🚀 We know that organisations invest significantly in developing their leaders, which is absolutely the right thing to do. However, organisations can only realise the REAL value of this vital work if it is carefully planned, designed, and actively supported. Here we are sharing five key ways to get the most benefit from your leadership development initiatives for leaders and the business.
1️⃣ Context
Leadership capability is one of the strongest drivers of success in delivering strategy and culture. To see real value from your investment in leader development, connect this to what the business strives for (purpose and strategic priorities) and current or planned transformation initiatives. Leadership development without this context becomes theoretical, difficult to actualise, and will not deliver the full potential value.
2️⃣ Co-design
For the best outcomes, it is best not to assume your leaders’ strengths and gaps; instead, the most impactful learning experiences consider insights or evidence about what is most important for leaders’ development and growth now and in the future. Engaging, co-designing, and piloting with leaders gives confidence that the learning experience will land well and be of the most benefit. A fit-for-purpose design!
3️⃣ Activation
It is wasteful to build your leaders’ skills and not provide early and meaningful opportunities to apply these. Anyone sponsoring leadership development should know enough about the learning experience to identify relevant growth (activation) opportunities. Support, coaching, or mentoring is a great way to embed learning. Performance = Skills + Motivation + Opportunity.
4️⃣ Engagement
I am unsure of the original source of this quote I recently heard and liked: “Able to Leave, Happy to Stay“. Leaders look to advance their careers and look for new challenges and ways to expand their impact. Why not create an environment where your leaders, although capable of moving on, are happy to stay and continue to make a difference in your organisation? Keep your great talent as much as you can.
5️⃣ Future Leaders
The idea here is to connect leadership development and talent management practices. We design leadership learning to prepare FUTURE leaders in the business! So how do we ensure these FUTURE leaders are ready and considered to fill future roles? Sometimes, of course, roles need to be filled by external candidates. However, it does not make sense to invest large sums of money in Leadership Development and then have no or few talented successors for critical roles. It makes good sense to leverage, where possible, your internal talent you have invested in developing.
With any business investment, you want to maximise value. This thinking should apply equally to your leadership development initiatives.