“I don’t like theory much. Tell me what I should do differently.”
The man who asked that question was an experienced police sergeant who looked like a pictorial illustration of the word “grizzled.” Before I could answer, he continued,
“You’ve had us for three days now and I’ve learned a lot. But I need one thing to concentrate on when I hit the streets tomorrow night.”
Even at that stage of my career, I knew better than to try to answer that question from my great store of wisdom. I set the class to work coming up with an answer. As usual they came up with several possibilities.
That day I had every person in the class define one thing they would do when they returned to work, based on what they’d learned in class. I’ve done that in every class I’ve led since.
Leadership development must end in doing
Leadership is a doing discipline. It is less like history and more like riding a bicycle. The only leadership development that really counts ends with a positive change in performance.
Figuring out what to do is the start
Dr. Marshall Goldsmith studied more than 80,000 business people who went through some kind of training to see how many actually did something to use the training or ideas they received. There were very few of them, but the ones who made a change had two things in common.
They chose one thing to concentrate on and brought in someone else and made themselves accountable to that person for doing what they decided. That’s the second piece of the puzzle.
Being accountable is necessary
I added “pick an accountability partner” to “pick one thing to do.” In class, we’d have a discussion of who people want to pick and why. That helps some pick the person who’s best for them.
Today you can go one step further. Have people in the class call their accountability partner and get buy-in.
Bottom Line: Closing the Gap
Before people leave any leadership development training, have them do two things. Have them pick one thing they will do differently based on what they’ve learned. And have them connect with an accountability partner who will help them keep that commitment.
