As I see it, Leadership Development (LD) is definitely broken. Perhaps broken is too strong of a word, I don’t believe it was really ever right to begin with. I write this from a place of experience and observation, and why LD needs a serious overhaul.
Millions are spent each year on LD efforts in corporate America, only to fail, blaming the failure on LD itself rather than admitting that we’ve been relying on magic beans for years. The failure of LD is that we assume that somehow individuals will just change their behavior after years of practice and observation. Simply having LD is not enough. Real learning and behavior change require a strong support system before, during, and after learning.
Let’s look at a contemporary example: leadership development in an international organization from which this statement emerged:
“our machines receive better care than our employees”
The team member who made this statement, recently shared that her manager, who has been in the organization’s LD program, still behaves in a manner inconsistent with leadership best practices or the organizations stated core values. These behaviors include:
1. Belittling team members, their ideas, and contributions,
2. Limiting what team members can do, keeping work close to themselves while assigning silly tasks to team members,
3. Not sharing important information relevant to operational work,
4. Cutting off team members while they’re talking,
5. Closed or fixed mindset, not open to new ideas or allowing for brainstorming,
6. Lacks interest in understanding temperament styles that can help build the team and enhance decision-making,
7. Uses a top-down, command approach rather than influence,
8. Generally, ignores team members all together, often turning and walking the other way than engaging them in the hallway.
As a result, the team is dis-engaged and underutilized. The under-utilization of a highly paid team is costing the organization potentially millions in lost knowledge and engagement. This is in addition to the thousands spent on monthly trips.
This is a manager who has been in the organization’s Leadership Development program for a year, flying to an off-site location once per month, yet the team hasn’t noticed any changes or progression in leadership development or growth. What gets in the way of leadership development among individuals? Learning readiness for one, but more importantly, lack of interest, lack of time, and lack of support. Leadership development doesn’t happen simply because someone attends a series of classes.
Bums in seats and words on paper:
Learning is so much more than just being a butt in a chair, attending a class. Learning requires a variety of resources and even post-session events that change mindset and behavior. Instructional design (ID) is one important function that is often overlooked in developing and maintaining LD.
Great ID incorporates several different design elements all intended to meet the unique needs of adult learners. Yet, in many organizations, its overlooked as a necessary function leading many HR or operational team members to simply throw words into a power point. ID professionals not only ensure that there is engaging content that meets the unique needs of every learner, but also activities designed to think differently, uses a passive voice for learner reflection and discovery, and identifies learning objectives that create equally meaningful content.
Effective ID also includes a cadre of educators who can more than read from an instructors guide. I’ve sat through many painful sessions where the “instructor” reads from the manual or the slides, lacks engagement, rushes through the material, is unable to connect important points, and much more. Each of these instances contributes to a sub-optimal learning event.
Lack of post learning support:
What makes great learning? Learning stickiness. The ability for the brain to become hard-wired with the new information. We put “leaders” through LD, then return them to the organization without having had anytime for learning to stick. We also return them without any support. Do they have a mentor in the organization who is there to respond to the learning as it occurs over time, or when challenges arise. Hard-wiring alone is not enough however, the learner has to first be open to new information that may be contrary to years of practicing a different approach.
In addition to the hard-wiring, there is a soft-wiring that is equally important and often overlooked in LD. The soft-wiring consists of ensuring that the learner is curious, with a growth mindset and ready to hear new and potentially unique ideas that may be contrary to their own mindset. This lack of soft-wiring often results in learning complacency. Without effective learning and an open mindset, behavioral change is unlikely to occur.
Organizational recidivism:
Being an attendee in an LD program is great. New information is presented and learners are often eager to return to try out new techniques. However, they often return to the slew of challenges they left behind along with a litany of additional emails and meetings to attend. Just a few days after learning a new method or technique, the new learning is quickly forgotten, especially when the learner has returned to the very culture that does not support or foster new ideas.
I’ve previously written about organizational recidivism, we simply cannot put busy managers back into a situation without a knowledge parole officer and expect real change.
Tips for ensuring great LD:
It’s time that we take LD seriously and stop relying on the bag of magic beans to somehow encourage knowledge osmosis. Our team members deserve better, as do our communities. Here are a few ways that you can foster better LD in your organization.
Poor instructional design | Pre- & Post-learning support | Organizational recidivism |
Invest in team members who understand the learning cycle; Use effective behavioral measurement, not a Likert type scale evaluation; Educators who understand how learning occurs. | Learning and development tools; Learning readiness scorecards; 360 evaluations; Learning synthesis events; Network of subject-matter-experts | Effectively educated mentors; Begin LD early in the career and promote for behavior not performance; Make LD available to every employee; Learning maps. |
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