Training & Development
What Makes A Leader Ready To Lead?
Organizations need leaders to move them in the right direction. Strong leaders can be developed, but how can organizations know when a person is ready for leadership development? Organizations must start by enhancing their capabilities for leadership development by focusing on individual’s “developmental readiness”.What is developmental readiness?
Developmental readiness (DR) is a person’s ability and motivation to add new knowledge/information into the long-term memory. There are five factors that are generally related to one’s leadership developmental readiness.- The nature of one’s goals:
- The level of someone’s confidence in their developmental ability:
- The level of self-awareness a person has:
- The level of self-complexity a person has:
- The possession of second-order thinking:
How can organizations use DR for development?
Leadership is contextualized, meaning the organization’s environment has an effect on the DR of its individuals. The environment in which DR occurs can aid or retard an individual’s development. Those responsible for developing leaders must be able to adapt their techniques/modes of development to the individual through providing individual consideration.Kathleen Melcher
DeGarmo
This was a summary of the research and practice implications from: Avolio, B.J., & Hannah, S.T. (2009). Leader developmental readiness. Industrial Organizational Psychology, 2, 284-287.