Leadership development programs are hard to evaluate. Some people think hard ROI numbers should be the final test. Others suggest that success is having enough qualified people to fill leadership slots as they open up. Karin Hurt and David Dye ask: “What Makes the Difference Between Game Changing and Frustrating?”
They offer four ideas. Read the post to get them all. Number one is my favorite: “A great leadership program is a process, not an event.”
Leadership development is a process
Processes move us from one state to another. Developing leaders learn things today that grow out of what they learned before. Tomorrow, they will learn new things that grow out of the material and on-job-learning they do right now.
A leader who aspires to P & L responsibility must master an array of technical and leadership skills. Your challenge today is to help them decide which skills should come next.
Leadership development is a unique process for every leader
Some processes are the same for everyone. But every leader needs a unique process. Every leader has a unique mix of skills and experience. Every leader also has unique career goals.
If you want to achieve P & L responsibility, you must master one set of skills. If you want to become a marketing specialist, you must master different skills. No two leaders aspiring to general management will need to develop the same specific skills in the same order.
