"If your business isn't looking ahead, you're already behind." - Rick Lash, Director of leadership and talent practice, Hay Group, Canada

Our friends over at the DigitalNow blog brought this recent study on leadership to our attention. it is based on the Bloomberg BusinessWeek.com and Hay Group conducted their Best Companies for Leadership survey

 and it brings up two major points:

1. The Top 20 companies this year are significantly more likely to be primarily focused on 'positioning for the future' than other companies.The behavior of these companies indicates they believe the recession is over.
2. In last year's program, the quality that the Top 20 companies valued most in their leaders was execution—the ability of leaders to achieve results through others. This year, the most valued quality is strategic thinking."

They also note other significant trends for 2010 are around expanding roles for women and the advantages of corporarte social responsibility (CSR or sustainability). Read the full article here.