Building Results-Oriented Leadership Development Programs
Category : Training
The retail pioneer, John Wanamaker, once stated, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half”. The chain of department stores he started eventually became part of Macy’s. Even in today’s digital advertising age, that statement is still true, with more than half being wasted according to some experts. The same is very true of leadership development programs.
Organizations spend $60 billion annually usually without any proof that they work. In a survey we conducted 2 years ago, we asked, “how does your leadership program monitor growth or progress?” Thirty-Three percent selected “Follow Up Interviews”, while the rest selected “None.” Neither of these responses should be acceptable by organizations that have invested in a leadership program. Follow up interviews are subjective and can be biased. I could interview a person today and say they’re doing well, while you may interview the same person the next day and contradict my opinion. Based on this study and other research, I believe more than half the $60 billion spent annually is probably wasted.
There are several reasons for the lack of effectiveness of leadership development programs. Some of the most common reasons include:
- lack of a clear direction
- one size fits all approaches
- lack of follow up
- focusing on the latest buzzwords
- poor overall program design
I have been training established and aspiring leaders for over 16 years in academic programs, corporations, law enforcement and the military. My leadership development vision was honed from personally leading teams for over 30 years and when presented at a conference several years ago, it was called the most comprehensive leadership vision by a senior leader who had extensive corporate and military academy training.
To build a leadership develop program that produces results in improved leadership, it must include the following:
Be process-based versus skills-based. Most programs focus on teaching participants leadership skills to become a better leader. Skills are not enough. Possessing the skills without a practice and improvement process only addresses a portion of what is needed to become a better leader. It’s like the chef and the ordinary cook setting out to make the same dish. They may both have the same ingredients, but the dish created by the chef will usually be much better because the chef knows the process intimately based on extensive practice and the improvements they have made over time in making the dish. Additionally, following a process leads to continuous improvement. After a person has completed the process, they should reevaluate their performance and adapt their leadership strategy in preparation for their next leadership encounter.
Be personalized to the individual. Most programs use a one-size-fits-all approach where everyone learns the same skills and are told to implement them in their leadership practice. Unfortunately, not everyone can utilize the skills taught in the class or can be good at them once they’ve learned them. Each person must leave the training with their personal leadership vision based on their own innate qualities and abilities.
Include structured feedback. Development with most programs ends after the class work is finished and there is no follow-up or feedback loop to see if what was learned was properly implemented. This one-and-done approach is contrary to Kolb Experiential Learning Cycle where knowledge is created through experience and reflective feedback. It views learning as a multi-stage integrated process with each stage supportive of and feeding into the next. Effective learning only occurs when a learner is able to execute all four stages of the model.
Include objective measurement. Measuring leadership progress is essential to tracking leadership growth and demonstrating a leadership program’s effectiveness. As William Edwards Deming, the leading management thinker in the field of quality, once said, “Without data you’re just another person with an opinion.” By incorporating a well-designed assessment tool, leadership progress can objectively be measured over time, and enable organizations to calculate a return on investment of their leadership development program.
By incorporating these 4 attributes into your leadership development program, your organization will create better leaders with documented objective results.
Our approach to leadership development incorporates all of these attributes and more. It is process based, not skills focused. It is personalized to each individual such that each individual leaves the formal training part of the program with their own leadership vision and plan based on their abilities. Follow-up coaching is an integral part of the ongoing program feedback, and typically delivered 3, 6 and 12 months after the formal course.
We measure and monitor leadership progress over time with our Leadership IMPACT Assessment tool. To provide context to the results, we can compare the leader’s behaviors to that of the hundreds of participants who have taken the assessment in the last 8 years, and to participants at their organization level. By adding the team component, we can compare them to their team’s perception of their leadership behaviors. This has enabled us to identify toxic leaders and introverts.
For more information on how we build effective and measurable leadership development programs, please visit us at EliteLeadershipAcademy.com/training.