Overview and Challenges in Developing a Comprehensive Leadership Development Program in a Fortune 500 Company

Abstract We live and work in a rapidly changing and global environment. Advances in technology, increasing volatility, complexity, and dramatic shifts in how work is completed require successful leaders to invest in their own personal development to meet the demands in this highly competitive environment. Implementing and sustaining a leadership development culture is of paramount importance for organizations to succeed and thrive in the future. This paper provides a summary of key leadership research insights for organizations to establish sustainable leadership development cultures. It also provides an overview of the history, challenges, and status of Micron in developing a comprehensive and sustainable leadership development program for more than 6,000 leaders globally across all disciplines including engineering, manufacturing, operations, finance, procurement, human resources, etc. The efficacy and effectiveness of leadership development efforts at Micron is not included in this paper and will be included in future work. Leaders in large organizations face many demands on their time and it is often difficult to prioritize leadership development. This paper should provide insight for leadership educators to better understand the challenges of implementing and sustaining a comprehensive leadership development program by meeting leaders where they are at in their own development. Micron is a fortune 500 company with global operations in 17 countries and more than 40,000 team members. Designing and implementing a comprehensive leadership development program that establishes a leadership culture and supports development of front-line supervisors, managers, senior managers, directors, senior directors, and corporate executives is fraught with many unique challenges. Leadership development needs vary based upon organizational position and functional area. In addition to English, leadership content must be designed, developed, and delivered in Malay, Chinese (Traditional), Chinese (Simplified), and Japanese while providing these development opportunities in different regions and time zones. Additional challenges exist when developing timely and culturally relevant leadership content. Many industry and academic organizations utilize leadership development frameworks or models to help leaders / students understand the skills necessary to be successful. A purposeful approach was utilized to assess organizational and leader needs. Each leadership program offering was developed in response to these identified needs and directly mapped to Micron's Leadership Attribute Model. This model is similar to other frameworks utilized in academic settings and large organizations. A leadership development journey was established to support leaders in transition and to sustain ongoing leadership development for all leaders within the company. This approach enables leaders to construct a customized development plan to enhance and increase their leadership attributes and capabilities as they take responsibility for their own leadership development. Opportunities exist at Micron to strengthen senior leader sponsorship and involvement in the establishment of a sustainable leadership development culture.