While we are not out of the woods yet and still need to focus on job creation – the economy seems to be in a steady recovery with more growth expected by the middle of this year.  The question that will start being asked is where is the most leveraged place for us to invest now that business is getting better?   Well, I have what might appear to be a self-serving response to that – focus on developing the capacity of your executives and key emerging leaders!  I do not care who you hire to do this as long as they are worth their weight and have proven processes that will enhance the impact of your leaders.

When done well – development has a very direct return on investment.  One of my earliest entries provides a first step in determining your leadership development strategy.   The key is to be targeted in your approach and to hold who ever works with you accountable for real measurable results.  But when done well – the research shows the value of investment:

• Booz Allen Hamilton’s own research shows a 650% return on investment from their executive coaching program ¹

• Extraordinary leaders generate four times the results over good leaders in areas like profitability, employee loyalty and customer retention ²

If you have no real strategy or leadership development program – find yourself a seasoned and results-focused executive coach and take a test drive!  If the coach is worth their weight – the leader being coached should be generating results greater than your development investment within 90 days as long as you have also picked the right executive to develop (see our blog article on the one remaining stumbling block in executive development).

Yes, the past year was tough and we are not out of the woods yet AND the ones who will get you out of the woods faster are your executives – especially when they have the principles and critical approaches that only a great executive coach can provide.

Tags: Leadership Development, leadership impact

This entry was posted on Friday, January 29th, 2010 at 12:34 pm and is filed under Leadership Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.