Personal Development Plan

Corporate leadership:

Are you up to the challenge?

By Larry Hulsmans

Probably the biggest challenge corporations or organizations face today is balancing the need for increasing shareholder value while simultaneously providing a work environment that truly engages the passion and commitment of its’ employees. Increasingly, corporate growth and profitability depend upon an organization’s ability to mentally engage and retain its workforce. Workforce demographics and attitudes are shifting at a rapid pace. Boomers, who make up the bulk of management and leadership with most large organizations today, traditionally worked in an environment characterized by the exchange of labour for the promise of lasting employment and financial reward. This is no longer a concept that works within our society. There is an undeniable need for a different social contract within our workplace. Employees, whether they be GenXers or Boomers, are not willing to trade in their intellectual capital, passion, and life energy in exchange for the “opportunity” to work within a corporate environment where they are shunned from employing initiative, taking risks, and being innovative and creative. Today’s employees demand personal growth and learning that will engage and stimulate them. They want to be challenged, and they need to be trusted and held accountable. Every year at The Banff Centre for Management, we work with over 3,000 executives, middle, and senior level managers from over 1,000 organizations in Canada and the U.S. on our leadership development programs. Although these individuals are focused on improving upon existing leadership skills and developing new ones, one common theme that they all share is a thirst for effective, impactful corporate or organizational leadership. Our experience in increasing leadership effectiveness at both the corporate and individual level is that enduring, impactful leadership within corporations must start at the top and become part of an...