The importance of developing leaders from within the organisation cannot be overstated. While the good thing is, most businesses realise this importance, the bad news is that most such businesses haven’t been able to establish a truly impactful leadership development program.
According to research conducted by Harvard Business Publishing, only 7% businesses are able to call their leadership development programs “the best in class”.
Clearly, there is a gap in the market. Businesses want to create impactful leadership development experience but have little idea about how to begin.
If you relate to this, you’ve landed on the right page. In this article, we will be discussing the elements that are commonly found in successful leadership development programs.
Without further delay, let’s jump right into it:
Personalisation
The benefits of a personalised learning experience are not difficult to imagine. However, personalising any experience is not a scalable undertaking and hence, personalisation is not often seen in employee training scenarios.
The case of leadership development is very different. In every organisation, only a handful of employees are ever selected for leadership development.
Hence, personalising the learning experience for such a small group is much easier. By doing so, you can provide your future leaders with a learning experience that uses their strengths to help them overcome their weaknesses.
Don’t just limit training personalisation to the course content or choosing the online learning path. It is advisable to provide each trainee in your leadership development program with a dedicated mentor from the upper management strata of your organisation.
This way, your trainees can learn from firsthand experiences of industry veterans that have spent years building their expertise and climbing the corporate ladder.
Action-Based Learning
Several different studies have proven that learning by doing is far more efficient than most other methods of learning. That’s why, on the job training is a popular form of employee training in the corporate landscape.
This principal is also applicable in the case of leadership development. The trainees in the leadership development should be made responsible for leading organisation-wide initiatives.
While there is some risk involved in doing this, if you have chosen your trainees carefully, and have made sure they are seeking regular guidance from their mentors/coaches, taking this risk should bring fruitful results.
Actionable Feedback
All great leadership development programs have a well defined process to provide learners with holistic and actionable feedback. This doesn’t just mean pointing out the shortcomings of the learners in hopes that they will improve.
Sure, doing that is important, but praising their achievements is just as important to keep them motivated.
Similarly, when they deliver performance that isn’t satisfactory, make sure you provide them with information that will enable them to do better in future.
Conclusion
Leadership development can often be a confusing undertaking for many organisations.
However, when you begin personalising the experience for the selected future leaders, provide them with opportunities to apply the knowledge they gain in real life situations, and give them feedback that enables them instead of putting them down, you can begin expected improved results.
If you still find yourself confused, this is a great article about how organisations can tackle leadership development for different levels of hierarchy.