Leadership development: opportunities and challenges

In today's environment, leadership development practitioners face greater opportunities and challenges than ever before. This is a result of at least three powerful trends that are converging to transform the world of traditional leadership development:

• companies are recognizing that the thinking and behavior of their leaders is one of their most critical and distinctive drivers of company performance and value

• a new body of knowledge - based on extensive research and practice - has emerged in recent years to reflect the challenges of leading in the digital economy

• the learning industry is undergoing dramatic transformation as a result of new approaches and technologies

The combination of these three trends means leadership development practitioners are now being asked to play at a whole different level. Rather than the quiet HR backwater of the past, leadership development is rapidly moving front and center as a key pillar of company strategy and distinctive advantage. For innovative practitioners, life has never been better. For those clinging to traditional ways of doing things, its time to recognize that we are living today in a new world!