Labor Day Survey Reveals Many Top Leaders Landing in the Rough; DDI Research Shows That Development Programs Can Help Top Execs Overcome Flaws in Their Style.

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PITTSBURGH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 20, 2001

Labor Day may be a golfer's last chance to work on a faulty golf swing - and many top executives may be facing their last chance to correct the flaws in their leadership styles.

A new survey reveals that many of today's leaders have personality traits that leave them in the corporate equivalent of a deep sand trap. Fortunately, there is a cure: leaders can overcome behaviors and habits that derail their careers if companies offer high-quality development programs.

That is the lesson of a survey from Development Dimensions International (DDI), a global human resource (HR) consulting firm specializing in leadership development and selection system design and HR.com, the largest Web destination in North America for HR experts, advice, resources, products and services.

"Effective leadership is paramount to success today, but unfortunately investment in crucial HR systems, from selection to succession management, is falling short at all levels," said Richard S. Wellins, Senior Vice President of Global Marketing for DDI.

As part of its ongoing research, DDI conducted its most recent biannual "Leadership Benchmarking" survey in partnership with HR.com. Drawn from 187 organizations in 15 countries, over 5,000 leaders, HR professionals and associates (non-management employees) responded to the survey. The survey revealed signs of leadership failure such as:

Low confidence in leadership: Two out of three employees have low or moderate confidence in their companies' leadership. Even leaders themselves are concerned, with three out of every five leaders admitting they do not have a high degree of confidence in their organization's overall leadership capability.

Leaders lack loyalty: The survey revealed that more than one-third of leaders see at least a moderate chance that they will leave their organizations for another job. Issues related to career advancement and personal development have the greatest impact on leaders' desire to leave.

Poor prospects for the future: The DDI/HR.com survey uncovered widespread and increasing anxiety about future leadership. Today, 82 percent of organizations have a hard time finding qualified leaders. Only two years ago, 74 percent of organizations indicated it was difficult.

Leadership weaknesses

"Many executives are like golfers who have one little hitch that ruins their swings," Wellins said. "These executives have skills and knowledge, but one hitch in their personalities can ruin their careers. If they identify the problem early and practice correcting it, they can still have a nice round and not miss the cut." In the survey, DDI identified 11 such flaws - behaviors the firm calls "derailers" because they can derail a career and knock an organization off the track to success.

Derailers include: impulsiveness, being overly concrete, arrogance, micromanaging, self-promotion, volatility, being risk adverse, defensiveness, imperceptivity, approval dependence and eccentricity. Leaders and associates reported that the most common derailers are being overly concrete, micromanaging and imperceptivity. The derailers that are most frequently associated with overall poor performance include: imperceptivitiy, approval dependence, arrogance and impulsiveness.

"Being imperceptive - not being able to read others' behavior, intentions and motivations - is the most damaging symptom of management failure," Wellins said. Leaders' failure to see themselves clearly and understand how others view them is endemic.

Organizations fail to invest in leadership

The DDI/HR.com study suggests that too few organizations are doing enough to fight the leadership struggle by increasing their leaders' training and development to meet these challenges.

-- Nearly 70 percent of leaders have failed over the last two years to increase
the time they spend in selecting, hiring or replacing workers.

-- 77 percent of HR professionals feel their organizations' leadership
development programs are less than high quality.

-- One-third of organizations do not have a succession management plan, which
would help to identify leadership skill and competency gaps and provide
development plans to build better leaders.

-- Only 37 percent of organizations offer learning resources over the Internet
or intranet, though 53 percent of leaders desire such training. "This is a
concern because the need for leadership development is greater, but so are the
available resources," Wellins said. "Online learning is not a panacea, but
Web-enabled learning tools allow leaders to learn when and where they want, and
what they need on a far more cost-efficient budget, which translates into
continued success for them - and their organizations."

On the bright side

There are some positive signs. Nearly 70 percent of organizations plan to increase spending on training and development of leaders. And 45 percent of organizations have increased their reliance on internal candidates for filling leadership posts, a practice that DDI believes is the most effective way of developing future leaders given the uncertainty of hiring from the outside.

According to the survey, organizations with superior financial outcomes are more likely to have high-quality leadership development programs. More than one-third (37 percent) of the organizations with superior financial performance had high-quality leadership development programs. Only 6 percent of below-average performing organizations had high-quality leadership development programs.

"Just look at the ever increasing number of COO and CEO failures over the last 24 months. A lack of investment in leadership can be disastrous, especially when leaders are being asked to do more and more. Making the investment will definitely pay off," said Wellins.

A copy of the Leadership Benchmark survey is available for $29.95 by calling DDI at 1-800-334-1514.

About DDI

Since 1970, DDI has helped thousands of organizations achieve superior business performance through selecting, developing and retaining extraordinary people.

DDI's two major areas of expertise include:

-- Building leadership capacity and capability, enabling

organizations to meet their current and emerging business

needs.

-- Helping companies find and hire better people faster.

DDI's innovative solutions, including Web-based technologies, are customized to the needs of each client by a team of 1,000 experienced associates in 70 locations around the world. For more information about DDI, visit www.ddiworld.com.

About HR.com

HR.com is committed to providing Human Resources (HR) professionals with the information, tools and resources they need to successfully manage the people side of business. The Web site, www.HR.com provides daily news, an online library of over 6,000 articles, insights, tools, studies, surveys, discussion groups, access to experts and directories of vendors and consultants.

The site's subject matter covers all areas of HR, including compensation and benefits, HR information systems, HR management, labor relations, legal issues, organizational development, staffing issues and training & development. Membership at HR.com is free.

This press release is available electronically at www.ddiworld.com, www.hr.com and www.jackhorner.com.

Available for interviews: Richard S. Wellins, Senior Vice President of Global Marketing for DDI and Debbie McGrath, founder of HR.com.

To schedule an interview contact: Paige Pertz at 412-473-3404 or [e-mail]

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