News: Performance Management
Leadership skills are managers' top 'personal development' priority
02 September 2008
Greater investment in leadership skills training would reflect the increasing importance UK bosses give to management expertise, a new survey shows.
Accountancy specialist Hays Senior Finance also found that businesses are stepping up their provision of mentoring and development programmes for employees.
Leadership skills rate highest on managers' list of personal development plans, the firm observed.
After facilitating UK-wide forums enabling senior finance professionals to discuss leadership in finance and share their ideas and experiences, Hays concluded that up to 60 per cent of individuals take on a management or leadership role without actually training in how to manage people.
"It is assumed that because a person is successful in their role they will become a successful manager," remarked a spokesperson for the firm.
"At the majority of Hays leadership forums, under half of the professionals that attended said they had ever worked with a great leader," added the representative.
The findings echo the results of the latest Global Leadership Forecast, which indicated that many human resources professionals lack confidence in the leaders of their organisations.
Carried out by consultants at Development Dimensions International, the bi-annual study also suggested that many such individuals feel there are "major shortfalls" in the leadership development opportunities at their workplace.
