Leadership development is the process of successful and sustainable change in any individual’s leadership skills. It focuses on developing core elements of leadership, such as ethics and values, emotional intelligence, and personal attributes. The ability to communicate an organisation’s vision and inspire others is also important for leadership development. Leadership development provides individuals with a set of tools that guides them in creating leaders and it offers organisations a more predictable way to plan for future leaders.
Leadership development can be defined as any initiative that makes people better leaders within their business, nonprofit organisation, community, or personal life. It is critical to the long-term success of organisations. The real question is, ‘what actually makes a leader better?’ How can organisations make more informed judgments about who they hire and promote?
Leadership development is important in order to be able to craft new and innovative strategies that are aligned with current business or organisation goals. This can be achieved through new ideas, problem-solving, and building strong relationships with key stakeholders and employees.
Leadership development can be based on the needs of the organisation and the values of the organisation. It involves the identification of leadership competencies and development opportunities within an organisation. Leadership development also focuses on developing specific skills that are linked to the different levels of leadership and is sustained by the organisation’s bottom line goals.
A leadership development program (LDP) is a written blueprint that provides a framework to remediate or enhance a leader’s leadership skills. There are five phases involved in developing an LDP:
Phase 1: Develop a plan and goals. The plan should be based on the needs of the organisation and the organisation’s strategy, vision and mission. The Leadership Development Plan (LDP) should address the needs of
Competency-based leadership development focuses on specific, measurable individual abilities, competencies and skill sets critical for successful performance. It seeks to develop and improve leadership skills critical for the current and future success of learners through a learning experience that is relevant, applied, integrated, authentic and reflective.
Competency-based leadership development aligns the learning experience with the current and future needs of the learner’s organisation, community and society; is professionally relevant; applies theory and practice in a real-world context to build the competencies and skills of the learner; is integrated, which means that all parts of the development process are conducted in ways that connect learning to real-world situations and empower the learner to apply learning to their leadership practice; is authentic; and is reflective, which means that the learner internalizes and applies learning in ways that create value in their leadership practice.
Competency-based leadership development is a development approach that focuses on developing specific leadership processes and behaviours. It is not a program that is designed to meet the needs of the organisation, rather it is focused on an individual. Competency-based leadership development is also based on the leadership competencies that an organisation has identified as being critical to the success of its leaders. It involves the identification and development of a learning plan within the context of the organisation, management and learner.
Competency models are the foundation for the assessment and development of specified outcomes for employees. They can provide useful insights into how a person’s behaviour compares with others’ and to provide a framework for more effective management. For example, a model can provide a benchmark for determining future goals and objectives.
In competency-based leadership development, learning experiences are more focused, relevant and focused as they are aligned with the current and future needs of the learner, organisation and development community; are professionally relevant; are integrated and are authentic, and are reflective.