CorpU Weekly Digest: Leadership Development (2012-August-13)

Topics: Leadership

Here are this past week's headlines in leadership development: 

• (1) Senior leaders, employee motivation, and intent to stay: research from George Washington University identifies that employee motivation and retention are more influenced by supportive senior leaders than direct supervisors ;  
• (2) Executive development, CEO tenure, and the challenges of long-term value creation ; 
• (3) The seven deadly sins of innovation leadership and how to develop leaders to overcome them ; 
• Book: Judgment on the Front Line: How Smart Companies Win By Trusting Their People ; 
• Webinars ; and
• Conferences

 Amazon launches Amazon Career Choice Program, a new take on skills training and tuition reimbursement
The link between employee motivation and retention has been well established. New research, however, suggests changes for some of the topics and measurements within executive and senior leadership development. The research is the first peer-reviewed independent work to examine the relationship between two levels of leadership support — immediate supervisors and senior management — on follower motivation and intent to stay. This research is based on survey data from nearly 70,000 employees at 677 locations of a large U.S. company in the service industry, covering generations of workers ranging in age from 16 to 78. After a thorough literature review combined with the results of this survey, the researchers concluded that, although positively related, support from each level exerted an independent, positive influence on follower motivation and intent to stay, with senior management support showing greater impact. The discussion of the implications of this research in Booz & Co's Strategy + Business, titled, "The Far Reach of Supportive Senior Managers", offers some more on the same: "employees’ motivation and retention are more influenced by supportive executives in senior leadership positions than by a similar-minded immediate boss, confirming the trickle-down effects of visionary and compassionate leaders and the immense value of CEOs who have star power." The article and the research should be noted when thinking through leadership development topics and executive coaching efforts. Read the Booz & Co executive summary of the research, titled "The Far Reach of Supportive Senior Managers"

 Executive development, CEO tenure, and the challenges of long-term value creation  
The Conference Board's 2012 CEO Succession Practices study recently found that the average tenure of a departing CEO has declined from 10 years in 2000 to 8.4 years in 2011. Yes, shareholder scrutiny means that boards are more inclined to dismiss under-performing CEOs. Yet CEOs are also choosing to depart on their own terms — to leave the high-wire before they are shaken from it. This makes the act of building — be it a legacy, a new product, or a corporate structure — far more difficult than it once was. This shift impacts today's organizations and leaders in three particular ways: 

1. The "renovator" CEO, someone who can step in and make the repairs necessary for success and shareholder satisfaction, is replacing the "builder" CEO
2. When companies lose the building mindset, they also lose sight of the kind of leader that will best fit with company goals, strategy, and culture 
3. The shift in CEO criteria ultimately affects how leaders interact with management and other top team members. Interpersonal relationships have shifted dramatically in recent years as CEOs build a different kind of team, based on relationships that are far more transactional 

Read HBR blog "Why Many CEOs Can't Build Legacies Anymore"

 The seven deadly sins of innovation leadership and how to develop leaders to overcome them 
Developing leaders to drive innovation requires some understanding of what it takes to lead successful innovation implementation efforts. Prof Jeff DeGraff — author of Innovation You — offers seven typical errors made by leaders who drive innovation, and what can be done to overcome them. These issues, that Prof DeGraff connects with the Western medieval notion of the seven deadly sins, are a mixture of perception, conception, and execution flaws. The good news? Prof DeGraff offers some simple remediation for these issues in order to encourage innovation across the enterprise (see fig. 1).

Figure 1: The seven deadly sins of innovation leadership

Read Prof Jeff DeGraff’s article "The Seven Deadly Sins of Innovation Leaders"

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 The Business of Learning: New Major Products, Mergers, Acquisitions, and Partnerships

No major news in mergers, acquisitions, or product releases.

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 Books To Read

Front-line employees who deal directly with customers are the face of any organization. Not only do they have the most impact on how a brand is perceived, but they are also the most valuable source of insight into what customers want and how to give it to them. In book “Judgment on the Front Line”, as management experts Chris DeRose and Noel M. Tichy explain that most organizations don't know how to evaluate the risk of giving employees more autonomy. Many of those who are willing to try haven't even invested resources in ensuring that — once the shackles are off — front-line employees make good judgments. Tichy and DeRose offer powerful examples of front-line leadership, such as: 1) How Zappos trusts its people to do anything in service of a customer, including providing free product or reimbursing for mistakes; and 2) How Mayo Clinic of Arizona enabled its nurses to challenge the hierarchy in order to improve patient care. Buy Now 

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 Webinars 

Saying "Thank You" to Your Employees: How Employee Recognition Drives Organizational Performance
Date: August 21, 2012, 1pm ET
Presenter: Madeline Laurano and Razor Suleman Register now

Gen Y Sales Force Training: What Works and What Doesn't
Date: August 23, 2012, 12noon ET
Presenter: CommLab Register now

Overcoming the Three Biggest Challenges in ROI of Leadership Coaching
Date: October 24, 2012, 1pm ET / 10am PT
Presenter: Lisa Ann Edwards, M.S., ACC, partner of Bloom Coaching Institute Register now

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 Conferences

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