Embarking on leadership development can be a complicated, confusing and costly journey! Many questions can come up during this process. Do you manage it internally or externally? Do you do a one-off event or a longer programme? How much time can your leaders allocate for training? How do you manage when leaders are spread across different countries? Where is it best to run training?

While the answer to these questions will depend on your specific circumstances, some guiding principles will help you craft your leaders’ development journey. See below for what we have learnt about designing leadership programmes from our many years of experience.

8 Keys to success for leadership development

1. Magic happens when leaders can set aside a few days for development

Rather than spending a few hours here and there, we find that the best learning happens when leaders have consecutive days to focus on their development. This enables them to disconnect from work and focus on themselves. The evenings allow space for integration, and leaders often arrive on day two or three with powerful insights that have materialised overnight.

2. Get leaders out of the office

This may seem obvious but is so important it is worth mentioning. Leadership workshops in the office are not as effective. Participants are too distracted and are still in ‘work mode’. The office presents a constant reminder of roles and responsibilities and hierarchy, in the training room we seek to leave roles and hierarchy behind.

3. Mix virtual and in-person sessions

To ensure learning sticks and accountability is maintained throughout the programme we recommend some element of virtual learning. This could be through short virtual group workshops, individual coaching or peer check-in sessions. These sessions work best when they combine structure around a specific topic with flexibility for participants to bring questions and updates.

"One unwilling participant can shift the experience of the whole group”

4. Understand the needs of each leader

Where leadership training can go wrong is when the needs of the leaders are not fully understood. Know the leaders' level and how willing they are to engage in leadership development. Are they in need of management upskilling, or are they ready for a more intense transformative leadership experience? Offering the same programme blanket to everyone at the same level might not always be appropriate. There are usually different levels of experience and ages that require different solutions. One unwilling participant can shift the experience of the whole group. If someone does not wish to engage in the leadership programme, forcing them to attend isn’t usually recommended. If you think they need development, perhaps they would prefer one-on-one coaching instead. Make the criteria for attendance the same for everyone (i.e. compulsory or voluntary) and clearly communicate the reasons for someone not being included to maintain harmony within the team.

5. Get the right facilitator

Leadership development requires a facilitator, not a trainer; the distinction is an important one. When a trainer talks, a facilitator listens; when a trainer explains, a facilitator asks; a trainer shows, a facilitator connects the dots. Both are important and needed in different contexts. Facilitation is important for leadership development because leaders need to open their minds, relate to and build on their existing experiences, and create new possibilities for themselves. Facilitation is closer to coaching in skill set, so check if your ‘trainer’ is a certified coach.

“Management development changes behaviours, leadership development shifts mindsets”

6. Know if management or leadership training is needed (or a combination of both)

There are many different definitions of management and leadership and distinctions between the two. For us in the context of training, management development is more practically focused on skills and techniques to manage a team. It includes listening, giving feedback, running one-on-ones and leading a team. Leadership development is about how to successfully lead yourself, lead a team and lead an organisation. We explore leadership values, strengths and emotional intelligence to grow self-awareness. We explore some of the more complex skills required to be a successful leader such as how to build psychological safety, impact change, and influence others. Where management development focusses on the leaders’ immediate team, leadership development extends to impacting the wider organisation. And where management development is focused on external behaviours, leadership development seeks to shift mindsets.

7. Know what success looks like

It is impossible to track the success of your investment in leadership development if you don’t know what success looks like. Spend some time to think about what your end goal is. While it’s nice to invest in your leaders for their own personal development, it is more than likely that you want to see some benefit to the business. Are you judging success by the number of promotions? Engagement scores? Team performance? Don’t let measurement be an afterthought – you will need to track measures before and after the programme to know if it has been a success.

“Do it right or don’t do it at all”

8. Don’t try to do too much

This is a challenge we are often faced with where clients want to cover more topics in less time. Our motto is do it right, or don’t do it at all. Skimming a topic will only result in leaders not fully understanding it and being unable to apply what they learnt. Covering a topic properly, in most cases, needs time for sharing relevant theories, reflecting on personal experience, sharing thoughts and ideas with colleagues, some form of activity/practice and time to consider application and actions. You can’t rush learning, and when you are challenging pre-existing beliefs and changing mindsets, people need time to digest, disagree, consider, question and commit.

I hope this quick guide to leadership development has been helpful. Do get in touch if you would like to discuss your leadership development plans. All our programmes are customised to meet your specific needs, ensuring you make the most of your investment.