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Designing Better Leadership Development Programs
We all know retention can be a challenge when conducting workshops or seminars. Too much is left behind when participants leave. Yet, workshops and seminars are, by far and away, the most preferred method for delivering training.* Speaking as someone who has designed and delivered workshops for 25 years, I realize this observation is not only a criticism of the training industry, but also a self-indictment. If our goal as trainers is to increase people’s knowledge and their capacity to be more effective, then I would suggest we need to reexamine our approach so that we better enable people to integrate the knowledge we are seeking to impart. What follows is a discussion of an approach to leadership design that addresses this challenge.
According to research by the Center for Creative Leadership’s on key events that most profoundly affected executives’ learning about leadership: 34% learned from hardships (business failures, mistakes, downsizing, demotions); 27%learned from challenging assignments; 22% learned from the example of others (role models, mentors, peers); and17% learned from other events (feedback, coursework, new roles). In a recent project for a New York state agency, I posed a similar question to a large group of senior managers. They cited: membership on cross-functional project teams; exposure that expanded their perspectives (issues, meetings, leaders); mentors and role models; and people who delegated work that helped develop their skills and broaden their experiences.
CCL’s research and my own anecdotal evidence indicate the often-ignored yet obvious maxim that people learn from experience. It follows that leadership development programs must build on the learning opportunities that already occur in people’s everyday lives. Adopting a few of the following principles will improve your ability to design effective leadership development programs.
- Align leadership development initiatives to the organization’s mission, strategy, and goals, so learning connects to real issues and work.
- Define leadership profiles, drawing on competency requirements for the organization and build them into the curriculum, both by sharing the profiles and discussing how they might uniquely reflect the organization and its culture.
- Survey participants to gather feedback on their strengths and potential growth areas. Refer to the competencies defined in the leadership profile when designing the survey and/or when interpreting the results.
- Put participants at the center of the process by giving them responsibility for shaping the goals and actions that will serve as the focus of their learning.
- Use a multifaceted approach to learning that encompasses all aspects of the individual’s leadership experiences in work, life, and development. Much important learning about leadership transcends the bounds of the workplace.
- Include applied learning opportunities that link to current work projects or practical challenges. Using new knowledge for practical purposes is the single most powerful means for retaining it.
- Facilitate exploration and exchange between participants and presenters in a way that allows people to open up and share their stories, without fear of being judged. The sharing of stories can illustrate lessons and place them in a meaningful context for participants, which helps them to understand, remember, and apply them.
- Encourage participants to establish reflection as a practice. Learning may take place at the moment of an experience, but even richer insights take place afterwards. Making a practice of sharing of reflections with peers creates additional, often lasting connections with the added benefit of expanding people’s networks and strengthening relationships, making working across the organization easier.
A Three-Track Approach to Leadership Development
The following approach to leadership development integrates the above principles:
- A structured learning track provides a forum for learning about leadership models, provides frameworks and tools, and provides interaction with current leaders. This track is composed of a workshop series, from four to eight training sessions scheduled over six to twelve months to allow ample time for “practice” between workshops.
- An individualized development track enlists participants in tailoring their learning. It features assessments—including 360° feedback, goal setting, action planning, and selection by participants of current work-related opportunities that match their goals. This track is most effective when a coach works with a participant throughout the program.
- An applied learning track gives participants a chance to expand beyond their functional areas. It consists of assembling teams from the leadership program to tackle specific strategic projects and/or questions defined by current leaders.
From a trainer’s perspective, creating learning events based on these principles has been gratifying in a way that is rare in training. People have grown, becoming more self-aware and more competent. The lessons they learn have become securely embedded, and they have taken on leadership opportunities more readily. Many of us come to work in the hope that we will make a lasting difference. Here I have had the opportunity to better realize that goal.
*According to Training Magazine’s Industry Report 2002, U.S. organizations were to spend over $54 billion on formal training activities in 2002, and 74% of all training was to be conducted in the confines of four walls with an instructor leading the way. These figures were barely changed from 2001, and we may expect they will be similar in 2003.
Tammy Galvin, Industry Report 2002, Training, October 2002, p. 68.
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