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Title: Building Leaders Author(s): Jay A. Conger and Beth Benjamin Publisher: Jossey Bass, 1999. Companies make significant investments in developing their leaders. In the past ten years, manager training expenditures have increased fourfold in the U.S. However, the results of such programs are often disappointing. Building Leaders presents the conclusions of a study of the best leadership development programs in the corporate world. The authors show that successful programs require a combination of three complementary approaches, i.e. individual leadership skill development, instruction on how to socialize the company vision and values, and strategic intervention training. The book also covers the key factors behind the success of such programs. Main subject [Training Leaders] |
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Critical commentary by Jean M. Hiltrop,
Professor at IESE, Barcelona.
[Manageris 81b - 04/2000]
The core message of this book is that management development is rapidly becoming a key success factor for the future growth and survival or international organisations. This message is supported by the numerous examples provided by the authors and is consistent with the findings of other studies in the field of human resource management. Sceptics may argue that the authors do not provide conclusive evidence of the link between management development and the ability to cope with many leadership challenges that organisations will face in the 21st century. However, there is little doubt that the ability to create effective leadership development opportunities has become the most important to attract, build and retain the leadership talents needed to sustain the competitiveness of international organisations. In fact, superior leadership talent is increasingly recognised as the prime source of sustainable competitive advantage, and Building Leaders offers an excellent overview of the methods and techniques that can be used to build this advantage.
Building Leaders also reminds us that formal training and education are of little value if they are not connected to the goals and challenges of the business. This seems obvious but many studies suggest that the content of training courses is often driven by the interests of those who teach them rather that by the needs of participants and organisations. As a result, individuals who truly want to develop and learn get disappointed and may ultimately leave the organisation. The first step in executive development, then, is to move away from the class room teaching philosophy in management education to one emphasising issue-based development and learning.
The book will be most valuable to Human Resource specialists and other professionals in the field of human resource development. Prospective readers should not expect to find cookbook formulas that tell them what to do in their specific situation. However, Building Leaders contains plenty of interesting ideas that may help managers, as well as many recent examples of problems encountered in large organisations. Another advantage is that the chapters can easily be read on a selective basis. Those who don’t have the time or desire to read the whole book can avoid part 2, which is much weaker and provides few clear guidelines for the type of leadership skills and competencies that will be needed in the future. However, I would strongly recommend the chapters in part 1. This essentially reviews three principal approaches to management development and provides numerous examples of companies that have implemented each approach. I particularly appreciated the detailed description of the training programmes used by PepsiCo and Federal Express. As the authors say, few companies have had such a dedicated interest in developing leadership capabilities and their management practices and programmes provide a clear benchmark for other organisations that wish to improve their performance in this area.
Bibliography::
• FIRST BREAK ALL THE RULES, M. Buckingham and C. Coffman, Simon & Schuster, 1999.
• WINNING THE PEOPLE WARS, Michael Johnson, Prentice Hall, 2000.
• ACTION LEARNING, David L. Dotlich and James L. Noel, Jossey-Bass, 1998. (Manageris N°65b)
• THE LEADERSHIP ENGINE, Noel Tichy, Harper Business, 1998. (Manageris N°68a)
Jean-Marie Hiltrop is Professor at IESE Barcelona and teaches Human Resource Management at the University of Bern, the Copenhagen Business School and the University of cape Town.
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