Leadership Development

It is clear that nature plays a role in determining a leader’s effectiveness with certain personal characteristics either helping or hindering their leadership impact. Yet it is also clear that any leader can develop their ability to lead well. The research shows that leadership can be developed but not easily. Such development takes focus, practice and persistence more akin to learning a musical instrument than reading a book. It is not surprising therefore that it is estimated that less than 15% of learning from classroom style management training results in sustained changes in a leader’s behaviour.

These guidelines synthesise existing best practices in leadership development design.

1. Like the training schedule of an elite athlete, leadership development needs to be viewed as a process not an event. Within this lifelong process, intensive periods of time (typically 6-12 months) are devoted to improving specific leadership behaviours. Throughout this period leaders engage in an integrated set of learning experiences such as 360 degree assessment, experiential skill development programs, individual goal setting and development planning, on-the-job learning projects, reflective journaling, mentoring, professional reading and reflective conversations.
2. Leadership development should be needs not wants driven. Given the difficulty in successfully developing new leadership habits, it is important to focus on those aspects of leadership where behavioural change would have the highest amount of impact. At an individual level this involves some form of assessment to identify leadership strengths and developmental needs, and then comparing these developmental needs to the leadership behaviours that are most important to achieving results within that leader’s context. This process culminates in the setting of 1-3 developmental goals that the individual leader seeks to achieve within a 6-12 month period. At a group and organisational level, collective assessment results, coupled with a strategic needs analysis can be used to identify key common needs.
3. A common and effective way to kick start the subsequent learning journey is through an experiential learning program or a set of experiential skill development programs. These programs may provide the time and space for leaders to digest their assessment results, set their development goals and develop their learning plan. They should also include opportunities for participants to be presented with goal relevant, evidence based and practical leadership skill models along with opportunities to practice these new skills within simulated environments. The initial program may engage participants in practising foundational skills that were identified as key areas of need at a collective level. Subsequent skill development programs may cater for sub-groups of participants within their areas of need.
4. Each participant should be engaged in goal specific on-the-job learning projects. These are real workplace projects which require the person to effectively use goal related behaviours for the project to succeed. To be most effective there must be a real risk of the project being a failure, the participant must be the one responsible for the project’s success or failure and it must be clear whether the project has succeeded or failed.   Some projects should be pre-planned, and negotiated with the leader’s supervisor. Other unexpected opportunities may also present themselves along the way. We suggest starting with 3 months of small projects that act as a practice field before starting on the more challenging project.
5. Sustained behavioural change is far more likely if, throughout the 6-12 month learning journey, leaders engage in reflective learning practices. These include reflective journaling and reflective coaching conversations. Such reflective practices help leaders to draw out lessons from their on-the-job experiences, bring forth lessons from the past when considering options with existing dilemmas and to form new, stable neural circuits that underpin the formation of new leadership habits.
6. Mentoring can also play an important supporting role over a leader’s 6-12 month learning journey. Rather than seeking out a mentor based on seniority or overall leadership prowess, leaders should find mentors who are effective within their specific goal area. Once a mentor has been found, leaders should make the time to see them in action on several different occasions. If the mentor has a natural ability in the goal area, it is likely that he or she will not be consciously aware of what they do that is effective. Hence the onus is on the learner to observe closely, noting patterns and subtle nuances.
7. Finally, leaders should be held accountable for achieving their goals and making behavioural changes within their workplace. Such accountability helps to motivate and challenge leaders to go the distance. It includes quantitative measures such as the ALDC’s Development Impact 360 degree assessment, along with a qualitative learning story synthesised from reflective journal entries.

The following considerations may also help you to develop higher levels of leadership impact through less direct means:

• Achieving sustained changes in leadership behaviour is possible but not easy. Management expert, the late Peter Drucker, highlighted how one of the simplest ways to turn average performers into stars is to find a place where their existing strengths are what is called for. Matching the leader to the role and its associated circumstance will develop leadership effectiveness without any behaviour change at all.
• Develop leadership teams at a collective level. This helps to align individual leadership efforts and builds in continuity when any individual leader moves on. Further, building on the point above, leadership teams can examine how they can use each other’s strengths to offset each others’ weaker areas, further developing the effectiveness of the leadership team as a whole.
• When planning organisation-wide or centrally sponsored development opportunities, have leaders self-nominate and then carefully select from this group those leaders that show the highest level of aptitude for development, assessing personal factors such as locus of control, achievement drive, openness to experience, conscientiousness and self-monitoring. Such individual factors have a large impact on subsequent developmental success and if interest exceeds the available funds, it is best to invest in those most likely to actually develop as a result of the program. Existing supervisor ratings have been shown to not be an effective way of selecting leaders to participate in a development program.