work performance. The program must be seen as a positive perk for managers, executives, and employees. If seen negatively, employees will avoid participating.
Run a pilot to work out the kinks before launching the initiative to a wider audience. Be selective about your initial participants to influence how it is viewed.
Don't overdo the launch. Launching the effort with a lot of fanfare can create backlash and saddle the program with unreasonable expectations.
Involve all levels of the company. Don't let the activity be seen as just another Human Resources strategy for the chosen few. Have a model that addresses different levels of leadership to address the needs of your various stakeholder groups. Have the leadership of the company participate in all aspects of the effort.
Ensure confidentially. Clearly articulate the privacy boundaries between the coaching resources, the company, and Human Resources. Everyone should know what they are getting into. Rigorously stick to the confidentiality guidelines.
Pick skilled coaches and get them aligned with your models and practices. Regularly review performance metrics and get ongoing feedback from participants about the effectiveness of the coaches.
Build your coaching bench strength by having those who have successfully completed the program become coaches to the rest of the organization.