The Importance of Leadership Development: 7 Facts HR Needs To Know

Several human resources professionals are aware of the importance of leadership development programs. The importance of leadership development programs are massive as they are critical to the long-term success of organizations. In today’s society, organizations are experiencing an influx of baby boomer exits. Many baby boomers hold the top positions in an organization, so this mass exodus is causing difficulties for those who cannot create a strong pipeline of leadership talent. Since leadership has such a large impact on the entirety of an organization, preparing talent to hold this responsibility essential. Thus, the importance of leadership development is the utmost for human resources leaders.

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1. 88% of people in a study agreed that recognition is just as or even more important than financial rewards to them personally. This shows that having leaders that can foster a positive culture will provide a big impact on the organization long term, thus increasing the importance of leadership development.

2. In fact, effective leadership is the second top reason for employee satisfaction at work. Thus, to keep your organization as a whole happy and productive, you must provide them with well trained leaders. Thus the importance of leadership development is responsible also for employee satisfaction.

3. 56% of workers in the United States are disengaged at work. Having effective leaders that can engage teams through sense of purpose and recognition has actually been shown to make for a more profitable organization. Creating a stable profit is almost every organization’s goal, so this further solidifies the importance of leadership development.

4. In a recent study, leadership development has been shown to make a bigger impact on an organization’s success than an organization’s “culture of innovation”.  Is the importance of leadership development at your organization similar to that of your culture.

5. More companies are now focusing on developing leaders from all levels of the organization that have been chosen as “high potential”. Previously there was only focus on very senior level leaders for development. However, with the importance of leadership development coming to the forefront of research, many organizations now see the value in doing this.

6. A recent study found that the more a company focuses on internal leadership development, the better it performs meeting its objectives. Focusing on the importance of leadership development in your HR strategy can thus positively impact other organization objectives.

7. The most effective leaders in today’s business climate are able to address both efficiency and human needs within an organization. To have effective leaders at your organization, HR must focus on the importance of leadership development to create leadership that can focus on both efficiency and human needs.

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Raymond Lee

Raymond Lee is the President of Careerminds, a global outplacement company based in Wilmington, Delaware. He has over 20 years of human resource, outplacement, and career consulting experience. He has his bachelor’s in psychology and holds a Master’s Degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Louisiana Tech University. He is active in SHRM and ATD. Raymond’s been featured on SiriusXM Business Radio, CareerTalk, and the Wall Street Journal and he’s published a book titled, Clocking Out: A Stress-Free Guide to Career Transitions.