Train Dogs, Develop Leaders

Organizations need a leadership pipeline where leaders use and develop their judgment to a point where it becomes wisdom. This author uses 25 years of teaching experience to conclude that leaders can be developed within a company. The challenge for human resource development is to accelerate the development of high-quality leadership in organizations, increase the yield of mature leaders from a pool of high potentials, and create a pipeline of management talent that delivers leaders where and when they are needed. Organizations should involve the expertise of senior executives in the recruitment process and hire talented individuals. These individuals should be channeled into the “right” experiences that encourage individual development. Learning should be combined with doing so practical skills are gained and development must be integrated with personal career management and organizational development. People in development programs must be monitored for dedication levels and high-potentials should be given frequent performance reviews and constant reassurance that they are high-potentials. The article also examines the extensive role of human resource development in development. The best organizations centralize ownership of high-potential leaders rather than delegating responsibility to individual departments. Human Recourses should ensure that leadership development is connected to broader organizational strategy, integrate critical HR systems around the leadership development challenge, manage the leadership development process, advice and consult on individual career plans , brief management on developments in leadership thinking, seek and evaluate outside leadership development resources and benchmark leadership development practices against high-performing organizations.