Leadership development is a multi-million pound industry. But not necessarily one that commands a huge amount of trust or credibility. So how you can make sure your approach to leadership development is a success?
As someone that has been operating in that industry for at least a decade, this bothers me. I want to be associated with excellence and impact. My main driver is making a difference. I am not the sort of person who goes through the motions in order to get her pay cheque and then clear off home.
And yet I am aware that many efforts to develop leaders do not have the desired impact. Like all industries, there are great practitioners and poor practitioners. There are also great commissioners of leadership development and poor commissioners. And then there is the reality that achieving lasting behavioural and cultural change (which is how I view leadership development) is a hard thing to achieve.
If you are responsible for developing leaders in your business or organisation, this post is designed to help you make that a success, and to avoid some of the common pitfalls into which I see people fall.
What’s hard about leadership development?
Before answering this question, I want to make sure we all have a similar definition of what leadership development is. Building on the section above, I see it as being a process of enabling people who hold, or who are going to hold, leadership positions, to enhance their ability to lead effectively. This is likely to mean building on their existing strengths. It is also likely to mean helping them to change certain patterns of thinking or behaving that they already have and which are hindering their ability to lead well. It means them exiting the process leading differently to the way they were leading when they entered the process.
In essence, it’s a process that requires people to change. And we all know how hard change is. So here are some of the common reasons leadership development is hard:
- People are resistant or ambivalent to change
- People have too much on their plate and the change isn’t enough of a priority for them
- There are conflicting messages about what needs to change or why
- The organisational environment is pushing people in the opposite direction to the change in question
- The development process provided is not what’s needed
- The person or people responsible for facilitating the process are not a good fit for participants or the organisation
- The timing of the change / development process is not right
- The eco-system of factors that influence the culture of an organisation and the behaviour of those in it, is incredibly complex
- There is an over-reliance on the experience of a single development intervention to make an impact, without thought to follow-up or wider interventions to help participants establish new habits
- It is often approached in isolation from any broader business or leadership strategy.
The complexity of organisational culture
While all of the above reasons are real and common, one of the biggest in my opinion relates to Numbers 5 and 9 and that is organisational culture.
Organisational culture is a notoriously powerful force that ‘eats strategy for breakfast’ (so said Peter Drucker). It is a complex tapestry of symbols including things like: history; context; styles of communication and decision making; the physical environment and geographical location; the values, mindsets and attitudes of employees; reward systems that promote or penalise certain behaviours; hiring practices; structures and more.
Systems thinking adds a whole additional dimension when looking at organisational cultures and ways of operating. It highlights the ways in which organisations have their own dynamics that are often stronger than any one or group of individuals operating within them and which provide powerful currents of influence across the system. Literature since the 1970s has been trying to describe culture and tell us how to change it. But there is no magic bullet.
How to make sure your leadership development is a success
So given the complexity of the task, how can you set up your own leadership development activity in such a way that it has the best chances of success? Here are my five top tips.
- Make sure it is grounded in the broader business AND leadership strategy
Leadership does not happen in isolation. It’s contextual. The job of leaders, after all, is to lead the organisation to achieve the specific strategic aims and ambitions of the business / organisation. So ground your leadership development activity in this.
But that’s not all. A stand-alone leadership programme, however great, is unlikely to have the impact you want unless it is located in the context of a broader leadership strategy that sets out the capability you need and the strategic approach to getting that. The scope of this will cover a raft of things from recruitment to identifying target populations (emerging leaders, women in leadership, team leaders, senior leaders etc), to performance management and reward to leadership deployment and more.
2. Make sure your approach targets emotional intelligence, relationships and people leadership
I feel a bit strange writing this as to me it seems so obvious. But the fact is that many client organisations are still missing out these crucial elements in their approach to leadership development. Leadership is about leading people. Any process for helping someone change or improve how they lead has got to engage in-depth with questions of self-awareness, EQ, relationships and personal impact.
3. Ensure sponsorship and role modelling from the very top
I have often seen senior leaders open leadership development programmes with nice words and speeches, while behaving day to day in a way that makes a mockery of the message of the programme. This compromises the credibility from the start. You have to find a senior sponsor who can genuinely endorse the approach advocated by your development agenda and demonstrate it in their own leadership style.
4. Do not treat it as a stand-alone programme
Leadership development is not a programme. It may include some kind of programme, but it is a lot more than a programme. It is a well thought through set of measures and interventions that target the various influences on a leader. These measures need to work together to help that individual (or group of individuals) develop in the necessary way. This will include helping them to develop the necessary attributes, mindsets, patterns of thinking and behaving that drive the behaviours and culture which in turn drive organisational / business success.
5. Choose your partner provider accordingly
Making sure that the provider is technically skilled in providing the intervention in question is one thing. But making sure your provider brings a strategic mind and approach to leadership development is another. They need to understand your organisational context and, even if they are not being asked to do any of the wider work described above, they need to make sure their input is aligned to and integrated with it, partnering with you to ensure a holistic, comprehensive approach to developing the leaders that will create environments where people will deliver their very best work. They also need to be brave enough to challenge your thinking about timing, messaging, readiness, follow-up and more. So easier though it may seem to select someone who will simply do what you ask, you would be wiser to pick someone who can bring a probing, curious mindset to their partnership with you.
In summary, the business of developing leaders is a complex one but one which, when approached with these considerations, can provide rocket fuel to your leadership capability, culture and business outcomes. This is surely what you need and want.
If you would like to discuss a current leadership or cultural challenge you are facing, drop me a line here or book an introductory 30 minute call here. My biggest passion is helping clients bring about a step-change in leadership so that more people are enabled to do their best work, and the organisation gets to make the impact it needs and wants to make.
I bring 30 years’ experience in individual and organisational change, a sharp strategic mind and a deep commitment to partnership. You can read more about my leadership development services here.
If you want to join my Deeply Human Culture Club, a community of people from across the world who share a belief in the need for leaders to do better in creating organisations that drive wellbeing and performance, email me here. You need to hold a position within an organisation and not be a consultant or coach.