PDI Ninth House Pulse on Leaders Survey: Nearly Two-Thirds of Global Companies to Invest in High-Potential Programs in 2010

MINNEAPOLIS, June 9 /PRNewswire/ -- PDI Ninth House today announced a new Pulse on Leaders global study, which found that nearly two-thirds of the leaders of global organizations who responded said they currently have or plan to implement high-potential talent management programs in 2010.

PDI Ninth House defines high-potential leaders as those with the capability to take on significantly more responsibility and challenges—often in an accelerated timeframe—and to climb several levels beyond a current role. These leaders often receive a significantly larger percentage of an organization's talent management spend, since identifying and developing these employees can have a tremendous business impact.

For example, a global technology organization worked with PDI Ninth House to create a high-potential program to help top employees lead critical projects. The result: a 20 percent increase in project success, which equated to approximately $25 million in increased revenues.

The PDI Ninth House Pulse on Leaders study asked leaders at more than 100 global organizations about their planned investment in high-potential programs for 2010. Respondents included a cross section of leaders from North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.

"As the economy begins to improve, it's more important than ever to identify, develop and retain those leaders who will be critical assets in driving the company forward," said Stuart Crandell, senior vice president, Solution Portfolio Group at PDI Ninth House. "As the recent survey results show, company leaders are starting to re-invest in high-potential programs as a carrot to engage and retain these leaders, as well as a means to make better development and promotion decisions that positively impact their bottom line."

Crandell added, "Organizations that are doing this well are focusing more resources on a small group of people, and are significantly cutting the time needed to move this group from 'perpetually becoming' to 'effectively leading,' which will accelerate business success."

Specifically, PDI Ninth House recommends high-potential programs embrace the following:

• Holistic Approach: focus on skills, values/motives and self-definition (i.e. who do you want to be as a leader?)
• Relationship/Networking: provide exposure to senior executives and other key leaders to facilitate learning from others
• Versatility: build capability to handle variety of challenges and situations by providing diversity of experiences
• Learning-to-Learn: equip leaders to learn from their own experiences through reflection and feedback
• Stretch/Challenge Assignments: give them significant challenges and responsibility to stretch their capabilities; keep them engaged
• Feedback Intensive: provide both formal and informal assessment and feedback to accelerate development

PDI Ninth House offers a comprehensive range of services to identify and rapidly develop high potentials, to determine the readiness of high potentials for future roles and assignments, and to create or enable robust high-potential talent management processes. PDI Ninth House's high-potential development solutions include Active Leader and Action Learning, and its high-potential assessment solutions include TalentView of Transition and Development Assessment Center. This wide-ranging approach helps companies throughout the entire high-potential process, so companies succeed where it matters most and high-potential leaders become ready faster to take on pivotal organizational roles.

"To keep the best leaders and achieve the highest business results, it's important that organizations look at high-potential programs through both the organizational and the individual lens," added Crandell. "This is the best way for true success."

MEDIA NOTE

The PDI Ninth House Pulse on Leaders analyzes different workplace questions on a regular basis and can be used as a source for gaining insight on the inner values of talent management and leadership development.

About PDI Ninth House:

PDI Ninth House is a premier global leadership solutions company with distinctive expertise in accelerating leadership effectiveness to maximize organizational results. We have 43 years of experience in helping clients identify, manage, develop, and deploy superior leaders across all levels of their organization. PDI Ninth House serves thousands of clients on six continents, including 70 percent of the BusinessWeek Top 100 Global Brands, 75 percent of the Forbes Global 100 and 80 percent of the FORTUNE 100 firms in the United States.

PDI Ninth House partners with the world's leading organizations, enabling them to address critical leadership challenges with innovative solutions. Our aim is simple—the well-placed confidence that clients' current and future leaders are distinctively stronger than their competition, resulting in sustained, superior performance.

For more information, contact PDI Ninth House at 1.920.997.6995 (in the U.S. 1.800.633.4410) or visit its website at www.pdininthhouse.com.

SOURCE PDI Ninth House