17 June 2008
UK organizations fail to support multinational leaders
UK leaders are viewed more positively than their global counterparts.
New research has found that 44% of UK leaders rate leadership in their organizations as "very good" or "excellent" compared to 37% of global leaders. However, almost a quarter (24%) of UK leaders chose "fair" or "poor" in response to the same question.
The findings come from the UK highlights of the Global Leadership Forecast 2008-09 report by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and Development Dimensions International (DDI).
The report is based on survey responses from 49 HR professionals and 259 leaders from the UK, which were compared to responses from 13,701 global HR professionals and leaders.
Does leadership get better further up?
In the global leaders sample of the survey, higher-level leaders rated their organization's leadership better than lower-level leaders.
This is not an unusual finding. While pressure increases the further up you get in an organization, face-to-face contact with, and support from the executive board also tends to increase. So, higher-level leaders may well have a more positive view of leadership than those further down the corporate hierarchy.
The survey found that 44% of UK leaders rate leadership in their organizations as as very good or excellent.
The UK sample had more higher-level leaders than the global sample, which could explain why the percentage of leaders who rated their company's leadership as excellent or very good in the UK sample, was more than that in the global sample.
HR's confidence in leadership
The survey findings also suggest that UK HR professionals have high confidence in their leaders. They also have a higher regard for leadership development programs than those in the global sample.
In a question about the execution of leadership development, the findings showed that UK companies spend considerable time trying to align their message about leadership development with performance (65%) and business priorities (67%).
However, compared to the global sample, the UK organizations fell significantly short in 3 main areas:
- making senior management accountable for leadership development (19%);
- consistent deployment of programs across locations (23%); and
- measuring leadership development (21%).
High-potential development
The survey found that UK organizations are more likely to have high potential development programs than other countries. However, these programs could be even more effective if high-potential leaders were given better feedback about how they could improve their skills.
Fewer UK high potentials feel that they get clear communication about the importance of their development.
Multinational leaders neglected
Multinational leaders include regional, international and global leaders, but their main definition is that the work they do requires a great deal of collaboration with employees based abroad. The report found that these leaders feel there's a lack of attention paid to their development.
Around 71% say the preparation they're given for their assignments is either "fair" or "poor". UK multinational leaders feel they're given a lot less support (64%) than global multinational leaders (48%), despite the fact that organizations in the UK sample are larger on average than those in the global sample.
The report suggests that organizations seem to be taking a "sink or swim" approach in the treatment of these "forgotten" multinational leaders.
Can good communication make them unforgettable?
It could be argued that these multinational leaders, if based abroad, could be made to feel more supported and prepared if better communication was made a priority in their organizations.
Have your say
This survey questioned HR professionals on leaders and leadership development, but how would you respond from a communicator's perspective? What kind of practices do you put into place to ensure that multinational leaders feel supported?
Share your thoughts on these issues with other comms practitioners by joining the Internal Comms Hub members' group on the Communicators' Network.
Other recommendations:
Melcrum report: How to communicate with hard-to-reach employees
How to shape how your employees perceive leaders
TOP TIPS: Identifying leaders' communication barriers
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