How Do You Develop Leaders?
Published by Matthew Molino on February 23, 2010
PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE
Leadership isn't just for leaders anymore. Top companies are beginning to understand that sustaining peak performance requires a commitment to developing leaders at all levels.
To meet the demands of today's fast-paced and competitive business environment, people at all levels are being asked to step up and assume leadership behaviors. Companies are investing millions of dollars annually in leadership development training to meet this challenge. Results are positive: Studies show companies that excel at developing leaders tend to achieve higher long-term profitability (Marc Effron and
Robert Gandossy in Leading the Way: Three Truths from the Top Companies for Leaders, John Wiley & Sons, 2004).
But it seems there are as many approaches to leadership development as there are leadership developers.
An Amazon.com search for leadership development books reveals 12,580 titles. Most leadership programs have a half-life of only a few days or weeks after sessions end. Few incorporate adequate transfer mechanisms to bring leadership skills back to the office.
Programs offer everything from whitewater-rafting trips and bungee-jumping to encounter groups and 360-degree assessments. Executive coaching is a popular development tool, and companies are increasingly investing in these individualized programs.
It is necessary to ask if any of this is working-and, if so, how?
Can We Really Train Leaders?
Lured by the promise of instant success, many companies are writing checks without asking critical questions about program design and actual accomplishments.
Leadership programs work very well if they use a multi-tiered approach. Most fall into one of four types:
1. Personal growth programs
2. Skill-building programs
3. Feedback programs
4. Conceptual awareness programs
Personal Growth
A simple premise underlies the personal-growth approach: All effective leaders are in touch with their purpose and passions, unafraid of risks and dilemmas; thus, if we teach managers to access their inner callings, they'll become more successful leaders. To achieve these results, the personal-growth approach to leadership training relies on intense emotional experiences and adventures that become metaphors for risk taking.
Examples of such leadership-development programs include "survival" hikes, river-rafting trips and bungee jumping off cliffs. Trainers believe we can create more leaders if we put managers in touch with their passions and power.
But can you transfer the lessons learned from jumping off a cliff to the office setting? Research shows these programs tend to improve participants' personal lives far more than their work lives. Learning can be magnified by risk-oriented experiences that challenge us to act in new ways and see things differently; however, the decision-making skills applied to a cliff jump are quite different from those employed at the office, where problem-solving is more complex.
Skill-Building Programs
The skill-building approach to training is attractive because it turns leadership into a practical, teachable reality. Program designers identify a key leadership behavior that can be taught.
For example, an offsite group may participate in exercises or games, with one individual challenged to lead a team through a task, thereby practicing specific leadership skills (perhaps the ability to mobilize others). The team leader is then graded on how well the leadership skill was put into action.
But certain skills are more complex than we realize. To truly learn a skill, one needs to spend considerable time studying it, experimenting, receiving coaching and making improvements. Most programs cover several major leadership skills in just a few days.
Despite these shortcomings, skill-building is the most common-and fastest-method of learning and implementing new skills. It should be incorporated in all leadership training.
Programs Based on Feedback
Feedback-based programs may also be conducted offsite and involve team tasks. Team members then grade each other on particular leadership skills, while supervising psychologists simultaneously rate each participant. This type of leadership training embraces the premise that most of us cannot fully see ourselves. We simply require a mirror to view ourselves more objectively.
For motivated learners, this program produces positive outcomes. One drawback, however, is the risk of being overwhelmed by information. In addition, one usually self-selects the behaviors on which to work.
While most participants describe a sincere desire to change their ineffective behaviors when they return to work, this motivation dissipates soon after the program ends. Many report giving up when faced with a lack of support and coaching on the job.
Conceptual Awareness Programs
This analytical approach uses case studies during training, and it's a mainstay in MBA degree programs.
Conceptual awareness helps us intellectually understand the distinctions between managing and leading.
But such an approach teaches ideas, not skills. As adult learners, we need exercises, experiences and coaches to turn concepts into leadership abilities. As such, conceptual awareness is beneficial, but only a first step.
Designing Better Leadership Programs
As Jay Conger noted in strategy+business (Fall 1996), leadership development programs work well if they incorporate elements from all four learning approaches. Programs must also provide participants with practice opportunities upon returning to the office. Conger's suggestions for an effective program include the following:
1. Bring together all four types of learning programs, with opportunities for personal growth, skillbuilding, feedback and conceptual learning. A single approach is too narrow.
2. Start with support from the top. Senior management must be involved, either as participants or teachers. Top executives must be prepared to practice the techniques taught in the classroom, leading by example; otherwise, interest and commitment will fade.
3. Build for long-term learning. Leadership development occurs over time; it is not a one-shot program.
A three-day program will not transform anyone into a leader. It may create awareness, but that's the limit.
4. Use coaches for accountability. Most bosses don't have time to help. Send the boss to training beforehand to work on his coaching skills, or arrange for external coaching.
5. Require peer-to-peer feedback and follow-up. Ongoing interaction and follow-up with colleagues has proved to be the determining factor in achieving positive long-term change.
Found in: Develop
