Leaders are not born. Leadership needs today are far broader and deeper than merely developing the next CEO or even building the C-suite pipeline. Companies face leadership gaps at every level of the organization. These gaps can only be filled through a sustained and systemic commitment to leadership development.

Strong leadership programs target leaders at all levels. At the early stages in the leadership pipeline, potential leaders need to acquire core skills in supervision and management, with frequent assignments to round out their skills. Later in their careers, rising leaders must understand all the business functions and how to run a P&L. As executives, leaders must learn business and product strategy and gain experience driving change among large teams.

Leadership creates teams and utilises teams to create extraordinary performance. Collaborative leaders are altruistic i.e. they are willing to give time to assist others on a practical level. Leaders who seek different perspectives monitor trends affecting organizations, grasp changes in the environment, encourage employees to contribute ideas that could improve performance, accurately differentiate between important and unimportant issues, and give the appropriate weight to stakeholder concerns.