DOES LEADERSHIP TRAINING actually WORK?
Global organisations annually spend around $60 billion on leadership development and training programs. However, data suggests much of this may be being wasted.
In February 2023 Forbes reported that 60% of CEOs questioned didn’t believe they had high-quality leaders in their organisation. And having spent 21 years working with global organisations, including most of the Fortune 500 companies, I can personally vouch for the erratic quality in leadership.
So what’s going wrong? And why is that $60 billion not making the difference or showing the return that is clearly so desperately needed?
You might argue the answer is complex: a rise in imposter syndrome, recovery from a global pandemic, fundamental changes in Gen-Z expectations, time pressures that don’t allow for proper leadership training even. I’ve heard them all and many more, but the reality? It’s much more brutal.
For too long now organisations have wasted time and money on personality profiling, and buying into leadership development systems and fad leadership processes. For even longer, many have missed the obvious: leaders are people. Whole-person growth is the only way to successfully make long-lasting, positive changes to behaviour. There is no simple “how-to” guide for being a successful leader because behaviour begets behaviour: self-awareness, resilience, and attitude must all factor in successful leadership development training. In a recent study by Born, Ling and Yemiscigil, one executive explained their (successful) leadership training “is transforming not just how I lead but how I live”. These are near identical words to a testimonial for my Leadership Accelerator Masterclass; a 30 day programme that helps leaders of all ages and career stages understand leadership better as a craft, and focus on the whole individual to become more successful. When individuals develop and grow for the better, the benefits are not solely personal but to the organisation, too, adding greater value personally and professionally.
But why?
I believe that leadership is a craft. It is not something that is achieved following a course; it is developed and hone for all the time you are acting as a leader. Leadership is also an attribute; it is an extension of an individual, not merely an action. Therefore, the individual is central to leadership efficacy. My own Leadership Accelerator Masterclass has been specifically developed to engage individuals in a 30 day process, which allows critically for self-reflection. It forces time to pause, consider, contemplate - and act. Over the last 21 years working with leadership teams the most common complaint I hear is that they do not have enough time. That will never change unless something is done about it: waiting for someone to give us more time is futile. That’s why the modules in the Masterclass are activated every 2 days and partly why I wrote an entire module on time management specifically for leaders, but helping leaders find time to consider purpose and value, for example, is key to changing mindset and behaviour. In turn we create more focused and effective leaders who enjoy their work more - and that’s essential for the health of employees, and organisations. We need that breathing space to spark perspective shifts, and potentially life-changing insights.
Organisations for years have grappled with what the right duration is for leaders’ training, and how it should most effectively be delivered. One of the most interesting outcomes of the research mentioned was that shorter programs yielded surprisingly large improvements and that often lower-cost and more efficient online training shows no significant differences in personal growth and wellbeing when compared to in-person programs.
Employee engagement and retention remains an issue for many sectors. I’ve spent most of my career researching the right questions to ask that help create efficacious behaviour change: questions that challenge us, helping us to grow and deliver results. What my career in questions has shown me time again is that organisations often fail to ask the right question, often in the same way that knowing something doesn’t mean that you’ll actually do it. Leaders must know which questions to ask to get the most out of themselves, and those in their charge - and when to ask them. It was a key focus when developing the Masterclass because only with greater engagement and personal investment do we see true, sustained impact. It’s often easier to measure immediate results, but effective training builds on changes with reminders and ongoing interventions to help establish long-term habits and encourage continued engagement.
That’s exactly what the in-house community and regular live ZOOM sessions do with the Leadership Accelerator Masterclass: they keep leaders engaged with the concept of continually improving - and the sooner organisations embrace the long-term journey of leaders, the sooner we’ll see the results we so urgently need to see.
To celebrate my 21st work anniversary, the Leadership Accelerator Masterclass is available to the first 50 people who sign up for just £399+VAT (a saving of £2,100), and then just £799+VAT for 21 days, after than it’s still a steal at £2,499+VAT.
Watch the video below to find out more:
