Research Studies

"The Leader Makers"

No author cited
Hewitt Associates, December 2002.

Available Online

According to this Hewitt study of 240 public and private companies, the top 20 most adept developers of new leadership talent have three things in common:

1. Top management gets involved in the development process.
2. The companies place an emphasis on identifying, developing and rewarding people with high potential.
3. They each boast an integrated approach to developing new leaders.

More importantly, the study reports that there is a correlation between leadership development and financial performance. For example, in companies where the CEO actively reviewed emerging talent, shareholders saw an average 22 percent return over three years, compared to a negative 4 percent return at companies where the CEO was not involved. Companies with defined leadership competencies were also found to have higher return-on-sales figures than companies that lacked them.

Hewitt suggests taking the following steps to improve your approach to attracting, developing and retaining future leaders:

• Build a business case for implementing a leadership program.
• Review your senior talent and identify the employees with the highest leadership potential.
• Study whether these people are receiving adequate recognition, compensation and development opportunities.
• Have top management thank your high-potential people for being a part of your organization and express your desire to retain them.
• Consider whether your leadership competencies are integrated into how you hire, develop, assess and reward people.

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