In addition to the method itself, there are other variables which come
into play when defining the effectiveness of a managerial development program.
After analyzing the best programs created by organizations and business schools
for leadership development, the Consortium for Research on Emotional
Intelligence in Organizations –an independent body formed by experts from the
academic world, the business world and the administration like Richard
Boyatzis, Lyle Spencer or Daniel Goleman– concludes that managerial leadership
is a process and as such it requires time
and the need to consider competencies
as the object of improvement.
Furthermore, they construct a decalogue on what has to be done in order to achieve
success in this field: (1) focusing on the competencies who have proved
to be critical for success in the position; (2) evaluating a person’s
competencies through an external, objective vision like 360º assessment; (3)
identifying the personal weaknesses that will act as the foundations of the
development process, apart from the improvement opportunities; (4) taking into
account that we adults only learn when we have a motivation to do so (achieving
our personal aims); (5) ensuring that development is self-guided; (6) focusing
on realistic development objectives; (7) defining a clear action plan; (8)
assuming that improving competencies takes time (it is impossible to achieve
sustainable changes before 6 months have elapsed); (9) providing external
support which can reinforce or encourage the sustained practice of new
behaviors; and (10) measuring changes in competencies and performance using
valid methods.
As
we said above, it is not so important to have a ‘best practice’ which leads to
the successful development of leadership as to implement whichever it is, but
in a consistent way. Moreover, the search for the key operational principles
which enable us to perform managerial development strategies which suit the
requirements of the new economy environment may start from the demonstrated
high-performance practices which have been functioning until
the present day, but it cannot stop there, it
must go beyond. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce new formats within
the learning methodologies which permit the accelerated acquisition of
competencies that make it possible to go from strategy to action as quickly as
possible. Acceleration of expertise can be achieved when training is designed
on the basis of human psychological learning processes (Colvin, 2008). These
learning accelerators revolve around the guidelines that we are going to
describe below.
