Leadership development programs are a consistently popular career option for recent graduates. And for good reason. Many programs offer a groomed path to leadership with coaching, mentorship, and diverse work assignments along the way. Assuming the student can meet the high performance expectations that typically accompany being on the fast-track to leadership, there are significant career advantages to participation.

But leadership development programs aren’t just popular with students. They are appearing in more and more of the world’s top campus recruiting companies, both for undergraduates, graduates and MBAs. Recruiters like the programs because they often draw a large and high quality applicant pool on campus.  Talent managers like the programs because they can help to fill leadership gaps in the company’s management structure and bolster succession planning.

A lot goes into the design and administration of successful programs. Aside from a whole host of operational questions (e.g. Will there be rotational assignments?  How long will those rotations be and what parts of the company will they serve?  Will there be a mentoring component? How will these mentors be identified and evaluated?  How will the participants be evaluated and what happens when the program is over?), there looms a greater strategic question: What constitutes success?

Given the size of the investment companies make in their program participants, defining and achieving success is no small issue. Recruiters, talent managers, middle line managers, mentors and executives are often called on to dedicate time to the leadership development process. Without clear return on this investment, programs can lose the support of executives and wither away. That’s why so many program managers talk about what leadership means at their company, and why it’s important to get the right people in the program.

Through years of fine-tuning, some firms have developed a reliable formula for repeatedly generating the quality leaders they need. But it goes without saying that one size doesn’t fit all. A trek through the career fair at the National Association of Asian MBAs annual conference will quickly illustrate the variety that exists in programs and leadership philosophies across companies. What programs managers want most is a program that fits their company.  Getting to this point requires continuous refinement – often with the input and support of their counterparts at other firms. 

At the suggestion of several leadership program managers, a Leadership Development Program Employers’ Summit is being held at the Columbia University Faculty House in New York City on May 9th and 10th, 2012 to address the challenges of building and maintaining excellent leadership programs for campus recruits, The conference is intended to be a roundtable discussion on ideas and best practices on four critical areas of program management: sourcing and selection, program design, transition management, and alumni engagement.

Readers interested in learning more about the conference should visit www.regonline.com/ldpemployersummit for details and registration.

As talent acquisition and management professionals work to fill the gaps in their managerial and executive ranks, leadership development programs will likely continue to tantalize both students and the companies who need them.

dan.beaudry@qs.com| www.qs.com