DEVELOP YOUR

LEADERS,
TRANSFORM
YOUR
ORGANIZATION

{ perspectives } LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

 ABOUT CORPORATE LEARNING
Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning
partners with clients to create world-class
leadership development solutions for managers
at all levels. Our team leverages the management
insight, thought leadership, and expertise of Harvard
Business School faculty and authors from Harvard
Business Review to create tailored leadership
development solutions. With more than 20 years
of practical experience, our innovative, technology-
enabled solutions drive meaningful and lasting
business results. Corporate Learning is a market
group within Harvard Business Publishing.

ABOUT HARVARD BUSINESS PUBLISHING

Harvard Business Publishing was founded in 1994 as
a not-for-profit, wholly-owned subsidiary of Harvard
University. Its mission is to improve the practice of
management and its impact in a changing world.
The company achieves its mission through its
relationships with customers in three market groups:
Higher Education, Corporate Learning, and Harvard
Business Review Group. Through these platforms,
Harvard Business Publishing is able to influence real-
world change by maximizing the reach and impact
of its essential offeringideas.

2011 Harvard Business School Publishing. All rights reserved. Harvard Business Publishing is an affiliate of Harvard Business School.
DEVELOP YOUR LEADERS,
TRANSFORM YOUR ORGANIZATION
Traditional approaches to leader development arent delivering on their
promise. Theyre too detached from business operations and strategy,
and focus on knowledge and skills to the neglect of values and mindsets.
Here are three ways companies can better prepare their leaders to
sustainably advance their competitive positions.

BY SHERRY HEFFNER, SEAN KENNEDY, JOSH BRAND, AND PETER WALSH

IF THE RATE OF LEARNING
IS NOT GREATER THAN
THE RATE OF CHANGE,
YOULL FAIL.
DAVID A. GARVIN,
C. ROLAND CHRISTENSEN
PROFESSOR OF BUSINESS
ADMINISTRATION,
HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL
The conventional approach to leader development offers a variety of pro-
grams and developmental events, but theyre often delivered in isolation.
Individual managers may improve their skills, but the impact on business
results is often minimal. We frequently see the following imbalances:
ooCompanies spend money on manager training but struggle to create a
culture of performance.
ooOrganizations invest heavily in programs for high potentials yet still hire
outside talent for most leadership positions.
ooCompanies build detailed leadership competency models, but new
strategic initiatives stall.
ooMost
learning happens informally on the job, yet the leadership
development investment is still focused on big events and the classroom.
ooLeadershipdevelopment budgets are under increasing scrutiny,
even as strategies place greater demand on building capability.
Adding to these pressures, corporations worldwide are faced with a widen-
ing gap in their global leadership pipeline. Organizational structures have
flattened, eliminating positions that used to serve as key developmental

H A R VA R D B U S I N E S S P U B L I S H I N G {1 }
steps. Globalization and growth
in emerging markets pose new
challenges for leaders. And eco-
nomic uncertainty continues, rais-
ing scrutiny on the investment of
precious resources in leadership
development.
To develop the leadership capabili-
ties across their organizations that
will drive business results, learning
leaders and their partners in the
C-suite must take a more holistic
view of how they develop leaders
and how learning opportunities
(both formal and informal) inte-
grate with the organizations stra-
tegic imperatives. Based on more
than two decades of working with
leading organizations to drive busi-
ness results through leadership
development, and in partnership
with our faculty from Harvard
Business School and authors from
Harvard Business Review, we have
identified three critical elements
of an effective and sustainable
leadership development strategy.
And while each element is neces-
sary, only an integrated approach
that brings the three together will
CRITICAL ELEMENTS FOR EFFECTIVE AND
SUSTAINABLE LEADER DEVELOPMENT
Organizations can address the imbalances found in
most leadership development programs by going
beyond traditional methods to adopt and integrate
three critical elements.
BEYOND SKILLS
TRAINING
Address self-awareness
and the mindset required
to succeed at particular
leadership levels.
{2 }
produce a leadership culture that
can drive an organization to win in
its market.
Requirements for
Integrated Leadership
Development
Beyond Skills Training
HELP LEADERS MASTER
CRITICAL MIND SHIFTS
Leaders frequently fail to live up to
their personal and organizational
expectations when taking on new
rolesor living into existing
onesbecause theyve honed their
skills but havent learned to think
in new ways. Its a challenge for
new and tenured managers alike,
according to research by Harvard
Business School professor Linda A.
Hill. Shes found that, in the
absence of guidance, they continue
to focus on their individual ability
to get things doneto accomplish
tasksrather than their broader
role in making the team and orga-
nization more effective. The failure
to make these profound identity
shifts in mindset, conduct, and
BEYOND INDIVIDUAL
DEVELOPMENT PLANS
Build pivotal capability
to drive key imperatives
required for success.
develop your leaders / transform your organization
behavior early on can stay with
leaders for years, even decades,
showing up in complaints about
leaders who operate below their
level or lack strategic thinking.
Hill warns that her findings held
not just for managers struggling
to make the transition, but also
managers who were once high-
performers but were no longer
growing.
Meanwhile, most leadership devel-
opment programs still emphasize
honing new skills and knowledge,
without sufficient attention to
reframing how a leader should
think about her influence in the
organization and what it means to
be in a particular leadership role.
Addressing this identity shift in
leadership development efforts
is critical not only for leaders to
successfully make key career tran-
sitions, but also for incumbent lead-
ers to live into their roles more fully.
A major financial company saw
the benefits of this approach when
it revamped its frontline manage-
ment program to accelerate its
BEYOND FORMAL
TRAINING
Embed learning with
everyday work realities.
 KNOWING-DOING-BEING
In their book Rethinking the MBA: Business
Education at a Crossroads (Harvard Business
Press, 2010), Harvard Business School
professors Srikant Datar and David A. Garvin
describe the need to re-create a balance
between teaching knowing, doing, and
being in MBA curricula. While distinct,
these components of learning are mutually
reinforcing. The authors contention is
that finding ways to integrate these three
elements is critical and that a particular
emphasis needs to be placed on bringing
the being into balance. Our experience
shows this to be true in corporate leadership
development programs as well.
leadership pipeline. The new cur-
riculum provided a framework
for managers to understand the
crucial transition toward work-
ing through others and addressed
common misconceptions and pit-
falls head-on. This message was
reinforced by senior leaders, who
shared stories with participants of
their own development journeys.
Key insights were translated into
action plans and implemented
with support from the participants
managers. Framing the experience
around mindset shifts brought the
concepts home for managers and
provided a context for meaningful
application. The program, which
had been considered unfocused
and lacking in impact, came to
be seen as a key strategic lever in
the organization, which directly
affected the firms ability to attract
and retain top talent.
As Harvard Business School pro-
fessor David A. Garvin describes,
mastering the shift is a critical
element that most leader develop-
ment programs dont emphasize
H A R VA R D B U S I N E S S P U B L I S H I N G
KNOWING
Concepts
Frameworks
Information
DOING
Practice
Application
Execution
but should. He explains how
leadership development should
bring together a balance of know-
ing (the acquisition of informa-
tion), doing (the application
and practice of new skills), and
being (the values, identity, and
purpose that animate leaders).
The tendency is to treat this tril-
ogy as independent variables that
can be broken apart, which leads
to missed opportunities to really
impact the way a leader behaves.
The process of integrating these
activities isnt easy or quick. And
in both business and corporate
education, the balance tends to
be off, with a strong emphasis on
knowing and doing, which
leads to developing leaders who
are not self-aware and not reach-
ing their potential.
Beyond Individual
Development Plans
BUILD PIVOTAL
CAPABILITIES THAT DRIVE
THE BUSINESS
In a recent survey conducted by
McKinsey & Company, only 33
percent of respondents said their
BEING
Identity
Perspective
Values
training and skill-development pro-
grams focus on developing their
companies most important capa-
bility. One reason is that most orga-
nizations assess leaders against
skills-based competency models,
but these models rarely differ much
from one firm to another.
Harvard Business Review Press
authors Dave Ulrich and Norm
Smallwood emphasize the need for
leaders to focus on the pivotal capa-
bilities that differentiate a company
from the competition. Even firms
in the same industry can find pow-
erful ways to tie key skills to their
strategy and culture. For example,
the leadership development pro-
grams at Walmart should look quite
different from those at Nordstrom.
Yet simply recasting a competency
model according to strategic pri-
orities isnt enough. The impact of
skills developed in isolation on an
organizations strategic challenges
will be minimal if learning profes-
sionals dont design programs to
specifically address the challenges
their firms currently face. Our
{3 }

STRATEGIC LEADER DEVELOPMENT EFFORTS SHOULD
BUILD A COMMON AND WIDESPREAD UNDERSTANDING
OF THE ORGANIZATIONS VISION AND CULTURE.
HANDBOOK OF LEADERSHIP THEORY AND PRACTICE
JAY CONGER, HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW PRESS, 2010
work with clients has shown the
dramatic outcomes from strategic,
issue-based programs that cascade
through multiple leadership levels
and engage leaders in a common
strategic conversation and project
work directly tied to the strategy.
For example, AT&T launched an
award-winning learning program
aligned with its One AT&T stra-
tegic initiative following numerous
mergers. In six months, the pro-
gram reached more than 100,000
frontline, mid-level and senior lead-
ers worldwide. It promoted a com-
mon culture and focused on pivotal
capabilities such as innovation, col-
laboration, and customer centricity.
Beyond Formal Training
INTEGRATE LEARNING
INTO WORK PROCESSES
AND ENVIRONMENT
In most organizations, formal
leadership development and con-
tinuous on-the-job learning expe-
riences remain an ad hoc process
insufficiently managed and poorly
understood. More recently, com-
panies have invested in social
media tools with the ambition of
individuals sharing, learning, and
collaborating more virtually and
just in time. While these tools
{4 }
building leadership performance.
remain a positive development,
the reality of on-the-job learning
falls far short of its promise.
Professor Kurt Fischer from
Harvards Graduate School of
Education helps shed some light
on why this is hard to do. Learning
isnt a simple process whereby peo-
ple move from incompetence to
mastery in one easy step. Instead,
learners go through multiple
phases of action and reflection
where performance actually drops
and then rises again. Complex
skills simply cannot be learned
without repeated application, and
the level of performance is directly
related to the level of support in
the work environment.
An effective approach to on-the-
job leadership development must
guide leaders to master the right
skills, provide multiple opportu-
nities for application, and offer
an increased level of contextual
support through processes, envi-
ronment, and leadership. In their
Harvard Business Review article, Is
Yours a Learning Organization?
Harvard Business School profes-
sors Amy Edmonson and David
A. Garvin further define how
firms can build learning mecha-
nisms into everyday work.
develop your leaders / transform your organization
Conclusion
Our approach moves beyond a view
of work and learning as distinct
activities to an integrated view of
Winning organizations:
ooIntegrate learning across the
spectrum from formal to informal
to drive continuous improvement:
Leadership development profes-
sionals cant look at traditional
classroom-based training, learning
from others, and learning by doing
as discrete activities. To get the
best individual and organizational
results, they must design processes
and activities that integrate all of
these over time.
ooBuild in ongoing opportunities
for reflection and application of
knowledge. Learning approaches
should be extended to include
multiple forms of collaboration and
coaching. The ability to learn from
others in a systematic way greatly
increases an individuals chances
for success.
Leadership development is the criti-
cal priority in many of todays large,
global organizations. Whether find-
ing and developing talent to lead
in emerging markets or replacing
leaders who have transitioned into
retirement, the question remains
the same: What is the best, most
effective way to develop a sufficient
pipeline of high-quality leaders who
can help an organization thrive?
For those learning leaders serious
about helping their companies win,
a more strategic and integrated
approachone that broadens the
traditional view of leadership devel-
opment and trainingis an abso-
lute must. F
ABOUT THE AUTHORS

SHERRY HEFFNER is senior director of product development

for Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning. She
is responsible for advancing Harvard Business Publishings
portfolio of corporate leadership development solutions
and its impact for companies worldwide. Her background in
technology-enabled learning and development spans fifteen
years. She can be reached at sheffner@harvardbusiness.org.

SEAN KENNEDY is a senior strategic relationship manager.

For more than a decade, Sean has partnered with Harvard
Business Publishings corporate clients to build leadership
capacity and capability by designing customized leadership
development programs for them. Previously, Sean held sales
management positions in the telecom and banking industries.
Contact Sean at skennedy@harvardbusiness.org.

JOSH BRAND is director of network learning and is responsible

for the delivery of Leadership Direct, Harvard Business Publishings
cohort-based, virtual, in-company management education
program for clients around the globe. Josh has more than 15 years
of executive education and management consulting experience
and has built management education programs for clients around
the world. Email him at jbrand@harvardbusiness.org.

PETER WALSH is senior director of global marketing,

responsible for all phases of global marketing, including
client acquisition, client relationship management, solution
marketing, and brand development. Prior to joining
Harvard Business Publishing, Peter was the chief marketing
officer of several leading technology and services companies.
Contact him at peter.walsh@harvardbusiness.org.
 UNITED STATES
Harvard Business Publishing
60 Harvard Way
Boston, MA 02163

phone: 800-795-5200 (Outside U.S.

and Canada call 617-783-7888)

email: corporate@harvardbusiness.org

EUROPE
 arvard Business School Publishing Europe Pvt. Ltd.
H
Vernon House
23 Sicilian Avenue
London WC1A 2QS

phone: +0203 463 2350

email: CLeurope@harvardbusiness.org

INDIA
Harvard Business School Publishing India Pvt. Ltd.
Unit # 4323 Grand Hyatt Mumbai - Apts
Off Western Express Highway
Santacruz (East), Mumbai - 400 055

phone: +91 22 65160248

email: infoindia@harvardbusiness.org

LEARN MORE
www.harvardbusiness.org/corporate

2011 Harvard Business School Publishing. All rights reserved.

Harvard Business Publishing is an affiliate of Harvard Business School. MC168430811