Research Overview:

This breakthrough research is one of the most comprehensive studies of trends, best practices, and industry solutions in corporate leadership development.  This research identifies the most effective ways to implement leadership development programs, processes, and vendor solutions for greatest business impact.

The report includes in-depth reviews of 23 different solution providers, more than 30 case studies and examples, and proven models and approaches.  In summary, this research provides a complete handbook to creating a high-impact leadership development program.

Using Bersin & Associates’ WhatWorks® research methodology, we analyzed more than one million data elements to identify key business drivers, trends, and best practices.  We also interviewed more than 40 executives to develop specific examples and case studies throughout this report.

Key Features of This Research:

This 400+ page report serves as a buyer's guide, best-practice report, and education program on techniques and principles of high-impact corporate leadership development.  Specifically the report includes:

1. Current trends and proven models for leadership development.
2. Specific action plans to help you implement identified best practices.
3. An analysis of the business impact of leadership development programs to help you justify investments.
4. Market and vendor analysis of the top leadership vendors
5. Four MarketMaps™ to help you identify vendor solutions that fit your needs.
6. An overview of best practices for evaluating leadership programs.
7. Seven leadership models to help you architect your program.
8. Examples and case studies of how leadership development fits into talent management.
9. More than 100 graphs, charts, and tables describing trends, approaches, and solutions.
10. More than 30 case studies, and two in-depth best practice studies.

The study identifies and discusses six key best practices that yield demonstrable business impact. These include:

1. Strong executive engagement.
2. Identification and tailoring of core leadership competencies.
3. Alignment of leadership priorities with specific business strategies.
4. Targeting and customizing development programs to all levels of leadership.
5. Integrating leadership development with overall talent management strategy.
6. Development of comprehensive, ongoing leadership programs that incorporate multiple learning approaches.  

What You Will Learn:

This research is designed to show you how to:

1. Implement each of the six best practices.
2. Gain commitment from senior leadership for involvement in leadership development.
3. Develop a business case to justify investments and potentially expand or revamp existing programs.
4. Develop a set of high-value leadership competencies for your organization.
5. Implement a blended program model that includes opportunities for learning, application, and reinforcement.
6. Customize the leadership development program to drive your business strategy.
7. Integrate leadership development with succession planning and performance management to develop and maintain your leadership pipeline.
8. Select vendors that fit into your organization's strategy, size, scale, and culture.
9. Develop a pragmatic leadership program evaluation strategy.
10. Match your programs against our four-stage maturity model to identify and create a plan for moving up the maturity model in a realistic and timely way.

Extensive Market and Vendor Analysis:

Much of our ongoing research includes in-depth analysis of vendor solutions in leadership development.  We interviewed 23 leading vendors and talked with many of their clients.

The study includes detailed profiles of these companies, as well as four MarketMaps™ that examine vendors’ scalability, breadth of content, breadth of services, and target audiences.  These MarketMaps™ will help you develop your short list of solution providers.

The 23 vendors profiled in this report include:

1. AchieveGlobal
2. American Management Association (AMA) 
3. BlessingWhite
4. Bluepoint Leadership
5. BTS
6. Center for Creative Leadership (CCL)
7. Development Dimensions International (DDI)
8. eCornell
9. Fierce, Inc.
10. Forum
11. Harvard Business Publishing
12. Human Capital Institute (HCI)
13. Impact Achievement Group (IAG)
14. Ken Blanchard Companies
15. LeaderPoint
16. LHH
17. Linkage
18. Ninth House
19. Omega Performance
20. PDI
21. SkillSoft
22. Targeted Learning
23. Vangent

Special Topics Covered:

• How leadership development differs from management training.  Many organizations address leadership development like a training program.  This research clearly explains the difference between training and leadership development and gives you specific examples to help you understand the entire process.
• Leadership Development Maturity Model™.  Our research looked at adoption of six best practices across the more than 750 organizations and found a clearly defined, four-stage maturity model for leadership development.  Organizations which evolve to the top level of this model gain a six-fold increase in business impact from their programs.   The study gives you specific ways to benchmark yourself against this model to determine specific areas of improvement.
• Examples of comprehensive learning approaches.  In order to be effective, leadership development programs must include comprehensive learning approaches that include training, education, application, and reinforcement.  This research details 15 specific learning and delivery mechanisms used by best-practice organizations. 
• Proven leadership development program models.  There is no cookie-cutter solution for leadership development.   Solutions must be aligned to the specific business problems in your organization.  We share seven examples of real-world leadership development models you can use.  The report analyzes these models and gives you a decision-support guide to help you develop the best model for your organization and audience.

Bonus Research Included:

This report also includes more than 30 case studies that include real applications of best practices.  Companies of all sizes from the healthcare, financial services, manufacturing and technology industries are profiled in this study.  These are a few examples:

1. Aetna
2. Alcatel-Lucent
3. Cisco Systems
4. Digitas Inc
5. Erie Insurance
6. Hewlett-Packard
7. Philips Medical Systems-Ultrasound
8. Quiznos
9. Textron Inc.

This report also includes two in-depth research reports which give specific examples of best-practice leadership development solutions. These include:

• Leadership Competencies as the Foundation for Talent Management: Whirlpool Corporation Sets Performance Standards to Drive Sustainable Growth. 
• Aligning Leadership Development and Corporate Growth: Textron’s Leadership Program Helps to Grow New Leaders and the Bottom Line

Why Your Team Should Read This Research:

This study is filled with actionable and practical information to help you assess your current leadership strategy and develop an action plan that will ensure you will have strong leadership pipelines.  Readers will find dozens of clear, in-depth examples they can immediately apply to their organizations.