1. 2011 Women’s Leadership Conference
“Go Where There Be Dragons”
Leadership Essentials for 2020 and Beyond
Sophia A. Muirhead
General Counsel and Corporate Secretary
The Conference Board, Inc.
April 13, 2011
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2. Business needs
leadership correction,
calibration, and change.
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3. So Says The Conference Board Councils
 Asia-Pacific Talent, Leadership Development and Organization
Effectiveness Council
 European Council of Human Resources Executives
 European Council on Learning, Leadership, and Organizational
Development
 European Council for Diversity in Business
 Leadership Development Council
 Council on Learning, Development, and Organizational
Performance
 Executive Council for Talent and Organizational Development
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4. WHY?
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5. Why leadership change is not
happening naturally?
 What kind of language do we use about Decisive, courageous, visionary, inspiring,
leaders and leadership?
B moving team toward goal, great in adversity.
 How does the media portray leaders? I Men, firm, heroic/the lonely hero, beautiful
people, charismatic, lions
and elephants, aggressive, bigger than life.
 What does leadership look like based
on these descriptions?
A Decisive, bias for action, engaged, able to
execute, gravitas,
deploy the troops, figurehead
S
This material is based on a May 2010 presentation to a joint Council session by Professor Binna Kandola, senior partner and co-founder of
Pearn Kandola, a leading practice of business psychologists, specializing in assessment, development, diversity, and well-being, with offices in
the United Kingdom and France. Kandola’s most recent book, The Value of Difference: Eliminating Bias in Organizations, was published by
Pearn Kandola Publishing in 2009.
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6. Perspective #1
 The speed of change is changing.
 Changing expectations of the workforce.
 Globalization has given way to complexity.
 Government oversight and regulation is growing
in all regions of the globe.
Corporate social responsibility is becoming a
key component of doing business.
Managing polarities – continuity vs. change;
being global but acting local; continuous
improvement vs. fundamental innovation.
You can no longer control the conversation.
Shareholders (from employees to customers,
to board of directors) have access to
information, not all of it necessarily accurate
or flattering.
In a world that can seem as if it is spinning out of control, leaders will
need new skills and behaviors to manage new drivers that include AND
increased speed, complexity, and customer sophistication
Greater access to information at greater speed
actually means more ambiguity, not less.
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7. Perspective #2
Human Capital risk is #1 in significance
(% respondents)
Source: Best practice in risk management: A function comes of age. (An Economist Intelligence Unit report sponsored by ACE, IBM and
KPMG) February 2007 (Data are an average measure taken from surveys over the previous two years)
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8. Human Capital risk is managed LESS effectively than
almost everything except terrorism and climate change.
(% respondents)
Source: Best practice in risk management: A function comes of age. (An Economist Intelligence Unit report sponsored by ACE, IBM and
KPMG) February 2007 (Data are an average measure taken from surveys over the previous two years)
7 © 2010 The Conference Board, Inc. | www.conferenceboard.org

9. Source: Best practice in risk management: A function comes of age. (An Economist Intelligence Unit report sponsored by ACE, IBM and
KPMG) February 2007 (Data are an average measure taken from surveys over the previous two years)
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10. Perspective #3
A.C. Nielsen study:
2/3 of respondents
believe the
looming talent
shortage will cost
them at least USD
$50M.
1/3 of survey
respondents with
revenues of more
than $1B believe
the hit will top USD
$100M.
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11. Perspective #4
2011 CEO Challenge Survey
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12. GLOBAL
Talent is ranked second among the top challenges faced
by CEOs around the globe for 2011
Top 3 Global Challenges
Business growth 1.65
Talent .74
Cost optimization .72
Innovation .70
Government regulation .59
Corporate brand and reputation .42
Customer relationships .40
Sustainability .37
International expansion .29
Investor relations .09
.00 .50 1.00 1.50 2.00
 # of observations: 704, number of observations for each challenge varies.
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13. GLOBAL
Regional results show significant variation in top 3-
challenges for CEOs across regions
Global United States Europe Asia Rest of World
1 Business growth Business growth Business growth Talent Business growth
Government Government
2 Talent Cost optimization Business growth
regulation regulation
3 Cost optimization Innovation Innovation Innovation Innovation
Customer Corporate brand Corporate brand
4 Innovation Talent
relationships and reputation and reputation
Government Government Customer
5 Cost optimization Sustainability
regulation regulation relationships
Customer International International
6 Cost optimization Cost optimization
relationships expansion expansion
Corporate brand Customer Government
7 Talent Talent
and reputation relationships regulation
Corporate brand Customer
8 Sustainability Sustainability Sustainability
and reputation relationships
International Corporate brand International International
9 Sustainability
expansion and reputation expansion expansion
10 Investor relations Investor relations Investor relations Investor relations Investor relations
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14. Business needs
leadership correction,
calibration, and change.
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15. HOW?
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16. LEADERSHIP
DEVELOPMENT
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17. GLOBAL
Importance of Leadership Development
Top 3 Global Strategies for Talent1
Improve leadership development programs,
grow talent internally 1.03
Enhance effectiveness of the
senior management team .81
Provide employee training and development .53
Improve leadership succession planning .49
Hire more talent in the open market .46
Promote and reward
entrepreneurship and risk taking .45
Raise employee engagement .43
Increase diversity and cross-cultural competencies .37
Flatten organization;
empower leadership from the bottom up .36
Redesign financial rewards and incentives .34
Manage multi-generational workforce .25
Invest in education system to improve
workforce readiness .23
Invest in automation and technology to reduce
exposure to the scarcity of talent .13
Other, please specify: .07
Redesign benefits, e.g. health care and retirement .02
.00 .50 1.00 1.50
 (1) # of observations: 258, # of observations for each strategy varies. (2) # of observations: 74
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18. CAUTION!
The old way of developing leaders – to clone an
organization’s current leaders – is outmoded. Do that now
and you are at risk of being irrelevant. Leadership
programs you develop for high potentials now
may not be relevant when they
are ready to lead.
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19. Tomorrow’s leadership developers must
 Stop looking in the rearview mirror
 Question conventional wisdom
 Get middle managers on board
 Develop a leadership brand
 Don’t assume managers know how to
draft development goals
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20. NEW C-LEVEL MINDSET
The C-suite should understand that
leadership development is not an event; it
is a commitment, and the C-suite is
accountable. Leadership development is
time intensive and requires the
commitment of senior leaders. This
responsibility cannot be relegated.
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21. Leadership Development – C-Level Strategies
 Take an active role in internal development; become involved in teaching, mentoring
and coaching
 Provide leadership in emerging leader/ HI-PO programs that reach employees
earlier and advance them faster than the organization is used to doing
 Think through the opportunities you have to provide developmental opportunities
(both formal and informal) for the next generation of leadership
 Insure that all programs link to talent management actions including rewards,
mobility programs and succession planning
 Participate in candid discussions about the leadership behaviors necessary for
success now and in the future; work for a collective vision that can be articulated
and acted upon
 Hold each other accountable for the upholding “ground rules”
 Seek feedback as an individual and as a team so that you can continue to address
current and future challenges as a high-performing team
 Communicate often about what matters and why
 Speak about your own developmental journey
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22. Questions & Answers
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