Leadership Development in College
General Electric has been in business for years and focuses on developing leaders during
their studies. They currently have internships and co-op programs which develop leaders prior
to full time hiring. Susan Peters, the head of leadership development, described “The days of
building “great general managers” are now over, and highly successful leaders are now great
engineers, scientists, and sales people who really understand the business itself. A majority of
GE graduates are hired into their prestigious leadership program due to the carrying an intern or
co-op position ‘rst. “Helping students develop the integrity and strength of character that
prepare them for leadership may be one of the most challenging and important goals of higher
education”. Additionally, research indicates that students can increase their leadership skills
during the college years and that increases in leadership development [ CITATION Kom07 \l
1033 ]. General Electric recognizes this and allows them to develop over many years in this
program. Susan Peters also quoted, they (students) have to develop what we call “deep
expertise,” a complete and total understanding of the business itself.
Leadership Development in Organizational Se:ng
GE’s own internal data shows the company has originated statistically the largest
performance managers which have been apart of their business area for at least ‘ve years or
more. Included in this factor is the understanding that people with a deep understanding/
expertise make be=er decisions. As Je?rey Immelt, CEO of General Electric, suggest that
developing managers in the jet engine business may take many years, so why wouldn’t we want
to keep the people we developed. He likes the idea of putting experts that have a deep
judgment, market savvy and have great technical skill in these positions. Also in addition to
putting these people into the position, he can hold them even more accountable for any
negative results. In this next particular case, GE provides an opportunity for a person who had
no real world experience but put him in a position to become a leader.
General Electric has created mid-career leadership programs as one answer to building
long-lasting leaders. They support the growth of our talent pool, broaden the skill set, and
shorten the promotion cycle. Consider Jim Smith (not his real name) who joined GE a@er 10
years as a top-gun pilot in the U.S. Air Force. While he had his BA and MBA, he did not have
business-world experience. Too senior for an early-career program, Jim was nominated to the
Corporate Leadership Sta?, one of our mid-career accelerator programs. For the ‘rst year and a
half, he drove sales under the guidance of a veteran sales leader. He then spent a year in
