Current challenges in leadership development

The ongoing development of global markets and the demands of growing competition have created new challenges for many contemporary organizations. These current changes and the increasing need for talented and experienced executives bring new concerns to human resource management. In the process of recruiting, developing, and retaining future leaders, many companies create high executive salaries, new training programs, and other possible ways of leadership development.

The jobs of CEOs became increasingly complex and demanding. It requires more experience, continuous learning and talent in this constantly changing, global, and diverse environment. According to the research about 40 percent of CEOs fail within 18 months. These rates of failure and growing responsibility of CEOs discourage many senior executives to seek the top position. Moreover, the average CEO turnover is five years.

Many companies are becoming increasingly concerned about leadership succession and development. They are looking for new executives in every possible place. The number of companies inviting external CEOs is also increasing. However, they often fail to invest sufficient efforts into inside leadership development.

Current research confirms the fact that developmental instruments like action learning, formal training, and coaching can increase the pool of internal future leaders. Many companies implement executive, management, and other forms of leader coaching in the process of leadership development. They use coaching as a tool that is designed to address the very individual needs of the clients. Most of the leaders with a coach report moderate or great benefits in their professional lives.