Leaders are not developed overnight. Rather, leaders develop competencies across a continuum over time. Indeed, leaders mature along a curve based on experiences and the skills and competencies that they develop along the way. That said, it is good business to develop talent continuously so that you establish a pipeline of leaders at various stages of readiness that can take the lead whenever circumstances deem necessary.

Most of my clients have talent development systems of some sort. Most of them do not have leadership development focus, per se. Instead, most in-house training programs offer a curriculum full of one-off skills development offerings, like "How To Be An Active Listener" and "Interactive Presentation Design." This kind of training has its place, but they do little to prepare the organization for tomorrow's leadership challenges. A proper leadership development program is needed to ensure businesses don't come up short when needing to fill leadership positions.

Here are four foundational elements to look for in any leadership development program. Think of these combining to form the four legs of a stool -- you need all four of these characteristics to establish a well-rounded leadership development program -- skip one and the program may not produce results that you can count on.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Inc.