How to Implement Agile and Experiential Leadership Development Programs

Did you know that only one-sixth of HR professionals think that their leadership development programs are "very effective?" What is keeping our hard work from having a true impact on our leadership brand?

This article is the third in a five-part series talking about how our leadership development programs can be more effective in changing the culture at our organizations. Last week's article discussed how to develop a unique leadership language at your company as a foundation for a leadership development program.

Once an organization has established its desired leadership brand and leadership language, it's time to build out a leadership development program, hopefully with more effectiveness than the majority of organizations.

Why are traditional leadership development programs ineffective?

Many leadership development programs utilize familiar concepts and help educate leaders about various methods for successful leadership. The challenge is that most leaders have difficulty translating these concepts into tangible behavior change, and thus, business results. It's time to start thinking differently about our leadership development programs.

How can they be more personalized, specific, and actionable for leaders to truly undergo experiences in their daily jobs that make them better leaders?

Structure your leadership development program around an employee's growth trajectory.

Think about your personal development. What were the biggest lessons that you learned in each phase of your life? As we navigate through our own growth, we generally learn the most from experiences - the good, the sad, the difficult, and the exciting. If you haven't spent time doing it before, sit down and think in hindsight about what these phases of life brought your personal growth journey. After thinking about those lessons in each phase, can you notice an underlying theme in each one?

Similar to how our personal growth goes through phases, leadership development in a professional context also goes through phases. For example, when first placed in a managerial role, most people think the most about how they can improve their own leadership skills in the context of their self-awareness. They discover what types of styles and skills fit their personality well. They may even undergo transformation to understand what values are the most important to their personal leadership brand.

As each person progresses in their career, they begin to focus on more external impacts for leadership. How does their behavior as a leader impact their team? How do they motivate their team in different ways to increase engagement and productivity? Once a leader has reached the strategic level, they should be considering how their leadership at the company not only affects the organization but the way it impacts the community around them.

Consider how you are going to set up your leadership development program to help your employees navigate through each phase of their career. One way to create more reach and impact throughout the organization is to create pillars or learning areas. An example of a four-pillar structure, including four different learning focus areas, is above.

Agile and experiential learning opportunities make leadership development programs more successful.

Breaking tradition with old-school leadership development programs can be difficult. Think about how employees at each of the levels of leadership in your organization will best learn the components of your leadership language model. Work with employees from each of the levels to determine intentional learning objectives through various learning methods to encourage real business actions, not simply leadership training exercises.

Things to consider: What practices can your leadership share with learning leaders to give a real-world experience? What kinds of learning activities can create an opportunity for future leaders to have a voice, impact the bottom line, or be engaged in the strategic vision of the company?

See the matrix below as a starting point for more examples of how to integrate your leadership development program into your business. Remember that each person, level, and organization will have different learning opportunities within this matrix, and that's a good thing! We want to make this experiential, personal, and adaptable.

For example, maybe an experiential learning opportunity for some upcoming leaders would be to participate in the company's strategic planning efforts before they join the traditional group that conducts that exercise on an annual basis. Or, maybe they schedule a monthly meeting with another executive to help them work through the strategic vision for their team. Each box can hold something unique to each individual and company, and it doesn't have to be overly prescriptive.

Getting buy-in can be tough.

If your organization is really looking to be more agile and update its leadership development program, the change may not take hold as quickly and smoothly as planned. Stay tuned for next week's article to learn more about implementation and how to overcome barriers with changing mindsets on leadership, culture, and change.

As always, I'd love to hear about how you are breaking the traditional learning methods and leadership thinking at your organization!