Leadership development only makes a difference in your company if it makes a difference in aspiring leaders and their performance. Karin Hurt zeroes in on how you do that in her post, “5 Powerful Ways to Ensure Leadership Training Sticks.†Here’s a list of Karin’s five ways.
1. “Design the training around business outcomes.
2. Build programs that include the participant’s manager.
3. Include teams in implementation.
4. Deliver training in digestible learning over time.
5. Welcome new ideas, insights, and help them take the next step.â€
All of those are good and you should read Karin’s post for the details. But two of them jumped out at me, based on my decades of leadership development work.
Leadership development should involve an aspiring leader’s manager
Part of any leader’s job is helping their boss succeed. That’s reason enough to involve an aspiring leader’s manager in deciding on what training is most needed. It’s even better if the manager can help deliver the training.
No matter what you do with effective training, most leadership development will happen on the job and in the workflow. That will be most effective if you involve the aspiring leader’s manager in planning and then in applying the lessons from training.
Leadership development happens during everyday work
Aspiring leaders who go off to training return with ideas about things they want to do differently. It helps to make the team aware of what the aspiring leader has learned and what he or she intends to do differently. This is also a good way to involve the team in helping the leader apply what he or she has learned.
Leadership development magic is in the mix
Any one of Karin’s five suggestions will improve the impact of leadership training. But they’re far more potent if you use them all. That way they reinforce each other and deliver maximum value.
