By Liz Hall

Employers must radically overhaul how they develop leaders, including stepping up use of different types of coaching, if they are to meet the increasingly rapid pace of business change.

Talent management firm DDI’s 6th Global Leadership Forecast survey paints a worrying picture for organisational leadership capacity. Leaders rate themselves poorly and do not possess the skills necessary for business in the future, while businesses do not have a sufficient pipeline of talent and are failing to offer an effective mix of development methods, says the report, based on responses from more than 12,000 leaders and 1,800 HR professionals from 74 countries.

Leaders are still largely ineffective as coaches, reveals the report, stressing that coaching is a skill that can be learned and developed only through continuous practice and feedback.

Those organisations with more effective leadership development programmes tended to use four methods more often and more effectively: formal workshops plus three types of coaching – manager, internal and external. Many use workshops and manager coaching well but are neglecting internal and external coaching.

Only 38 per cent of leaders regard their development as effective, while globally only 18 per cent (20 per cent in the UK) of HR professionals believe their organisation has the leadership strength to meet future challenges.

Steve Newhall, managing director, DDI UK, said: “Our research shows leadership quality hasn’t changed that much over the past six years despite the estimated £14bn spent globally each year on leadership development. If organisations are going to have in place the leadership they need, how they find, develop and promote new leaders must change.”

Some 38 per cent of leaders (36 per cent in the UK) rate their organisation’s leadership quality as high (only 25 per cent of HR professionals). And only 50-60 per cent of leaders believe they are effective in the skills needed for the next few years. These include coaching, and driving and managing change.

Coaching at Work, Volume 6, Issue 4