Are the "rising stars" in your company’s leadership ranks getting the development they need? These talented young leaders in your organization — often called "high potentials" — are those you must groom to ensure the future success of your company. According to a survey by the Center for Creative Leadership, over 50% of companies have a formal "high potential" leadership program. An additional 35% acknowledge an informal development process for up-and-coming leaders. Regardless of how your company develops promising leaders, there are steps executives can take to make certain your company has ample senior leadership candidates in the pipeline. Here are three tips to help you make the most of your leadership development efforts. Credit: Startup Stock Photo Start the development process early. As with many business processes, the leadership development cycle has shortened. Gone are the days when aspiring leaders could progress through a series of extended front-line leadership assignments, gathering valuable experience over the course of many years. According to this Training Magazine article, experts indicate that the cycle time for developing executives has been cut in half, to about 15 years. This means that your current leadership should look to employees in their late 20s and early 30s to identify those with the talent to take on greater levels of responsibility. Help them map their careers. One of the most effective ways to engage your high-potentials is also one of the easiest: sit down with them and have a conversation about their careers. The Center for Creative Leadership study found that the No. 1 answer to "What could your organization do to increase your engagement and commitment?" was "Provide career pathing and support." Don’t assume that your high-achieving employees know exactly how to progress in their job growth — even though they’re talented, they still need coaching. And they also need to hear that their contributions matter. Consider these 12 questions to help you get the conversation started. Encourage high-potentials to coach their peers. Over 80% of employees described as "high-potential" leaders say they actively look for ways to identify and develop other high-potential employees. Companies can capitalize on this "leaders helping other leaders succeed" approach with a peer coaching model. Mary Faulkner, who heads up the talent department for a U.S. water utility, has managed peer-coaching programs for several organizations. One of her favorite success stories is about an underperforming service center. After three members of that center’s senior leadership team participated in peer coaching, the center outperformed the other facilities in several key metrics, including employee satisfaction and turnover. One of the benefits of a peer-coaching model, says Faulkner, is that leaders can support one another as they progress through the leadership development program. They are "able to tell their success story, and reinforce the importance of supporting each other as they grow in the organization." Leadership development plays a critical role in safeguarding the future health of your organization. Although your most talented players have a shorter time to grow into their executive roles than in years past, they also have ready access to two important resources: their current leaders and their leadership peers. Companies that maximize these resources will have an easier time filling that elusive leadership pipeline. Jennifer V. Miller is a writer and leadership development consultant. Her writing and digital training materials help business professionals lead themselves and others towards greater career success. Follow her on LinkedIn and sign up for her free tip sheet: "Why is it So Hard to Shut Up? 18 Ways to THINK before you Speak." If you enjoyed this article, join SmartBrief’s e-mail list for our daily newsletter on being a better, smarter leader. Related Posts: Are you a leadership-talent hoarder? 12 questions to help you conduct effective stay interviews Leadership tough love: Never judge or budge 7 leadership gift-giving ideas for the workplace The etiquette of career development 3 tips for developing your high-potential leaders originally published by SmartBlogs

This post is sponsored by PayPal. Many entrepreneurs want to improve the world around them while expanding their companies. Having a social mission can be one of the most rewarding aspects of starting an e-commerce business, but it’s not as simple as writing a check to your favorite charity at the end of the year. Small-business owners who give back stress the importance of adaptation and the need for accountability. At the same time, working with nonprofit partners can help a company reach more customers. Here are a few tips from small businesses that have successfully incorporated social missions into their business models. Tip #1: Be flexible in how to best serve your cause "Understand that being socially responsible in an effective way relies on evolution, not revolution," says Jeffrey Malkoon, founder of Peanut Butter Americano, a business he formed with the goal of supporting impoverished people in Latin America after spending time volunteering in Uruguay. Malkoon started by donating the profits from one of his flavors of peanut butter to a Latin American charity, but as his business grew, he realized he could have a greater impact by forming his own foundation. This approach gives him more flexibility and control to channel his support where it will be most effective. "As an entrepreneur with a social mission, you have to be prepared to evolve your mission over time in order to provide the maximum benefit to the cause you are seeking to support," says Malkoon. The takeaway: Don’t be afraid to change course if you see an opportunity to have a greater impact on your cause as your business grows. Tip #2: Embrace accountability As you tend to the day-to-day needs of your small business, you might find it increasingly difficult to monitor the activities of the charities you support, but it is important to do so for the sake of your reputation. Websites like charitynavigator.org can help you evaluate the effectiveness of various nonprofits. Pura Vida, which sells bracelets made by Costa Rican artisans, supports about 165 different causes, ranging from cancer research to beach cleanup. Founders Paul Goodman and Griffin Thall began working with One Percent for the Planet, a network of businesses and nonprofits that support environmental causes. "If anyone questions what we are doing, we can point them to that third party," Goodman says. "They hold us accountable." Goodman and Thall have also hired an in-house charity-relations manager who researches charities to make sure they meet the company’s standards. The takeaway: Take responsibility for your charitable activities. Working with an outside organization that provides accountability can help. Tip #3: Enlist the support of your nonprofit partners In addition to allowing you to advance a cause you believe in, working with a nonprofit can build goodwill for your company. Don’t be afraid to highlight your philanthropic efforts. Chances are that the charities you support have considerable outreach efforts of their own, and they may be willing to help your business. Supply these partners with your marketing collateral, and consider asking them to link to your website from theirs. At Pura Vida, part of the job of the in-house charity manager is to work with the nonprofits it supports to promote the company’s bracelets. The takeaway: Social enterprise doesn’t have to be all give and no take. Don’t be afraid to ask for a little help for your own business when lending your support to charitable causes.   Related Posts: No Related Posts 3 tips for doing good with your business originally published by SmartBlogs

What’s missing in the middle is a set of skills for navigating specific challenges that leaders haven’t acquired or mastered at lower levels.

It was the first night of graduate school, Valentine’s Day 1996.  I sat in a small classroom in Indianapolis, eighteen years after graduating college - nervous, excited, and wondering what would happen at 6:00pm. Somehow,...Continue Reading »

Eighteen years after earning a master's degree, I reached out to Danny East, my first grad school teacher, to learn about his best practices as a teacher. He taught for ten years at Indiana Wesleyan...Continue Reading »

Although they makeup a fraction of the teaching population in the College of Adult and Professional Studies, full-time faculty devote all of their energies to the many aspects of teaching.  Andragogy, curriculum, and Scholarship of...Continue Reading »

Being still. It is increasingly becoming a challenge in our hectic world. The world cries out for us to be busy - to fill our hours with watching television or movies, reading magazines, playing video...Continue Reading »

Envision a community where there is a perpetual open-air banquet. No matter where you are in the community, the banquet is a short walk away. The food is arrayed on an ornate wooden table, draped...Continue Reading »

:: University Learning: Improve Undergraduate Science Education Excerpt: "It is time to use evidence-based teaching practices at all levels by providing incentives and effective evaluations, urge Stephen E. Bradforth, Emily R. Miller and colleagues." Read more :: Online College Students 2015: Comprehensive Data on Demands and Preferences Excerpt: "These data reveal both bad news and good news about the current state of online higher education. The bad news is that the overall college population has shrunk in recent years. Given the declining national unemployment rate and the rebounding economy, more people are choosing to remain at their jobs than to pursue further education. Data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center (2015) show that college enrollments declined by close to 2%, yielding 18.6 million college students today. About 5.5 million of these students are studying partially or fully online. At the same time, competition for these online students is increasing. Between 2012 and 2013, 421 institutions launched online programs for the first time, an increase of 23% to 2,250 institutions." Read more :: Tactile Art Click to play video A fascinating research project at the University of Michigan designed to address the issues faced by children with autism spectrum disorder. Excerpt: "An inability to perceive how much pressure one is putting on a certain object is but one of the many unique issues that children with autism spectrum disorder can have. Researchers David Chesney, Sean Ahlquist, and their respective students have taken aim at enabling treatment for this disability by way of a new device that acts as a touch sensitive coloring book. A large screen of spring loaded fabric is stretched over a frame with a projector and a Microsoft Kinect placed behind it. The projector projects the image onto the screen and as the patient pushes in the screen is colored, meanwhile the Kinect sensor measures the depth of pressure that they’re applying to the screen changing the hue of the color they’re applying. This device could be the key to collaborative play for many children with autism and with more testing and validation could see widespread use in treatment centers around the world." Watch the video demonstrating the project :: World’s University ‘Oligopoly’ Accused of Blocking OECD Bid to Judge Learning Quality Ahelo academic and funder blame research elite for thwarting international graduate tests, but criticisms also levelled at multimillion-dollar ‘failure’. Excerpt: "Attempts to measure what students learn at different universities around the world are being thwarted by the "established oligopoly" of institutions seeking to "prevent new information about education coming to light", according to an academic who worked on plans for a standardised test. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development appears to have hit the buffers in its bid to persuade member states to support the introduction of its Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes tests for graduates, seen as the university-level equivalent of its Programme for International Assessment tests in school education." Read more :: Texas Wants 60 percent of Young Adults to Hold College Degrees by 2030 Excerpt: "In order to stay competitive regionally and globally, states have been pushing for more residents to earn a college degree or certificate. It’s an initiative that has been picking up steam across the country, as free-two-year college programs grow and colleges work on closing achievement gaps — all in an effort to get more college credentials into the hands of America’s workers. Texas has become the latest state to join the college completion agenda. Last month the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board adopted a new goal for 60 percent of 25- to 34-year-olds in the state to hold a postsecondary degree or certificate by 2030. Currently, only 38 percent of Texans between those ages have a degree. The initiative matches a similar law that was passed in the state in 2013." Read more :: Treasury Plan Seeks to Put ‘Competitive Pressures’ on Universities Excerpt: "That the Treasury sets the course of higher education policy these days is no longer news. But in its recent Productivity Plan was another important, possibly transformative, announcement. Alongside changes to the planning system and more talk of the "northern powerhouse" were plans on "opening the market" in English higher education "to new and alternative providers". The overall aim of the changes, says the Treasury in the document, is to bring in new providers who "stimulate competition and innovation, increase choice for students, and deliver better value for money". The government plans to "introduce a clearer and faster route to degree-awarding powers for those assessed to offer the best quality education", as well as to "explore options to allow the best providers to offer degrees independently of existing institutions before they obtain degree-awarding powers", according to the document." Read more

To help Ottobock establish a more efficient training process, ShareKnowledge partner SYCOR, implemented a company-wide Learning Management System (LMS) based on Microsoft SharePoint. Around the world, the name Ottobock stands for high-quality, technologically outstanding products and services. With over 5,200 employees based in Germany, their business revolves around restoring customer mobility and protecting any remaining functions. Ottobock chose to implement ShareKnowledge to specifically help with training and learning processes for after-sales service employees.