A Common Tool and Language

This article, written by Ralph Jacobsen, describes how the majority of leadership development activities fail to significantly improve organization performance. This article reveals that it may be highly beneficial to shift the emphasis from developing individual leaders’ skills to developing shared organization leadership deliverables, by providing a common leadership language, a common leadership process, and the tools to accomplish them. It describes a number of best practice tools for leadership development and the outcomes of a leadership development approach that was implemented in a Fortune 100 financial services organization and in a mid-sized construction company. The approach taken in these two companies is applicable to a broad range of organization challenges and cultures.