Talent Development (9/16/26)

Leaders and teams often fail to do what?

Reach their potential

Organizational development at the level of the individual leader and the team in this course

The “medical model” (assessing, intervening, and evaluating). Consultative approach

OD

Field that emphasizes use of social principles to diagnose and better leadership and team functioning in orgs.

How much did U.S. organizations spend in 2025 on employee development activities? (hint, most of this was allocated to leader development)

$102.8

With more investment in leadership development, is the leadership gap widening or closing?

Widening

How many companies have significant leader talent gaps?

More than half

How many respondents to a survey viewed leadership development as a top priority, reporting it as “very important”

70%

Leader development

Expansion of an individual’s capacity to be effective in leadership roles and processes. Not necessarily a positive, linear function

Purposes served by leader development

Development of an individual’s personal power, knowledge, and skills for leadership

Leadership development

The expansion of collective capacity of organizational members to engage effectively in leadership roles and processes.

Purposes served by leadership development

Performance improvement, succession management, and organizational change

How much of leader role occupancy is attributable to genetic makeup (rs4950)?

24-30%

TRUE/FALSE: Anyone, generally speaking, may become a better leader through deliberate practice & experience

TRUE

A systems/integrative approach to leadership development

Orgs need to attend to both individual leader and collective leadership development

Traditional view to leader development

Leader development program → leadership effectiveness

Contemporary view of leader development framework

Leader identity

Identity, personal epistemologies of leadership and values

Growth in strength (centrality and importance) of leader identity

“I view myself a leader” “Being a leader is important to who I am”

Individual identity in terms of leader self-concept

“As a leader, I am different from followers and other leaders;” positively correlated with abusive behavior which is negatively correlated with perceived leader effectiveness

Rational identity in terms of leader self-concept

“My identity as a leader derives from leader-follower relationships;” positively correlated with consideration behavior which is positively correlated with perceived leader effectiveness

Collective identity in terms of leader self-concept

“My role as a leader is but one cog in the gears of the team;” positively correlated with transformational behavior which is positively correlated with perceived leader effectiveness

Leading oneself

How individuals manage their own thoughts, feelings, and actions (self-awareness, balancing conflicting demands, motivation to learn, personal values)

Leading others

How individual work with others in a social system (building and maintaining relationships, building effective work groups, communication skills, and developing others)

Leading organizations

How individuals faclitate the accomplishment of organizational work (mngmt skills, ability to think and act strategically, initiating and implementing change, a positive and optimistic attitude)

Leadership potential

“The probable upper bound trajectory of what an individual may achieve during their career”

Leader potential is operationalized by these set of indicators:

Social competence, cognitive abilities, personality, growth/learning competencies (e.g., learning agility, developmental readiness, typical intellectual engagement)

HiPos designation

Manager nomination and advocacy, periodic talent review meetings of decision makers, validated assessment methods (e.g., multisource ratings, personality inventories, and interviews; do not use popular assessments with insufficient validity evidence such as MBTI), cohort-based leadership development programs

Tripartite developmental strategy

Includes assessment, challenge and support

Assessment role in motivation

Desire to close gap between current self and ideal self

Assessment role as a resource

Clarity about needed changes; clues about how gap can be closed

Challenge role in motivation

Need to master the challenge

Challenge role as a resource

Opportunity for experimentation and practice; exposure to different perspectives

Support role in motivation

Confidence in ability to learn and grow; positive value placed on change

Support role as resource

Confirmation and clarification of lessons learned

Structured leadership programs

Individual skill development, socialization of org. vision and value initiatives, strategic change leadership initiatives, action learning initiatives

Developing leadership through experience

Challenging experiences “should be at the heart of leadership development”

The Developmental Challenge Profile

Highlights the components of job experience such as job transitions, task-related characteristics and developmental obstacles

Creating change characteristic of Developmental Challenge Profile challenging assignment

Creating and facilitating change in the way business is conducted

High levels of responsibility characteristic of Developmental Challenge Profile challenging assignment

Lead initiatives that are highly important to the organization and entail multiple functions, groups, or products/services

Managing boundaries characteristic of Developmental Challenge Profile challenging assignment

Influence/manage people or processes for which one has no direct authority

Managing diversity characteristic of Developmental Challenge Profile challenging assignment

Lead people from different cultures, genders, or racial or ethnic backgrounds

Unfamiliar responsibilities characteristics of Developmental Challenge Profile challenging assignment

Handling responsibilities that are new or very different from previous ones

Learning from experience is affected by the:

Amt of challenge in assignments, variety of tasks and assignments, the quality of feedback, and experiences with failure early on

Challenging job/stretch assignments model

Related to higher engagement and transformational leadership

Self-development activities

Personal growth programs, networking, books, videos, simulations for skill building

Formal training

Course at a university (executive MBA), mgmt. training center, or corporate university. Longer programs that last for a year or more

Developmental activities

Coaching, mentoring, simulations, special assignments that provide new challenges and opportunities, developmental assessment centers, multisource feedback programs

Facilitators of Leader Development

Developmental readiness of the leader, program design and execution, quality of feedback, nature of assignments, and organizational attributes

Developmental readiness of the leader

Personality, ability, and motivation to develop, developmental efficacy, high internal locus of control, strong learning orientation

Nature of assignments

Amount of challenge and variety of tasks

Org attributes

Support for skill development, reward system that encourage skill development, cultural values that support continuous learning, a systematic process for making developmental assignments

Sex and race-based effects on job assignments

Women are less likely than men to be given challenging, high-visibility assignments, men report greater task-related developmental challenges than women, women report experiencing more developmental challenges stemming from obstacles faced on the job than men

Sex and race-based effects on mentoring relationships

Women and minorities have more difficulty finding successful mentoring relationships, proteges of male mentors received greater financial reward than those of female mentors, male proteges of female mentors had the lowest overall promotion rate, female proteges of female mentors had the lowest compensation level of any of the possible dyadic combination

Team Development Interventions (TDIs)

Systematic activities aimed at improving team competencies, processes, and overall effectiveness. Overall, improves teamwork. Includes both training interventions and process interventions

Process interventions

Designed for intact teams; teams that exist together and will continue to work together on the same goals/missions etc..

Attitude-based competencies that TDIs aims to improve

• Cohesion

• Commitment to teamwork

• Trust

• Psychological safety

• Collective efficacy

Skill-based competencies that TDIs aims to improve

• Coordination

• Communication

• Conflict resolution

• Shared leadership

• Backup behavior

Knowledge-based competencies that TDIs aims to improve

• Situation awareness

• Transactive memory systems

• Shared mental models

Goals of TDIs

Improve communications and relationships among group members, improve the team’s ability to solve problems, decrease unhealthy competition and increase cooperation, identify objectives and set priorities, increase team members’ respect for differences, analyze the team process (how the group is functioning)

Non-TDI approaches to increase teamwork

Team design, team/individual rewards, goal commitment, peer-ratings, org. support and structure

Training the team together

Develops mental model and transactive memory and creates a supportive team climate. Psychological safety is key.

Transfer of training

Factors affecting transfer (time lag, environmental cues, supervisor support), strategies that encourage transfer (practice amount, feedback amount, supportive team climate)

The 4 main types of TDIs

Team training, leadership training, team building and team debriefing

Types of team training

Crew resource management training, cross-training and interpositional training, action learning, coordination training, scenario-based training, guided team self-correction

Crew resource management training

Typically done by flight crews. Assertiveness training is a standard element of CRM

Cross-training

Training team members to perform multiple roles or tasks outside of their primary job function or team.

Interpositional training

Involves team members learning the roles and tasks of other specific positions, not to swap in, but understand how their own actions within their own role impacts other roles

Team leader training

Interventions systematically designed to enhance leader knowledge, skills, abilities, and other components. Enhances team performance through transformational and empowering leadership

By what percentage does team leader training improve learning, transfer, and organizational outcomes?

29%

Team building

A process of getting either a new or poor performing team on track. Work group should be engaged in a continuous process of self examination. Less structured and targets general relational skills. Exists on a continuum between fun and development ends. When properly implemented, does tend to improve team functioning

Components of team building

Goal setting, role clarification (negotiation approach, group process observers) (activities/exercises to practice & analyze teamwork skills, process consultants), interpersonal relations, problem solving

Appreciative inquiry and team culture change

Emphasize strengths and areas for development rather than focus on deficits and gaps in performance. Getting people directed towards the positive aspects of the team rather than having them dwell on the negatives. Can help teams move forward on changing team culture

4D model of appreciative inquiry

1. Discover

2. Dream

3. Design

4. Destiny

Discover

A grounded exploration of the “best of what is.”

Dream

Visioning and debate collaboratively, articulating “what might be”

Design

Working together to develop “what might be:”

Destiny

Collectively experimenting with “what could be”

Conversity

Another approach to develop teams. A process that helps team members actively and deliberately search for common ground rather than differences. Commonalities bring people together. Proactive and positive framing. Team members who tend to notice and think about the similarities between them and other members identify more with team and have higher performance

Group genius level

Point at which team reaches unique power of collaboration to generate innovation and achieve synergy

de Bono’s six thinking hats

Team members are asked to think of a problem differently depending on which hat they’re assigned

Evaluating team building programs

Cognitive (knowledge of teamwork); goal setting and role-clarification. Affective (trust and team potency); team process (e.g., coordination and communication) as well as goal-setting and role-clarification. Performance: focus on task issues. There is no one best outcome.`