What’s coming? Over the course of the next few weeks we will be doing a 3-part series on how to improve the overall effectiveness of your Leadership Development Programs. Today’s article will set the tone for what will follow and challenge you to take a long hard look at your current leadership development program by asking you 8 questions. By answering these questions you will be better prepared to go jump in a little deeper in the near future and see where your current program stands!
How This All Got Started
A while back, a colleague and I were having a conversation about the overall effectiveness of leadership programs. Both of us have been coaching and developing leaders for over twenty years and so comparing notes was both enlightening and educational. While discussing some of the challenges, we came to the conclusion that there are certain factors that create an environment that dilutes the learning and renders the overall effectiveness of the programs to be greatly diminished and in some cases, practically non-existent.
So I put together a list of questions for you to ask yourself about your current Leadership Development Program so you can take a mini-inventory to see where you might need to make some changes. Please note that the list that follows is not about blaming, judging or condemning anyone, we realize people are doing the best they can with the resources they have. It is simply a list of questions designed to reveal the truth about your current programs. Please answer “yes” or “no” you can tally your answers on the side and score your results after your finished using the guide below.
8 Questions to Ask Yourself About Your Leadership Development Programs:
- Does your program have a built-in variable to holds the participants accountable both during and after the program has ended?
- Is your program designed to serve the masses or does it focus on individual growth and development of the participants?
- Are your programs designed and taught by folks who have actually held leadership positions in previous roles?
- Do your programs target the specific needs of the participant or is it homogenized to cover the the broadest range of topics and people?
- Does your program have a logical developmental sequence with a consistent theme or is it a hodge-podge of different classes lumped together to form a program?
- Do you have a means for measuring the effectiveness of your programs or is it simply measured by the number of people who have passed thru the training?
- Does your program have a systematic follow-up process to measure how the attendees are implementing the learning into their daily leadership practices?
- When executives question the effectiveness of the training for the dollars invested, can you provide data that points to higher levels of engagement, higher levels of productivity, etc.?
- If you answered ‘yes’ to 6 or more of the questions, you are doing remarkably well! Keep it up!
- If you answered ‘yes to 4 or 5 questions your program probably needs a few adjustments. Stay tuned!
- If you answered ‘yes’ to 3 or less of the questions you are in serious need of a rework. You might want to reach out to us directly now.
Where Do We Go From Here?
When it comes to defining or achieving an effective Leadership Development Program, there are as many opinions as there are preferences for everyone’s favorite ice-cream.
The question I think we need to ask ourselves is, how do we do improve the overall effectiveness of the Leadership Development Process!
Over the course of the next few weeks we will examine 3 main topics that will help you transform your leadership programs so that you can achieve the results we all need and want you to achieve!
