We need better Leadership. But most Leadership Development efforts fail to show results. Right? Or wrong? Here’s how you can get much better results, based on my career spent developing leaders. I’ll try to keep this short.
LEADERSHIP MATTERS – Proven to be the biggest influence on business performance and engagement, it makes good business sense to invest in it.
THE PROBLEM. We’ve all read the HBR article ‘Why Leadership Training Fails’. The authors are correct; first, you need to get things clear at the “top”. Top leadership must: have clear strategic direction; set priorities; live the values; coach for change; and be aligned.
AND, top leadership must be personally and deeply involved in talent development. That’s a very good start.
HERE’S MY TAKE ON “THE REST”… practical tips for building successful leadership training.
I learned these insights from a career building, running, observing, and evaluating leadership training, talent development, and its impact.
Where and with whom? Across Europe, Asia, and Australia. With leaders and managers from 60 countries. Partnering with the top business schools like LBS, DukeCE, IMD, ISB in Hyderabad, EMLyon in France .
SO, FIRST THINGS FIRST. By that I mean:
SELECTION. The best training is wasted if the wrong people attend (I’ll assume you’ve had this problem too). Your talent system identifies potential and capability gaps in your talent pools. You have great people data. Link your nomination processes to that.
Even better, match the identified development needs with the development you offer. Sounds obvious, or easy, but takes extra fine tuning, time and care.
ENLIST THE BOARD AND CEO to define What Success Looks Like. What leadership capabilities most need building to deliver their strategy? What behavioural change is needed? How will it help the business? Also, how will you measure that? And when?
EVALUATING IMPACT. When your training demonstrates real business impact - tangible return on investment - it’s a core business enabler, not a ‘nice to have’.
MAKE IT USEFUL. Insight, bright new ideas and time for reflection matter for learning to happen. Deeply so. And so does learning by action. Build the program so it provides tools to use ‘back at work’ to make a difference. This takes work.
COLLECT STORIES. Of both failure and success. They are more memorable than graphs and tables when showing impact.
COLLECT DATA TOO. Cost per participant. Retention. Engagement. Performance.
ROI. Yes, it can be done after all. I showed how one participant saved CHF1 million per year applying something they learned on a program. That was a high yield investment.
INVOLVE THE BUSINESS. They make great faculty, and will support an agenda they helped build.
ALWAYS have top leaders attend as guest speakers. It is very worthwhile. They so rarely get to meet DIVERSE talent from across the organisation. And the – often revelatory – conversations that groups have with their CEOs are often transformative.
CO-DEVELOPMENT WORKS. It makes program richer and more relevant, in ways you never could have imagined on your own.
RELATIONSHIPS are the glue in your business. It’s how people ‘get things done’ in the matrix. Make space for networking, building collaboration and community across the silos.
ADDRESS ABSENTEEISM. I've seen 10-20% cancellation rates on global executive programs costing $20,000 per head. Fixing that can be remarkably simple.
NO SURPRISES. Every participant should know why they were invited and what is expected of them. Is it to prepare them for the next role? To close a gap? Are they “Talent”? And have the conversation in person, not a system-generated invitation.
SUPPORT REALLY MATTERS. Each participant needs someone who: cares what they learned; coaches them to apply it; gives them feedback; and holds them accountable. If not their direct manager, then assign a coach. Without this, 30% of your investment is wasted.
PRE-WORK. Blended learning, media, and e-learning as pre-work is essential. It gets everyone on the same page, ready to learn, and is time and cost efficient.
CONSTANTLY EVOLVE. Change is constant. As your program rolls out, it will change the conversations leaders in your company have, and even change readiness. As that evolves, adjust your content, and don’t be afraid to turn up the heat, and take risks. That’s how the burning issues get addressed.
Okay, I tried to keep this short. In doing so, I left out a lot of the detail, and "how to do" some of these things. So if you want to better understand anything I have touched on above, just call or write to me. And I will answer.
Who am I and what do I do? Having been Head of global leadership development and talent assessment for large companies, I now run my own consultancy. I help my clients solve those ‘soft but hard’ problems. Like coaching derailed leaders to get back on track. Coaching new leaders to be more influential and impactful. Helping intact management teams get better at collaborating. I help them articulate their purpose; answer big questions like “why?” and then to work out “how?” and “with whom?”. And yes, I am passionate about assessment too – I deliver assessments of culture, of teams, and of individuals. I use robust psychometrics (personality/values/motivation), and also build full assessment centers.
I believe it's important to answer the perennial question: “so what?” Sure, diagnostics give ‘data’ – but the key actionable insight has to be clear. That is, “What do we need to do as a result of knowing this?” I am passionate and interested in helping people, teams and organisations to be their best. And one part of that is ensuring leadership training delivers measurable results for the business.
Author. Alan Le Map is Managing Director of Latitude Consulting AG. He is Australian and French, and is based with his family in Zurich, Switzerland. He serves medium to large enterprises across Europe. He also collaborates with leading business schools and other consultancies on key projects. If you’d like to explore any of these ideas with him, click contact us on the homepage.
