Learning 2012 Conference - Day 3

Global Leadership Development

The conference has given me a lot to think about in the field of leadership development over the past three days. I will share what I've learned and some things perhaps to think about as we go about developing leaders in an increasingly smaller global space.

There seems to be an increasing awareness of the lack of talent who are capable of taking on global leadership roles. As we grow organizations around the world and expand our footprint in foreign lands, we have the expectation that we will be able to increase our intake of foreign-trained leaders. However, according to Accenture's Rahul Varma, talent development in emerging markets like the BRIC countries is not keeping pace with market growth. In these  countries, 1 in 7 people have access to technology that they can use to grow their capabilities. He says that we need to make the online resources available to those who have access also available offline so that emerging market talent has a chance to compete. 

John Ryan would agree. Ryan's comment on global leadership development is that one can't start too early or too organically. Recognizing the target culture and preparing high potential leaders for the culture, values and culturally defined capabilities within that new environment will go a long way to enabling success. 

The biggest risks we're making in preparing and growing our leadership talent? Ryan says focusing on the individual's performance and not on their agility or potential. According to Ryan (and the Centre for Creative Leadership) it is a person's learning agility and their potential to both learn and grow in breadth and depth of experience that determines a good leader.

Here's a good video with a short explanation of how to maximize global leadership development: