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I love to start a discussion about leadership by saying, “Leadership Development doesn’t work.” This is surprising, as I am passionate about this topic and have invested a significant amount of time in training.
What doesn’t work is, of course, not “Leadership”; it is “Development”.
Leadership is like driving.
In my country, Switzerland, learning to drive is challenging and costly. You must pass a theory exam to demonstrate your knowledge of all the rules. You even need to be able to calculate breaking distances. This requires a minimum of 10 hours of instructor-led, practical driving lessons. But that’s not it… You are almost set to fail if you only do these two and not practice driving on your own between the driving lessons.
Leadership is like driving. It is a complex skill set to “drive” an organisation, its people, and ourselves. We could conclude that leadership is far more complicated than driving a car. However, it is surprising that most companies don’t take it so seriously. They organise some courses or a workshop for one day or two. Sometimes, even month-long courses. They are inspiring and exciting, taking you out of your daily routine.
Why Leadership Development Might Not Work
Harvard Business Review published a fantastic article titled “Why Leadership Development Isn’t Developing Leaders?” This paper explains that if the organisation doesn’t support you and help you implement what you have learned, you will return to your habits after 2-3 days.
What is the goal of leadership development for you and your organisation? Is it to provide retention or to make the company more attractive?
It is interesting to note that what employees complain about most is not the courses themselves, but rather that their leaders are not living what has been taught.
Under pressure, we all tend to cut corners and fail to live up to the standards we would like to see from others. Like in the military, it is not when you are in a war that you start learning how your gun works. You recognise these habits again and again, even when not under pressure.
Transformational Leadership
To implement the desired organisational culture, we need to impact the behaviour across the entire organisation, at all levels, in what we call “Transformational Leadership”. Every manager must learn, exercise and improve the traits of complete leadership in the long run. This takes more than a few workshops: learning, evaluation, feedback, coaching and mentoring.
The authors of the HBR articles argue that only if this is done can the real value of Leadership Development be reached and business results achieved.
Welcome to the exciting world of Leadership!
References
- Beer, Michael, Magnus Finnström, and Derek Schrader. “Why Leadership Training Fails—and What to Do About It.” Harvard Business Review 94, no. 10 (October 2016): 50–57.
- Rowland, Deborah “Why Leadership Development Isn’t Developing Leaders” Harvard Business Review 94, no. 10 (October 2016).
