In a recent McKinsey article  they reported that almost two-thirds of respondents in a McKinsey study identifying leadership development as their number-one concern, and around 30 percent of US companies admitting that they “have failed to exploit their international business opportunities fully because they lack enough leaders with the right capabilities” we can assume leadership development efforts are not as effective as they need to be.

Why is this? Well, it seems that four key areas were overlooked in leadership development programs. So let’s take a look at how we can turn these identified ‘mistakes’ into leadership program principles.

Context

A leader may excel in one context, and fail completely in another. Assuming that leadership skills are transferrable from one context to another is a fundamental error. Leadership development programs need to be aligned with the current and future context of the business. Program objectives and content can then be aligned to context, delivering optimal value for converting learning into real world scenarios.

Less is more when it comes to context – don’t overwhelm leaders with more than they need to make a significant difference to performance in the current context. Instead, identify a small number of leadership capabilities essential for success in its current business – for example, high-quality decision making or stronger coaching skills.

Then identify the most likely three transitions the leader may need to engage in during the short-term future.

Linked to Reality

Closely associated with context, is linking leadership development programs with current reality – for example, technology disruption, and the incorporation of artificial intelligence into business operations and decision making.

This is a delicate balancing act – between the value of offsite or online programs versus integrated learning on the job. A successful option is to engage in a longer term [ 4 -12 month] development program that requires integration of exercises and practices into the workplace on a weekly basis

This allows leaders to learn and link their development efforts to real-world events, and to loop back to previous training when specific scenarios arise. This enables leaders to make every major business event or project a leadership-development opportunity.

Mindset

Inevitable in any improved performance is a change in behaviour, and this requires a change in mindset. Dishing out new principles and paradigms is not going to resonate with an individual if they don’t understand how their current mindset was developed, and how valid the beliefs and assumptions underlying this mindset are.

This can be an uncomfortable transformation – but an essential one. Whilst some personality traits are difficult to change – we can learn to adjust our perception of differences between people into more positive territory. When you help leaders discover their WHY, the WHAT and HOW tend to follow more naturally. Once an individual understands themselves, they can relate to others in more meaningful ways – by learning how to understand why others have different values, beliefs and behaviours.

Measure Results

Whilst technical leadership skills may readily lend themselves to measurement, the softer skills in such demand today are not so easy to measure. This is an added value of longer term programs – it provides more opportunity to gain a perception of transformation through 360 degree feedback before and after the development program.

Online assessment tools are also valuable in certain types of development programs, such as emotional intelligence [EQ].

Measures such as productivity gains, stress reduction, decision-making effectiveness, employee motivation and retention can all be tied to leadership development programs.

In summary, leadership development programs appear to have failed to evolve in line with changes in business environments. Consider integrating these four principles – context, links to reality, mindset and results measurement to upgrade your programs to more closely reflect what leaders need and want today.

Author: Gail La Grouw. Insight Mastery Program Director, and Strategic Performance Consultant for Coded Vision Ltd.