“We train animals, we need to make sure we are educating our leaders.” ~Joe Contrera
Yesterday, I was attempting to read an article on my phone to catch up on an event. Once I clicked on the article, in less than a nanosecond my screen was filled so many ads that I could not decipher article from the ads.
So, I tried to close the ads covering up my screen by clicking on the nearly invisible ‘x’ in the upper right hand corner of the ad. Which whisked me off to a web page for that advertiser, so I just deleted the article.
I clicked on another interesting article which led me to a slideshow. A slideshow in which I had to painstakingly click through the list of ten that I could’ve read in less than a minute. While clicking through the list, a 30-second video ad popped up that I could not stop or advance.
At this point, I am feeling controlled, manipulated, and angry, so put down my phone and read a book.
When did we come to believe that by loading up a web page with so many ads that it is near impossible to read the article?
When is Enough…Enough?
Orwellian? Indeed, for those of you who don’t know, Orwellian is an adjective used to describe an event, idea, or a condition that exists in society that is identified as being destructive and overly-controlled.
That said, it did get me asking myself a few questions:
- At what point is enough, too much?
- When does an attempt to draw you in, drive you away instead?
- At what point does your intention to add to a persons’ experience actually diminish their experience?
You might be asking yourself…and what in the world does this have to do with Developing and Educating Leaders?
Actually a lot!
Some organizations take a very similar approach when it comes to developing their leaders. The idea is that the more courses and classes they can offer, the more effective the development of their leaders will be. And yes, while it is better to offer too many courses than no courses at all, there is a point where more is too much and the laws of diminishing returns cause organizations to fail in this critically important area of leadership development.
So how do you know if your leadership development is being trapped in an organizational spiral?
6 Organizational Leadership Development Traps
- Inundating your leaders with so many options, some of which hold conflicting concepts, that they fail to embed a consistent, singular leadership model into their culture.
- Creating training programs that are rooted in theory and outdated models which have no basis in the reality of what a leader experiences in todays ever-changing business world.
- Failing to intentionally create a congruent program that develops leaders at their level, and instead have a a “training du jour” mentality. Sometimes this happens when a C-Suite or Executive reads a book or hears a speaker at a conference.
- Failing to hold leaders accountable for improving the way they lead after the program. Therefore, diminishing the learning and the impact of the program.
- Judging the impact of the program on the feedback sheets collected immediately after the program (when people still feel good) or by the number of people who have gone through the training.
- Failing to follow-up days, weeks or months later to see what’s improved about the attendees leadership.
It is approximated that organizations now spend about $340 billion dollars (yes, that’s billions with a B) a year on training with the idea that the more is always better.
I once heard a V.P. of Training & Development of a fortune 100 company boast that they currently offered 500 different training courses…and they would be adding more! By the way, that company currently lags behind their major competitor by $4 billion dollars in revenue and $3 billion dollars in earnings and has for years!
6 Questions To Ask Yourself About Your Leadership Development:
- Is our leadership development process about training our leaders or are we educating them (we train animals, we educate leaders)?
- Do we have a series of programs and workshops that not only teach theory but build the leader’s skills they can start using the moment they walk out of the class?
- Does our overall leadership development plan consist of a multifaceted process that embeds the learning into the leadership culture over time?
- Will our leadership development process teach leaders how to develop the leaders below them?
- Do we have a system in place to follow up after the programs to measure the impact (R-O-I) of the time, money, and energy spent on the course?
- Have the people who are developing our leadership programs actually ever led anyone? In others words, is it based on what they think or what they’ve actually experienced?
5 Things You Can Do To Develop Better Leaders:
- Learn more about our 7-month Leadership Development Program based on my book, The Art of Leading, Coaching, & Influencing Others ®
- Reach out and have the conversation on how you can start transforming the way you educate and develop your leaders today click here.
- At the minimum pick up a few books on leadership and start the process of educating yourself to be an even better leader.
- Find a leadership development program with a proven track record that screams success, not from themselves, but from their customers.
- Click here an read more about how our leadership programs are impacting leaders around the country. Here’s just one of them:
- “The Art of Leading Coaching & Influencing Others ® Program has prepared the Leaders of our company for the future. As a result of this program our leaders think strategically and more like owners of the company instead of employees. They lead more effectively and the walls that used to separate individual departments have dissolved. This Investment far outweighs the benefit from any equipment we’ve purchased over the years.” – Mark Fultz, President – Able Steel Fabricators
Okay, so now it’s your move…
Till next time!
