Using Leadership Development to Strengthen Your Organization - Keith Dorsey
Keith Dorsey, a strategic growth leader, knows what it takes for a company to strive to improve and continuously transform with the market and their employees. His vast experience as a director, advisor, and coach has taught him the importance of leadership in an organization. Keith outlined the responsibility that leaders hold to promote leadership among an organization’s members.
Keith reflected on a Harvard Business Review article he came across, titled ‘6 Reasons Your Strategy Isn’t Working’ by Michael Beer.
“Michael listed 6 different ‘barriers’ to why an organization is not working efficiently and reaching its highest potential. These barriers come down to the company’s leaders and what types of leadership they utilize.
“One barrier stood out to me:
“Hidden barrier #5: Inadequate leadership development
“Research has shown that leaders usually develop not through training, but by carrying out challenging new assignments. This requires managers to sacrifice for the larger good by giving up their high potential leaders to other parts of the organization for their development. When this doesn’t occur naturally and regularly it is tied to three hidden barriers already discussed: An ineffective senior team (#2) in a siloed organization with “fiefdoms” (#4) that does not have the perspective or capability to define collaborative organizational values and behaviors it expects of leaders (#1), nor to design a talent-management system that enables the cross-boundary developmental assignments required to develop general management ability.
“Your organization is suffering from this barrier if you notice any of these signs:
- It keeps coming down to the same usual suspects when something important needs to get done.
- Too few opportunities are provided for leadership and management development.
- The senior team does not review leadership talent regularly or offer career paths that enable the development of general management capabilities.
“As an executive advisor with corporate governance experience, I have observed strong leadership teams that unselfishly did the right things for the greater good of their organizations. Those leaders often came from a culture of learning and were provided numerous opportunities to grow and develop. KPIs often improve when organizations focus on creating an environment that nurtures strong leaders.
“How does your company measure up to the six barriers mentioned in the article? As an executive, what are you doing to develop your leadership capabilities and the leaders around you to get different results?”
