How can your leadership development program drive success for your organization?

I don't believe that a leadership development program will contribute to success in the short-term, but it can in the long-term. In the short-term, a company can just focus on outcomes, but for success to be sustainable, it needs to provide team members with inspiration for the desired outcomes AND for how they can grow and develop to contribute to those outcomes. A good leadership development program will drive alignment on the behaviors that lead to great outcomes at your company and will make clear how any leader can develop to make a greater contribution to the company's success.

Leadership development is a mindset that starts with caring about people and their goals/aspirations. The minute we minimize it with the title of a program or course, it becomes a check the block training that leaders' must attend to continue their own advancement. I understand that a program is still necessary to add structure to the CEO's vision. Therefore, we should focus on how effective leaders think rather than tasks they should accomplish in leader development. If a leader is always thinking, "How can I show my employees that I care about them personally and professionally?" then sincere relationships will grow. If the focus is on the tasks rather than mindset, then employees will see right through the lack of sincerity.

Leadership development means aligning your leaders with the right values, competencies and the the organization's overall mission. This starts from when the leader is identified with potential to their development and continues as they develop other leaders around them as well.

Horses have been modelling collective leadership for centuries. Humans could learn a lot from their principles to implement in the professional world!

I agree having just completed a CTO program at Wharton I thought that having started several successful Technology companies and sold them and led many Teams that I knew more than I did but I was humbled in the Executive Leadership courses because they really showed me new techniques which will help me for years to come with my new Startup in Florida

In the realm of retail leadership, the cornerstone has always been the philosophy of servant leadership. When crafting your strategic vision, it's not just about aligning it with your core values; it's equally imperative to delineate the specific behaviors you desire. This becomes particularly crucial when nurturing new leaders within your organization. The more precision your leadership development program can provide in defining and imparting the essential leadership behaviors and frameworks, the swifter and more profound the implementation and impact you'll witness.

Super brief but incredibly important point: one of the biggest ways to demonstrate respect for your team members is to value their time as highly as *they* value their time. We reveal our subtle disrespect for team members when we run meetings poorly, when roles and goals are ill defined, etc. And - you guessed it - poorly run trainings and development programs are two of the most common culprits of wasted time. So as you consider curriculum design, ask yourself this really tough question: is this development program worthy of my team?? And if the answer is no, *don’t launch.* Because the data shows that a poorly run program has a worse impact on the organization than offering no program at all.

Perhaps it's time, in this ever-evolving workplace paradigm, to step away from traditional leadership curriculum and dive deeper into self-discovery and consciousness, across all levels, recognizing leadership is a life-long evolution, and important at all levels? In embracing a more wide-spread and community-led approach, our self-aware leaders recognize the significance of their unique gifts and empower individuals at every level to comprehend their own motivations and unique strengths, creating a culture of collective leadership. Of course, to be successful, this approach requires we all vulnerably share our journey’s - failures and all. The Human-Centric era of work is calling for us to double-down our humaneness.

Of course, constant feedback is important. Ultimately, the success of a leadership training program can be measured by how memorable it was. The better we as coaches and trainers are able to bring emotional components to the training, the better the participants will be able to actually use what they have learned. Ongoing evaluation within 6 months is critical

Evaluating L&D programs is epically important. You should be as ruthless (in a good way) about tracking and measuring impact for L&D as you are for every other key business activity (selling, product development, marketing, customer service, etc). As a very wise woman (Claire Johnson, here’s to you) once told me - if you can’t measure it, don’t do it. So the key is to design measurement into the L&D program/process from the start, to ensure you are able to measure and share the KPIs that matter most.

There is a quantitative evaluation of this part, but leadership itself is a qualitative process. Qualitative methods for measuring results provide deep insight and understanding into the background, motivations, and attitudes behind observed phenomena. Unlike quantitative methods, which are based on numbers and statistics, qualitative methods focus on collecting and analyzing non-measurable data. One example is narrative analysis: This method focuses on analyzing stories or narratives to understand the meanings and structures they contain. It is particularly useful for understanding personal experiences and how people construct their lives and experiences.

Some things I've found useful in isolating the effects of any development programme are the use of tools such as 'Theory of Change/Logic models'. Also a clear chain of impact, in relation to the Kirpatrick levels has been invaluable in demonstrating the programmes contribution to business results. In my experience, acknowledging the additional variables, that influence the outcomes, brings credibility to the evaluation process.

You can't rush growth. Program success is not a lever-pull. For any development program to show signs that it's working, you must be patient long enough to see it through or brave enough to pivot.

This is one of the steps that is often missed in curriculum and program development. If a program is for leads, their managers should understand the outcomes of the program as well as how they can support the development. Accountability setups are critical as well. This could be an informal mentorship or small group coaching for a few months after the program. Digital accountability through the learning management system can be automated as well.

After evaluating your leadership program, be sure to include a step where you can pivot - make changes, updates, improvements based on the evaluation and then move forward. Stay in that mindset and process of reassessing everything often so the program doesn’t get stale or outdated- which can happen very quickly in this post-COVID environment.

The purpose of creating true industry leaders is to be selfless and ensure the mindset is for a younger generation to move past your programme, your business unit and your company. If you can create that mindset, everyone wins

Ultimately, the success of any organization is deeply intertwined with the collective efforts, abilities, and attitudes of its people. While other factors like strategy, technology, and resources also play a role, the people within the organization are the driving force behind its accomplishments. The strength of any leadership development program can be a great contributor to the success of an organization, providing it is well-nurtured over time.

Importante que os objetivos de aprendizagem e desenvolvimento estejam alinhados com os desafios que a Organização possui e as expectativas que ela, na pessoa do C-level, possue sobre o papel da liderança. Sem esses check ao longo do processo, o programa está fadado a não aplicabilidade e por consequência, uma não vivência real dos desafios que foram desenvolvidos dentro do programa.

Leadership development of an organisation starts with individuals within. A growth mindset is just as important as organisational growth.

I was involved for three years in a programme that was voted best leadership development programme in the Middle East. Simply put, a leadership development programme should provide a pool of leaders ready to step up and take the business to the next level. Sounds simple, which it is, but that doesn't mean easy! Many organisations spend far too much time building complex programs that are divorced from the strategic aims of the company. This is what happens when you let HR or OD people take the lead! Make sure there is a hands-on champion for the programme in senior leadership or even the board. Being agile is key -