U.S. companies spend $14 billion annually on leadership development – and yet one in three executives admit that they have failed to exploit business opportunities because they lacked leaders with the right capabilities. What’s going on here?
Leadership training is not the same as leadership development.
According to Forbes, “If what you desire is a robotic, static thinker – train them. If you’re seeking innovative, critical thinkers – develop them.”
We’d argue that it’s not such an either/or; training has its place as a valuable component of building leaders. However, development is about cultivating leaders who can think on the fly and leap past best practices in favor of next practices that will meet future needs. Leadership must be developed in the same spaces and under the same pressures in which it will be applied.
Leadership skills depend on context.
Most leadership development programs treat “leadership” as a personal quality or skillset that can be applied to any situation. Instead, companies should ask what they want the leaders for and help them to develop a small number of competencies specific to their future performance, as opposed to a long list of complex leadership standards.
Measure results and provide feedback.
Leadership development never stops. Even the company’s top personnel – owner, president, C-level executives – should grow as leaders over time. The key is monitoring performance and providing feedback that enables them to understand where they excel and where they are falling short. Over time, leaders can use that information to adjust their approaches and grow in effectiveness.
Some ways to handle this feedback system:
- Ongoing mentor programs (official or unofficial)
- Regular performance reviews (annually at minimum)
- 360 degree feedback exercises
- Regular reports on specific metrics related to the leader’s role and impact
- Basic small business planning
