One of the biggest challenges HR professionals face when they propose new leadership development initiatives is convincing CEOs of the financial impact of the proposed initiative. Without a clear sense of the positive financial impact, it’s easy to write-off a new proposal as too expensive, or that now is not the right time. The lack of urgency to improve performance is based on the idea that that the current level of leadership skill in the organisation is good enough. But is it? A look at most companies has shown that the typical organisation is leaving considerable value in untapped potential lying on the table through less-than-optimal leadership practices.
For example, in 2006 The Ken Blanchard Companies conducted a year-long study to identify the connections between leadership effectiveness, employee passion, customer devotion, and overall organisational vitality.
They identified several correlations:
- Effective operational leadership directly predicts positive employee passion
- Positive employee passion directly predicts customer devotion
- Customer devotion directly predicts organisational vitality.