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In a quest to address the issues arising out of leadership among employees, companies are devising leadership programmes

According to a recent study, several multinational organisations have been pursuing leadership development programmes aggressively. The study highlighted that these programmes have been quite uniform, irrespective of the domains, market share and revenue growth of the organisations. So, how do they define a true leader in today's corporate setup? "We believe a true leader inspires and engages other employees to work cohesively towards achieving success in the company. A true leader should be innovative, engaging, strategic and should work to attract, retain and develop the best talent in the organisation," says John Francois, vice president-HR, McAfee APAC region. Adding to the key traits that are necessary in a person aspiring to be a leader, Dr. Jaydeep Lal, associate vice president & head – iGATE Patni center for organisational development & leadership says, "Credibility is of paramount importance in any leader. Leadership is something wherein you bring in tomorrow's vision, today."

Globalisation has been one of the biggest influences on the perception of leaders. Organisations have managers working with them who have been executing projects and yielding deliverables, but companies are now drawing the line between management and leadership. What is the difference between management and leadership? "The distinction between the terms ‘manager' and ‘leader' are clear. The manager may derive his/her authority by the nature of the role. Most often, a manager's tasks are tactical in nature. In their style, they tend to be more directive and controlling. On the contrary, leaders know when to detach themselves. They intuitively know when to get themselves involved. They narrate what they want; they point towards the strategic direction to pursue, state their vision and then provide people with necessary information and the tools required to accomplish the goal," says Dayanand Allapur, head HR, Tesco Hindustan Service Centre.

So, what are the comprehensive and structured learning strategies used by organisations focused on developing leadership skills? "IBM's CSC is a thoughtful combination of CSR and leadership development programmes to bring out the best in our employees. Engaging with communities teaches enduring leadership qualities. The participants have more often come back as better team workers with sensitivity to diverse cultures and with a deeper understanding of emerging markets. Over the years, this programme has helped build leaders with a global mindset capable of improving the quality of life for themselves and their communities," states Dr. Chandrasekhar Sripada, vice president & head HR, IBM India/South Asia, while speaking on their leadership programme where employees from different cultural backgrounds are given challenges to work in a different market and asked to deliver results.

Since all these programmes involve people, there might be challenges faced by organisations as leadership development entails developing attitudes of individuals. "Adults learn in different ways. The same programme around leadership training is not going to work on every single individual. There needs to be flexibility around how training is delivered and ensure that all participants are engaged. Once the formal training is completed, consistent follow-up needs to be sustained, thereby translating these learnings into practice. If this does not happen, leadership development won't occur as effectively. Reinforcement of key behaviours is important," adds Francois.

With businesses beginning to function in a global environment and multinationals transforming to globalised organisations, where cultural diversity holds priority and international market is the new arena for growth opportunities, leadership programmes have been influenced by multiple factors. It calls for radical reforms in such development programmes as what held true in the past need not be the same. We now live in a global village with shrinking borders and rapidly mingling cultures. So as organisations embark on this endeavour to develop future leaders, signs are positive as they are being ‘built to lead'.

- Manoj Reddy