Down-to-earth news for people who cultivate leadership in their organizations...

 One of the obvious outcomes of a recession is belt tightening. Your organization may decide it needs to make budget cuts in a number of areas, and one of them may be leadership training and development (T&D).  Not surprisingly, learning professionals, those of us committed to developing people, believe that training is a justifiable expense at all times even—and especially—in recessionary times. Developing leaders can make an under-performing company better and a good company even greater.

How are some industries viewing leadership development? According to Professor Stephen Burnett of the Kellogg School of Management, “At a time when people are most unsure and stop investing [in leadership training], it simply makes the situation worse." The professor, who has no doubts about investing in leadership development says, "Yes, you can cut [your learning budget] but it will have long term performance implications, and just because you cannot see it today does not mean you won’t see it tomorrow.”

Considering the global impact of the recession on T&D, Drew Watson of the UK bank, Standard Chartered, was interviewed in Business Education magazine this month. His bank increased its spending on executive and leadership development by 30 percent indicating that, “Investment in executive development brings a return in both good times and bad.” Steven Newman, Director of Development at the global giant, Ericsson, is even more adamant: 

With regard to executive development, we would not dream of cutting down. We still need leaders.

In today’s economy, effective leadership development is key to a sustainable competitive advantage. According to an article in the Business Training Library, 2008, the most successful organizations understand it is vital to tap into the knowledge of their leaders and “engage them to use their knowledge in creative ways in order to help solve the organization’s problems, exceed customer expectations, and propel them to the top of their industry.”

In the book Internal Selling Can Be the Hardest Sale, John Bradley Jackson, lecturer at Cal State University gives concrete ideas about selling (or, if you prefer, “promoting”) within your organization. We’ve condensed and edited a few points from John’s e-zine article:

• Accept the fact that you need to sell internally and that it is your job to do it; no one else will do it for you.
• You need to communicate the big picture of what leadership development means to each individual. Why is this important individually and as well as for the success of the entire organization?
• Expect resistance. People naturally resist change and a perceived effort to commit to leadership development training—especially if it is a new initiative. Be patient with these initial reactions.

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