Hotel & Motel Management - March 17, 2008 - (Page 12) 12 Family Business IN THE details Leadership, management People skills important Special projects effective Mentors have big impact H&MM March 17, 2008 | HotelMotel.com www.HotelMotel.com/digital_edition Success comes from developed leadership ant to know the key to successful companies? Look to the leaders and managers who manage them. Successful companies are led by leaders and managers with outstanding personal and entrepreneurial characteristics such as people skills and decision-making abilities. The leaders of tomorrow W By Mike Henning H&MM Columnist must sharpen their business and personal characteristics or the succession process for them will be blocked. Recently a global human resources consulting firm called Development Dimensions International conducted a study of the best leadership practices of strong leaders worldwide. DDI polled more than 4,500 leaders and more than 900 human resource personnel in public and private organizations from 42 countries. The following are some of the results: 53 percent of internally selected leaders fail due to poor people or personal skills. 53 percent said failure was due to poor personal qualities such as style, attitude or habits. 43 percent cited leaders who couldn’t get results. 36 percent cited failure from the lack of skills to do the job. 33 percent noted failure from poor strategic or visionary skills. If these are the characteristics that result in failure, what are some success characteristics? 85 percent of the organizations use formal training and workshops to develop leaders. 77 percent cite the use of special projects or assignments within the candidate’s job responsibility as being “highly effective.” 46 percent cite the use of special projects or assignments outside the candidate’s job responsibility and only 55 percent said they were highly effective. Nearly all agreed that special projects and assignments were the most effective. 91 percent who had mentors or personal coaches said the experience benefited their careers. 46 percent said the coaches and mentors had a “great impact” on their career success. 45 percent said they had a “moderate amount of impact” on career success. Companies with high-quality leadership development programs and formal succession management programs have superior business performance Our personal observation, based on working with more than 300 business-owning families over 20 years, is similar to the findings of DDI: Highly developed personal and business characteristics and practices must work hand-in-hand for leaders of companies to be successful long or short term. Our work, and the work of many other family business advisers, points to the ability to work with, influence and lead people on a personal level as the No. 1 characteristic or practice of current leaders, and a quality that the leaders of 2008 and beyond will need to be successful. hmm@questex.com Mike Henning is the founder of the Henning Family Business Center, which was established in 1985 and is headquartered in Effingham, Ill. He can be reached at hfbc@mikehenning. com and www.mikehenning.com. CIRCLE NO. 166 http://HotelMotel.com http://www.HotelMotel.com/digital_edition http://www.hospitalitydesign.biz http://www.hospitalitydesign.biz http://www.mikehenning.com
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