In most top-performing B2B healthcare, insurance or technology organizations today, it’s critical for leaders to be able to successfully innovate and drive strategic within an organization in order to drive performance and meet business goals. Unfortunately, after reading the results of a 2015 study by Korn Ferry, it appears that few executives believe they actually have the right leaders in place to deliver such strategic change.

In the 2015 study conducted, executives’ top leadership development priority was developing leaders who can drive strategic change. This means that executives need leaders who deliver results, not just say they will.

As referenced in a Bulldog Reporter article, Stu Crandell, senior vice president at Korn Ferry Institute, stated in a news release that effective leadership development is a now requirement in order to address “the skill, pipeline, and culture gaps required for organizational growth, yet it’s one of the CEO’s most underutilized levers to drive strategy.”

Below are a few additional insights, indicating executives in leadership roles need to learn how to drive and execute change successfully within their organizations if they want to survive and come out ahead:

  • Study respondents said that if they could, they would discard nearly half (48 percent) of their leadership development approach.
  • Executives may be their own biggest barrier to achieving leadership development success. Respondents cited a lack of executive sponsorship as the largest barrier to successful implementation of leadership development programs.
  • Fifty-five percent of respondents felt their leadership spending ROI is fair, poor or very poor.
  • Organization-wide engagement is missing. Nearly half (46 percent) of mid-level leaders and 41 percent of high-potential leaders are not active in driving change.

After reading these survey results, we did a little digging to find out more about what exactly drives successful leadership initiatives in the business world and we came across a McKinsey Quarterly article entitled, “Decoding Leadership: What Really Matters.”

In this article, the authors conclude that, based on a survey of 189,000 people in 81 diverse organizations, the secret to developing effective leaders is to encourage four certain types of behavior, listed briefly below:

  • Solving problems effectively
  • Operating with a strong results orientation
  • Seeking different perspectives
  • Supporting others

Not all businesses are built the same or have the same goals, but based on the original Korn Ferry study findings described, many executives feel leadership development is lacking and executives want to see an increased focused on leadership development moving forward.

What leadership development programs do you have in place at your organization? Do you feel that the leaders in your organization possess the four traits above? Let us know by posting a comment!

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