Four Ways to Improve Your Global Leadership Development Program

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November 11, 2013
November 11, 2013
global leadership development report 2013

Last month we released a new research report on emerging trends in global leadership development, Next Practices for Global-Minded Organizations (non-members: download a free summary version here). The popular report reveals four next practices of global leadership development, tactics and strategies that have high correlation with market performance or global leadership development effectiveness but are being used by a minority of companies.

Based on those next practices, here are four ways to improve global leadership development in your organization:

1. Define leaders by their influencing role, rather than position

Seventy percent of companies with effective global leadership development programs use a more inclusive definition of a leader, which in turn, improves market performance. Look beyond people designated as leaders and include others who have proven to be influential in the organization, even if their job titles suggest otherwise.

2. Open global leadership development programs to self-selection

Extending leadership development programs to any manager who wants to participate helps uncover more passionate leaders who understand where the business is going and want to help drive those goals. High-performance organizations are more than 2x as likely than low-performing organizations to use this practice, which is correlated to global leadership development effectiveness.

3. Use strategic workforce planning to guide global leadership development efforts

Organizations that identify competency gaps through strategic workforce planning and use that knowledge to drive the content of their global leadership development processes have more effective programs.

4. Measure global leadership development effectiveness using employee engagement metrics

Rather than rely on participant satisfaction surveys, use engagement scores of the direct reports to measure the success of a manager's involvement in a global leadership development program.

This combination of tactical and strategic practices can elevate organizations’ global leadership development efforts to greater returns in global leadership development effectiveness as well as market performance.

i4cp members may download the full report.

Erik Samdahl

As vice president of marketing at i4cp, Erik is currently responsible for all marketing efforts for the company and works alongside several departments to execute organizational initiatives. He also oversees web development projects. Located in Seattle, WA, he brings over 15 years of Internet marketing experience, most of which are in the research industry.

Prior to i4cp, Erik worked as Internet Marketing Director at market research panel company GMI, where he was responsible for global online marketing and panel growth in several countries. He also managed the graphic design team and worked extensively with other departments on process improvements and plan development. GMI experienced exceptional revenue growth - several hundred percent - during his tenure. Prior to GMI, Erik founded FilmJabber.com, a movie review and information website that continues to grow in popularity and traffic.

Erik received a B.A. in Business Administration with a concentration in Management Information Systems from Western Washington University.