Transformation, HR & Change insights

At a glance – the why, who, what, how, and when of leadership development

Why? The “why” is the most critical factor. This is the purpose, and should permeate all other components – from attendees to learning outcomes, and where, how and when. This could be enhancing self-awareness, preparation for corporate sale, post-merger integration, cultural change or, simply, team building or skills development. Without clear purpose the desired impact will go unrealised.

Who? Leadership development programmes are typically aimed at individual or collective members of Senior Leadership Teams, Board of Directors or rising stars within an organisation (i.e. high potential individuals). Depending on organisational size, it can include management groups of divisions or entire start-ups organisations.

What? Inextricably linked to “why” – the range of interventions such programmes can include facilitated away days, behavioural or motivational psychometrics, executive coaching, skills based learning, diagnostic exercises, theory-into-practice assignments, peer-to-peer learning, reflective exercises and more.

How? Development programmes can be delivered in a range of formats. These can include intensive short term courses (e.g. 4 days), longer term programmes (e.g. over 12 months) or once-off individual organisational interventions such as executive coaching.

Where? Virtual technologies enable a blend of virtual and in-person development interventions. However, if the overall purpose of the programme is team-building or rapport building some element of in-person may be preferable. Effective leadership programmes will often continue outside any “classroom” activities – with participants tasked to put their learning into practice within the workplace.

When? Leaders of organisations are often those who champion development of others but often not afforded the time or opportunity for self-development. So anytime can be the right time!

The value of effective leadership development

How can organisations achieve impactful development which delivers personal development which also meaningfully benefits, and is relevant for, the organisation?

Leadership development is not a new concept, solution or intervention.

However, it can become in vogue again during times of organisational change – heralded as the solution to emerging organisational challenges.

Contemporary leaders are expected to deliver transformational change to their organisations. These changes (at the time of writing) are largely driven by external factors exerting pressure on their organisations. The confluence of these factors has, arguably, created the most challenging environment for leaders to lead within since other disruptive innovations such as advent of the internet and the digital age. These include:

The COVID-19 pandemic required business operations and models to change overnight. In its wake, debates weakening organisation culture linked to less onsite presence arose with organisations grappling with the hybrid vs virtual vs onsite debate. Tensions between organisational demands and employee desires manifest in practices such as “quiet quitting”.
Equality, diversity and inclusion became re-emphasised particularly around the requirement for gender-pay gap reporting for some organisations. Concrete data from same has forced many organisations to accept, through publication, that there may have been undetected inequality within their systems and structures.
CSRD requirements have made sustainability an inevitable concern for leaders as, again, entire business models, value chains and approaches to work will need to be critically assessed. This gives rise to new concepts of “ethical” or “sustainable” leadership.
Generative AI launched almost overnight and was concurrently positioned as the greatest threat and greatest potential asset to organisations. Whether positive or negative, generative AI is positioned as one of the single greatest disruptions to contemporary life which will inevitably impact businesses.

All of these challenges require a strategic intervention – and at is heart, this is what leadership development should be. A common pitfall is that development programmes are either not, or too loosely, aligned to organisational strategy. This unfortunately leaves them with an uncompelling purpose, and participants detect this which leads to disengagement and impact.

A further critique of programmes is that they do not have an enduring impact – which can be related to the design, delivery and evaluation methods. Effective leadership development will be bespoke and tailored to the specific needs of an organisation. These can include:

Over-reliance on a single development intervention such as class-room based training
Lack of clarity around what the programme intends to achieve (i.e. the vision)
Participant disengagement as buy-in not achieve prior to launch
Lack of connection between the design and the overall vision for the programme
Misalignment with the overarching organisational strategy
Ineffective – or no – evaluation occurring to measure impact or success

Notwithstanding all of the above, there are enduring leadership qualities, traits and competencies which are timeless. Self-awareness and emotional intelligence are still as important as ever for leaders. Often, these enduring leadership qualities are those which can underpin the most effective leadership development programmes.

At RSM Ireland, we view leadership development as a transformational journey. As with any journey, the preparation is critical to successfully arriving at your intended destination. We take the time to get to know you, your business and your specific needs – designing a journey which will deliver the outcomes you need. From our experience of design and delivering programmes with impact, we outline some core lessons for transforming any development programme below.

Recommendations to transform your leadership development programmes

Develop a vision statement first – address the purpose of the programme first, establish a clear vision of what the participants and the organisation will have achieved. The vision should underpin everything from the content, approach and right to how the programme is evaluated…

Design your evaluation method second – resist jumping straight to content design. Reflect on your vision for post-programme – what does the future look like? For example, behavioural change requires “as is” evaluation (potentially through psychometric assessment) with the same assessment throughout, or after, the programme to track or demonstrate change.

Divest with off the shelf content – all organisations – people, needs, cultures – are different. It is unlikely that off-the-shelf programmes will fully deliver on an organisations needs and even rarer that they would deliver on a bespoke vision. Invest in customising for your audience – whether by your own L&D teams or through service providers.

Don’t be afraid to change trajectory – modern leaders are expected to be agile and respond to constantly changing circumstances – so our programmes should be too. So have the courage to embrace these changes, and adapt your approach to better reflect the reality they’re currently operating within.