Only 12% of Organizations have a Leadership development maturity, and more worryingly the majority of company investments fall below $500 per leader!

?? 25% of companies believe their leadership development is delivering high value to the company.

?? Spending on leadership development has dropped to decade lows, falling below $500 per leader in more than half the companies studied and 83% have cut or neglected leadership development budgets. Such low levels of investment and maturity in leadership development have never been seen before - Honestly, Josh Bersin think we spend that much on coffee these days...

?? Organizations focused on front-line employees during the pandemic, ignored the needs of their leadership teams and leadership pipeline. CEOs and CHROs have been so worried about the pandemic, employee burnout, quiet quitting, and reskilling that they somehow “forgot” about their leadership. Fewer than one in four organizations feel that their leadership development programs are "current" or "relevant", according to a new interesting research entitled "The Definitive Guide to Leadership Development: Irresistible Leadership." published by The Josh Bersin Company in collaboration with BetterUp during a a research period of 12+ months using data from surveys over 1,000 organizations, interviews with more than 50 CHROs and other business leaders and discussions with company executives worldwide, and detailed reviews from experts in the field.

?The “trendy” approaches don't pay off when it comes to Leadership development

Organizations need to build their own internal muscle: how to define, implement, and reinforce leadership that amplifies their business, their competitive edge, and their culture.

None of these important following KPIs regarding leadership development reached 30% and this is very worrying:

? 24% of companies say their leadership model is "up to date" or "highly relevant"

? 11% of companies embrace executive mentoring and only 18% give coaching to managers and leaders

? 15% of companies consciously take care of leaders and actively monitor and mitigate leader burnout

? 17% of companies are growing their leadership development budgets, with 40% of companies spending less than $500 per employee on leadership development

? 17% of companies have a succession management and leadership assessment process in place

? 26% of companies feel ready for an unplanned or emergency CEO replacement

? 12% of companies score in the top level of The Josh?Bersin Company maturity model.

?The best practices of High-performing leaders

Researchers have found the major traits of high-performing organizations:

?? High-performing leaders prioritize people issues first, business issues second. They consider issues like inflation, burnout, flexible work, and the need to help people improve skills as a core part of the role.

?? Organizations where leaders prioritize growing their people are five times more likely to exceed their financial targets. Likewise, they are more than twice as likely to be able to retain top talent, a vital differentiator in today’s constrained labor market.

?? Top leaders are also aware of the issues related to "quietly quitting," and they focus on building energy in their companies, not just focusing on output.

The gulf between these forward-thinking employers and their lower-performing counterparts is considerable:

?? Fewer than 20% of companies are actively investing in developing leaders at all levels, despite the highest maturity (Level 4) companies being four times more likely to financially outperform companies with fragmented or uncoordinated investments in leadership.

?? Trailblazing employers are developing younger people to assume leadership roles: those who inherently think laterally and equitably, and who may be more capable and skilled at driving cultural change and transformational business change, rather than just immediate business results.

?? The traditional dependence on “performance” behaviors, behaviors like goal-setting and managing down is no longer the only path to success. Performance behaviors are still important, but leading companies recognize that transformation and human-centered leadership capabilities are taking center stage.

?? Organizations cultivate empathetic leaders, they see positive gains in innovation and talent outcomes.

Researchers found when senior leaders spend time with their teams and exhibit empathy and care, they are twice as likely to be innovators and market leaders than their peers.

?Leadership development is highly correlated with HR investments

When researchers correlated HR investment areas against business growth and surprisingly, leadership development scores the highest:

1?? Developing Leaders and Managers : +151%

2?? Change management and communications: +119%

3?? Applying the principles of Organization Design: 115%

It should be noted that unsurprisingly, designing HR Operating model comes last with only 17% impact.

?? In other words, companies that focus on developing leaders, not just promoting them, far outperform their peers.

??Finally researchers conclude that in this new era of the Post-Industrial Age, organizations need leaders who understand the people issues in their organizations unlocking productivity through inspiration, purpose, collaboration, and accountability. Leadership development is one of the most complex, crowded, multifaceted issues in business - The best leaders aren’t born….they’re developed !

Thank you ?? The Josh Bersin Company researchers team for these insightful findings: Kathi Enderes Josh Bersin Janet Mertens Josh Bersin Academy Alexi Robichaux Eduardo Medina

Dave Ulrich George Kemish LLM MCMI MIC MIoL

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