ENTREPRENEURSHIP:

LEADERSHIP
DEVELOPMENT
What is Leadership
Development?
Leadership development refers to activities that improve the
skills, abilities and confidence of leaders. Programmes vary
massively in complexity, cost and style of teaching. “Coaching”
and “mentoring” are two forms of development often used to
guide and develop leaders.

• Leadership development refers to development programmes

focusing on collective leadership in an organization.

• Leader development refers to development programmes

focusing on collective leadership in individuals.
Executive coaching
Executive coaching can significantly impact individual growth
and organizational success by focusing on the development of
specific leadership competencies required for success. In
addition to strengthening executive skills, coaching is
particularly impactful for medical / scientific leaders who, in
addition to their clinical care duties, are now being tapped to
lead self, lead others, lead change, and lead for results. These
new competency requirements are best fostered through
targeted individual leadership development via coaching
conducted in tandem with other developmental strategies.
When Is Coaching Best Applied?
• To retain valuable leaders. Dissatisfaction with potential for career
development is a leading reason executives leave their
organizations. Executives who receive coaching often feel more
valued, a stronger connection to their organizations, a greater sense
of commitment to their jobs, and increased alignment with the
overall strategy.
• When a company is undergoing growth or change. The skills
necessary to successfully lead an organization can shift dramatically
when the organization enters a new stage of growth, shifts strategy,
enters a new market, faces an evolving competitive landscape, is
acquired, or merges with another organization. Coaching can assist
executive leaders in adapting to change more quickly and
competently.
When Is Coaching Best Applied?
• As a succession planning tool. Talented individuals being groomed
for leadership roles may excel in some areas, but may need
improvement in other skills before promotion to a senior role.
Examples of further developmental areas include cultivating a more
strategic or organization-wide perspective, bolstering interpersonal
skills, or increasing competence around conflict management or
negotiation.
• Onboarding when an executive is being promoted or moved to a
new role. Coaching can provide a newly-hired or promoted
executive with critical strategies for learning about the organization,
including its culture and politics, understanding expectations of the
new role, getting familiar with processes and practices, and
developing new relationships.
When Is Coaching Best Applied?
• When training courses or internal “mentors” are not options. Senior
executives may be hesitant or unable to attend training courses or other
“en masse” learning events or may simply prefer individualized, one-on-
one development. In some instances, these executives may also feel that
they should already have the skills or expertise in question. In these
situations, coaching can be preferable since it is a confidential, personal,
and “safe” development option where the individual is using an objective,
external person to help them with their development.
• To assist with cultural alignment. Coaching can support executives
arriving from other organizations and/or other countries as they adjust to
a new culture. Many organizations offer this type of on-boarding or
assimilation coaching for an executive’s first few months. It can also help
align seasoned executives to the new culture that the organization is
striving to create.
The Coaching Process
• Assessment. Well-planned coaching begins with targeted assessment
interviews with the executive, their manager, and identified
stakeholders to determine strengths, developmental opportunities,
and goals and objectives for the assignment. In addition,
psychometric assessment(s) are administered to assess intrinsic
motivators, values, traits, and personality factors that contribute to
self-awareness.
• Feedback. The results of the interviews and psychometric
assessments form the basis of the formal assessment feedback
delivered to the executive in preparation for finalizing the coaching
program goals.
The Coaching Process
• Action Planning. The coach and executive co-create
their development action plan specifying the coaching
objectives and indicators of success which are vetted
with key stakeholders.
• Coaching. The executive and their coach meet
regularly over the course of the assignment where
learning is translated into action in practical
applications. A midpoint and endpoint triad meeting is
facilitated by the coach with the executive, their
manager, and HRBP to discuss progress against goals.
The Coaching Process
• Measure of Success. Obtaining feedback to assess
progress against the original coaching goals is
garnered throughout the course of the engagement
and beyond. Course corrections are applied, as
needed.
• Sustaining Progress and Continued Growth. While
the formal coaching program has a defined endpoint,
executives and their stakeholders co-create a
sustainability strategy for continued learning and
future success
How to Launch a Successful and
Sustainable Mentorship Program
• Mentoring is a strategic tool that when done
right, can attract and retain high-potential talent
and accelerate leadership development and
readiness. Mentoring is also an effective tool for
shaping organizational culture and closing
engagement and generational gaps.
How to Launch a Successful and
Sustainable Mentorship Program
• Lay the groundwork – business case, buy-in, sponsorship
• Prepare for the launch – tools, communicate intentions
with laser focus
• Launch the program and train mentors and mentees on
process and tools
• Build relationships and assess progress and momentum
• Evaluate effectiveness of the mentoring program and
pairings at regular intervals
Step 1: Lay the Groundwork
Laying the groundwork for the mentoring program is a time-consuming
but critical step in the program’s ultimate success. There are several
stages to this step:

• Recognize the need and set program objectives

• Determine program structure
• Plan for program launch
Step 2: Prepare for the Launch
• Communicate, communicate, and communicate some more.
All employees at all levels should be informed about the
program, its goals, objectives, target population,
requirements, and process to participate. The program’s
progress should be reported at every step of the way, from the
needs assessment stage to its conclusion, and the metrics that
demonstrate the program’s success should also be shared.
Communication will be the key to obtaining initial and
ongoing senior-level buy in and management support.
Step 3: Launch the Program and
Train Participants
• The mentoring program’s launch should begin with the training
of all participants, and it is recommended that the mentors and
mentees are trained together in pairs. Pairs should be taught
what mentoring is, preferably in a formal, classroom-style
setting and led by a professional trainer with mentoring
expertise. Pairs should mutually identify the goals of the
mentorship and link them to the broader program and
organizational goals, establish milestones, and set timelines
(when they will meet, how, how often, and for how long) so
that expectations are managed.
Step 4: Build Relationships and
Assess Progress and Momentum
• The bulk of the work in this step—relationship
building—is the responsibility of the mentor and
mentee, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t work
to be done by HR to ensure the program’s success. It
is HR’s role to ensure that relationships are on the
right track, goals and objectives are still on target,
milestones are being recorded, and that competencies
are being acquired.
Step 5: Evaluate Effectiveness
of the Mentoring Program
• By the end of a 12-month mentoring period, there will be many
people beyond the mentor and the mentee who have a vested
interest in the program’s effectiveness. Senior leaders will want
to know how the program met organizational objectives and if
participants met their personal goals and if not, why. HR and
talent management professionals will want know if the program
structure was effective and what might need to be tweaked
moving forward. All of these metrics should be considered and
identified during the preparation stage. At this stage, it is time to
gather and report the analysis of the data to all stakeholders.
Conclusion
Mentoring can have a positive impact on an organization by
improving employee retention and engagement and shaping
culture. It can also serve a strategic purpose when linked to
talent strategy, leadership development, workforce planning,
and organizational goals. Mentoring programs, however, can
quickly flounder if there is no buy in, insufficient structure, or
lack of follow-through. HR and talent management
professionals who want to establish successful and sustainable
mentorship programs must ensure that the groundwork is
thoroughly completed, that participants are trained, and the
program is regularly assessed for effectiveness.
THANK
YOU!