Leadership development key to success
Management skills are crucial to the success of Norwegian businesses in a fiercely competitive international market. This is according to an independent survey of 419 companies in Norway. The large companies spend significantly more resources on leadership development, and the most important thing is time-efficient learning methods that can be combined with a hectic management job.
About the survey:
The survey was conducted by the media and communications agency Mindshare, in collaboration with the independent research agencies Norstat and Respons, among 419 HR managers, personnel managers and CEOs, 100 of whom represented larger companies with over 100 employees and 22 with over 500 employees. The independent survey was commissioned by FRONT Leadership.
Fabulous growth
Almost 90 percent of businesses with more than 200 employees report practicing leadership development, while for medium-sized businesses with 21-100 employees, only 35 percent and for small businesses, well under 30 percent have some form of leadership development.
Director of People and Culture at Attensi, Karen Kuhnle Klakegg, confirms that leadership development has been key to their adventurous growth over the past year. The Norwegian EdTech company has doubled its team and now has more than 150 employees.
- "We are keen to support our managers and have conducted surveys of our employees. The feedback is that management is an important reason why employees stay with the company," says Klakegg, who has seen that managers who are clear and attentive to employees in the onboarding phase achieve good results more quickly.
How to get a budget
One in five companies that do not have leadership development cite a lack of budget as the reason.
Ideally, the need for leadership development should be addressed by sales managers or project managers - not HR. "If several departments take ownership of leadership development and the results are linked to the bottom line or strategically important goals such as employee retention, the budget will often follow suit," Klakegg advises.
Read also: How to get HR issues through the management team
Invests the most
The survey clearly shows that the largest companies on average spend the most money per manager on management development. 17 percent of medium-sized companies with 20-100 employees reported spending more than NOK 30,000 per manager. The corresponding figure for large companies with over 500 employees was 44 percent. They do this because it pays off.
Leadership development has a direct impact on the extent to which employees stay longer in the company. "You can calculate how many months' salary you save on average by keeping the turnover rate low. Not to mention how much it costs to recruit new employees," says HR Manager for Leadership Development, Live Leer, at Storebrand, which has around 1,850 employees.
The company has customized and continuous management development programs for both new and experienced managers, as well as special offers such as group initiatives.
Business focus
However, short-term goals are the main reason why many companies do not focus on developing leadership skills. 1 in 3 companies in the survey cite "business focus and current priorities" as the reason for not practicing leadership development.
This surprises Katrine Kalelic, Head of Leadership, Talent & Team Development at DNB.
"When we do leadership development at DNB, we get more focus on the goals we have set and the challenges we need to solve. Our managers simply become better at problem solving together with their team," says Kalelic.
Time crunch
1 in 6 cite a lack of time among managers as a reason why the company does not practice leadership development, and Kalelic recommends that these companies "decode" the learning that takes place in the workday.
We are at work every day. On-the-job training is now the most important arena for learning. When you understand how to learn while you work, time becomes a facilitator, not an inhibitor!" says Kalelic, who thinks of leadership development as strengthening the muscles that leaders need to be at their best, for both the team and the organization.
"If you are a manager, you have signed up for a continuous development journey," says Kalelic, emphasizing that it is important that the company and managers set aside time for reflection.
Read more: Work smarter - save time with leadership development
Help for self-help
At Storebrand, too, easy-to-use training and feedback linked to day-to-day life has become the way to make management development effective and profitable. The slogan is "People first, Digital always"
"Leadership development should be self-help. "Most managers are basically subject matter experts and have spent a lot of time learning their profession, but they haven't spent nearly as much time learning how to be good leaders. That's why we need to support them in this, because we can see that there is a big difference between the managers who get to develop in this area and those who don't," says Live Leer.
Developing leadership skills is profitable because leaders influence the engagement and focus of employees, their development and ultimately the culture of the entire organization.
Read also: Leadership on the agenda at Storebrand
Selection of leadership developer
In the survey, the 419 companies were asked to rank different criteria when choosing a supplier of leadership development.
On a scale from 1 to 5, where 1 is not very important and 5 is very important, good professional content is rated as 4.5. The competence of the leadership developers is given an importance rating of 4.4, closely followed by time-efficient methods for leadership development that can be combined with a hectic workday at 4.2. The opportunity for practical exercises in everyday work life is also important and ends up at 4.1 on the scale.
For smaller companies, it can be difficult to have resources available internally. In that case, you can use management development companies that can help across the board," says Klakegg. The fast-growing company Attensi is considering doing just that.
Strategy for growth
"There are so many medium-sized companies that want to take the step up, and in order for them to succeed, they need to invest in leadership," says Mats Kristensen, CEO of FRONT Leadership. The leadership development company is a strategic partner for several companies in the process of achieving their ambitious growth goals.
When the company reaches 50 employees, management becomes crucial for further growth and success. What brought the company to where it is today is not the recipe for what is required on the road ahead," says Kristensen.
In the experience of the largest companies, it is incredibly important to get started quickly with leadership development of new employees, but this is often particularly challenging to achieve internally when the companies are small or medium-sized.
"It's important to be able to offer people what they need when they need it without having to wait for the next big leadership program," confirms Live Leer at Storebrand.
Measurements are important
The survey revealed that medium-sized companies with 50-200 employees are particularly interested in getting help with measurements to evaluate the impact of learning outcomes. Over 80 percent responded that this was important to them when it came to leadership development. At the same time, only about 30 percent of the same companies said that they are "good at measuring the impact of leadership development initiatives" today.
"Many managers are far more concerned with 'subjects' than 'people', and this is detrimental to efficiency. They have a lot to gain from developing as leaders," says Kristensen of FRONT Leadership, pointing out that 90 percent of all employees in Norway work in small and medium-sized companies.
"Our vision is that everyone should have a fantastic manager so that employees can realize their full potential. With the help of this survey, we have found out more about where the shoe pinches so that we can really make a difference for most people, which is both meaningful and creates value," Kristensen concludes.
WANT TO KNOW MORE?
The 419 HR managers, personnel managers and CEOs were asked many more questions, about how leadership development is carried out, the channels they collect information from and the evaluation of the actions they take.
You can find the full report here:
