Best Companies for Leadership

I recently attended the Hay Group's "Best Companies for Leadership" presentation at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business. The Hay Group put out some great research (check it out here at: http://www.haygroup.com/bestcompaniesforleadership/). At this event they brought together a panel of experts, including the top company on the list Proctor and Gamble (P&G), to speak about the findings.

The head of Global Talent at P&G was impressive and as a leadership consultant I was thrilled to hear some of the best practices that they engage in to put them at the top of the list. Here is what stood out for me:

• The culture has a tight tie between business strategy and leadership/organizational development - both building the business and the organization are important to the thriving of their organization. Systems, rewards, and incentives are all built to encourage this behavior in its leaders.
• You get what you measure and communicate - data is hugely important in determining the long term effectiveness of a leader as P&G measures the "wake" that the leader left behind. This leads to a long-term view of leadership and not just a focus on short term effectiveness.

• Advocacy Culture - leaders move ahead at P&G by having opportunities at challenging roles throughout the organization. Instead of a desire to hold onto top performers in a group, leaders advocate for their staff to get opportunities to advance to the next challenging role.
  
  How can you begin to integrate some of these learnings into your organization? How can you take some these best practices and make them part of your culture?