An Oracle White Paper
June 2012

Seven Steps for Effective Leadership
Development

Seven Steps for Effective Leadership Development

Introduction ....................................................................................... 1
Leadership Challenges in Business ................................................... 3
Elements of Leadership Development Programs ............................... 5
1. Determine the Best Leadership Style for Your Organization ...... 7
2. Identify Current and Potential Leaders Within the Company ...... 7
3. Identify Leadership Gaps ......................................................... 11
4. Develop Succession Plans for Critical Roles ........................... 12
5. Develop Career Planning Goals for Potential Leaders ............. 14
6. Develop a Skills Roadmap for Future Leaders ......................... 15
7. Develop Retention Programs for Current and Future Leaders . 18
Conclusion ...................................................................................... 19

Seven Steps for Effective Leadership Development

Introduction
The importance of business leadership is well articulated by this observation: A good leader can make a success of a weak business plan, but a poor leader can ruin even the best plan.
That’s why developing effective leadership by using a consistent talent management program at all levels across the organization can return significant business value. To identify, attract, fill, and retain corporate leadership talent, companies need leadership development programs focused on hiring strategies, employee development, and career and succession planning.
Currently companies are not well prepared to fill vacancies in their leadership roles. A 2008 study found that only 36 percent of the surveyed companies felt prepared to immediately fill leadership positions, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Companies are not prepared to fill leadership roles.

The impending retirement of the baby boom generation and the crisis in leadership during the economic recession have further elevated the importance of leadership development in the eyes of the boardroom and shareholders.

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Seven Steps for Effective Leadership Development

Companies face two major challenges in finding and developing leaders. They need to identify qualified candidates to fill current and future leadership roles, and they need to develop a comprehensive leadership program to cultivate and develop the leaders of tomorrow.
In the past, leadership development was focused on only a few individuals in the organization.
First-generation systems to assist with leadership development were siloed and/or hard to use and were not widely adopted. Companies needed a system-enabled way to unify methods of assessing and selecting leaders, executing programs to develop skills, and measuring the success of these programs.
Now technology can be deployed to extend these practices across the enterprise and down into all levels of the workforce. This white paper explores leadership challenges and highlights the elements of a successful leadership development program that uses technology to support processes and practices.

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Seven Steps for Effective Leadership Development

Leadership Challenges in Business
From Enron to the prime loan mortgage crisis to AIG, leadership scandals a few years ago caused an erosion of confidence and a tremendous loss of faith in leadership of companies around the globe. In a
Harvard Business Review poll, 51 percent of those surveyed said they had diminished confidence in business leaders at non-U.S. companies and 76 percent had less confidence in U.S. business leaders.

Figure 2. There is a tremendous loss of faith in the leadership of companies around the world. 1

In addition, building and retaining good leadership has been cited as a major area of concern. In the
“2008 IBM Global Human Capital Study,” more than 75 percent of the survey respondents identified building leadership talent as