You’re in charge of leadership development. How can you make it more effective?

My thoughts. (1) While organizations focus on leadership development (and lots of HR analytics) they forget that TALENT is the natural ability of an individual to be great at something; without being taught. So while there is immense focus on developing competencies (Knowledge+ Skill+Ability+Behavior) to forge a leader, little focus is paid to leverage the talent of an individual and align that to a role. It's ironic, that a 'talent' acquisition team acquires talent more by mapping competency than any talent at all! (2) Leadership Dev. requires lots of relearning. For this, a pre-requisite is an environment that encourages failing, freely and safely. This allows an individual to test his boundaries. Using simulations helps. #talent #team

Always start with 2 things: business strategy and external environment. This allows you to formulate an integrated talent strategy, where leadership development is one several components. It also signals which capabilities are more important, i.e., contribute disproportionately to the business results, so that you can channel the finite development budget to where it matters most.

Before investing in any leadership development program, you must look back to plan ahead! Here's how: -Evaluate Current Leadership Identify gaps, strengths, and challenges using tools like 360-degree feedback and SWOT analysis. Define Future Needs Determine essential skills and behaviors for future leaders. Measurement Metrics Establish clear metrics to measure leadership performance and potential. Holistic Assessment Use surveys, interviews, and competency models to gather comprehensive insights. Effective leadership starts with understanding where you are and where you need to go.

Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach, design programs that cater to specific leadership levels, styles, and functions. Offer a portfolio of options, including formal training, mentoring, coaching, on-the-job experiences, and peer learning groups.

Leadership development is a building process in which all the aha moments that you have are cumulative — and are added to your toolkit. If you think the world is going to stand still because you’re not interested or motivated enough to make an investment in yourself, you’re sadly mistaken; unless you learn something new every day, you’re becoming obsolete. Learning is as much an attitude as it is an activity. As Albert Einstein said, “Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.” If you don’t make the commitment, don’t complain about the outcome.

Leadership development as a business policy or as a coaching process differ. The leader is made on the job even when trained by a reference school. It requires a definition of his basic profile and exposure to long term creation projects at the early stages of the career led by the expert who can be also a mentor. The purpose of this learning process will be to implement the project itself. Corporate values like Continuous Improvement, High Performance and Recognition are drivers. As to Leadership Coaching it depends on expectations of the business and the profile of the coachee. Every case will be different in the solution but they all will depend on transparency, realization and a plan to cope with the recognized gaps.

Have individual, team, and organizational objectives. Some of them may overlap and others might diverge, which is to be expected. Design for different learning styles and preferences, and include opportunities for reflection to reinforce the learning.

Less is often more. A lot of the time, programs go astray because program sponsors and designers get too greedy with things they want to accomplish with the program. It's a grave mistake. Ask yourself these questions: Would you achive 2 objectives flawlessly? Or Would you go for 5 objectives which you will be forced to take gambles on? Depth > Breadth Quality > Quantity

We at Nasdaq embrace the 70-20-10 model is an effective way to structure your design. Balancing theory with practical application, individual learning with group collaboration, and formal learning with coaching and feedback is key to a holistic approach. In my experience, sustained learned behaviours cannot be achieved without application. It is crucial to ensure that leaders not only gain knowledge but also practice and refine their skills in real-world contexts. I focus on leveraging evidence-based practices to ensures that the program remains engaging, relevant, and directly applicable to the roles and challenges our leaders face.

Leverage your leaders to co-create the program. As the designer, you will have the knowledge and expertise to build the right content and experiences. Leverage your leaders to provide feedback on the roadmap, activities and pacing - ensuring that the timeline and commitment is realistic on both sides.

The keys: 1. Adult learning principles: Base your program design on principles of adult learning, such as relevance, engagement, self-directedness, & practical application. 2. Customization: Tailor your program to the specific needs, preferences, and learning styles of your audience, taking into account their roles, experience levels, and developmental goals. 3. Integration: Integrate diverse learning methods and formats to provide a well-rounded and holistic learning experience that addresses different learning preferences and objectives. 4. Balance: Strike a balance between theoretical knowledge and practical skills development, individual reflection and group collaboration, and formal instruction and informal learning opportunities.

Gamification and behavioral protocol are some methods applied in leadership development. There are other ways that leadership developers can employ to make prospects and leaders gain new skills and behaviors.

If you’ve ever watched a dance instructor, mentor, or football coach in action, they continually offer constructive feedback to improve the recipient’s game. The recipient knows full well that the feedback isn’t given in malice; rather, it’s an opportunity to grow. The fact is, if you don’t learn from the first time you perform an activity, you’ll do it the same way in the future. Practice doesn’t make perfect if you’re doing it wrong.

"Leadership development is not an event; it is a journey" I heard this sentence from a colleague at CCL some years ago. When acquiring TECHNICAL SKILLS (Excel, ChatGPT, programming,...) and EVENT may be "enough" - with a lot of practice afterwards. When you want to make LD more effective, you need to think about change in mindsets, behaviors and culture. In addition to traditional "programs" (whatever their length, format and content), I suggest 2 tips to boost the IMPLEMENTATION of these changes: - COACHING: Individual coaching sessions to help participants develop a cutomized implementation plan and to follow on it - IMPLEMENTATION PARTNERS Create groups of participants who can share challenges and advances post program, periodically

Classroom learning is an important component of leadership development. In the classroom the medium is as important as the message. You may have designed stellar curriculum that beautifully aligns with your organization's culture but if you put it in the wrong hands to deliver it, at best it will fall flat and at worst people will resent what feels like a waste of their time. A poor facilitator could make the best content uninspiring but a great facilitator can make basic content feel transformative. Free yourself from expecting the same person to both design and deliver content.

Making prospects and leaders participate in a leadership program must be voluntary, which means the program should turn into a form that attracts leaders. It is required while implementing a behavioral protocol especially. Or other in-office or outside-office programs implemented.

For leadership programs, I believe one of the most important elements is the way mentorship or apprenticeship elements are managed. While the program should include classroom, self-directed, and coaching elements, I truly believe the most powerful way to grow leaders is for them to be mentored by a (healthy) leader that exemplifies the leadership qualities you're developing in them.

We in LIM (Leadership in Motion) first rename 'leadership development' to 'shared leadership development'. Then we define what that means. We then combine business development and organization development with shared leadership development. We run SLD Programs with teams of 5 working on 5 of their company's business & organization challenges (problems or opportunities) to develop a shared leadership culture while solving these challenges. Measures of success include: 1) ROI resulting from the challenges; 2) transformed individuals; 3) changed teams as participants cascade what they learn in the program to their own teams. 4) A TGIT (Thank God It's Today) culture. Shared Leadership Disciplines: A Better Way to Lead and Coach is our guide.

Just make sure you understand that it's really hard to evaluate the effectiveness of the LD program. After all the only measure is the change you observe in others and nothing happens in isolation, which means you cannot state that the change happened solely as a result of the LD program. Just be careful with the evaluation techniques.

Evaluating the program can be done easily. Post program survey with leaders clearly communicating what they thought was effective and what could be improved. However, evaluating the leaders application of the ideas is a much larger task. It needs to be looked at as changes over time. Results from a leader improving their feedback skills or performance management won't be identified in a week or even a month. Rather, it needs to be viewed as trends in the entire organization. How was employee retention changed? Is there more lateral movement within the company? Are team members feeling greater satisfaction with their work? The effect leaders have shouldn't be measured as a single data point, but many over a long period of time.

One thing I've been able to use is accountability. Each of us has a unique way of doing things, but setting up a plan for improvement with your mentors or managers and keeping them accountable is helpful

Yes, this is the most important factor of leadership development programs. Most often, we shy away from this step for various reasons. However, experienced and confident trainers embed this in their scope of programs early. This is how I do it. I always have a 'before-after' vision of the program. Before starting the program, I record the 'before' data. And once the program ends, I record 'after' data. And then, we compare both. This helps me evaluate the program and its impact.

Based on our survey of 145 companies, leadership development professionals are struggling to train for and measure business impact. If I'm head of leadership development, that would be the first and foremost thing on my mind: How can I align my programs with the greater business goals? And how can I MEASURABLY prove that I'm having an impact.

Leadership is a practice, not a position. Developing a practice begins with discovery of motivations, needs, and values driving the practice. This discovery contributes to the individual's personal development and to assessing alignment with the organization's motivations, needs, and interests. Now their leadership practice can be co-created with the organization to build on their strengths, values, and resources and to define and design what to learn, develop, and implement. Co-creative leadership development cultivates authentic leadership aligned with organizational needs supported by shared vision, intentions, and commitments that the individual and the organization can to use assess impact and effectiveness going forward.

Some may not realize, that leadership is a complex phenomenon. It relates to complex humans who are made more complex, by their upbringing, culture, constructions, and community. Therefore one must stick to principles and or science as it relates to development and elements of development. Too many conflate leadership with management which is different, although one can practice both. Then there is the anecdotal while ignoring critical principles, explicitly missing from 93% of all theories since 1840. Further, there is the failure to develop a dimension, explicitly missed in 100% of the theories from the same time. Real leadership gets the best from people in any context because the developer understands the innate needs of people.

Ask your staff for their input. The key Criteria for training success is engagement and so often organisations aren't actually listening to their teams desires for their own growth goals. Speak to your team and build their development together. This take on leveraging corporate Empathy will lead to far more sustainable uptake, attendence and results.