Why don’t hotel bathrooms have exhaust fans?
This is a big question I was pondering in the fogged-up mirror last month while I was travelling.
The other big question I am pondering is how do we get organisations, or rather it’s senior decision-making folk, to see the benefit of solid leadership development?
On the back of last month’s blog (if you missed it check it out here!) on internal talent being the answer, I thought it timely to explore this topic of leadership development.
Leadership training has been sold to the world over as leadership development, but actually, the two are poles apart.
Leadership training is the acquisition of skills through the transfer of information and content. It may involve workshops, role-playing, online learning, peer learning, shadowing and acting roles. Led by a specific topic, training would usually have specific and tangible outcomes.
Leadership development on the other hand is the deep work done by an individual to understand the responsive and reactive tendencies that inform how they show up as a leader. The focus is on self-awareness and growth of the inner game. Development explores one’s values, narratives, beliefs, mindsets, strengths, behaviours, opportunities and derailers. Development work is personalised and customised and usually involves some inputs from those around the leader (such as 360-degree assessment or qualitative interviewing).
As you see, the two are quite different and require a different approach, level of commitment from the individual and organisation, and lastly, a budget that allows that commitment to be realised.
We could open up a lengthy conversation here about ROI, but I think that’s a separate blog (or white paper!) in itself. One source quoted that the ROI on leadership development was 415%, so a return of $4.15 for every $1 spent. Even at half of that, the return is phenomenal.
Update: You can now check out my latest blog here on ideas to get Leadership Development on the agenda in your organisation.
Keen to take the first steps to leadership development? Let’s chat (click here to book a time with me) about the Leadership Circle Profile, a 360 leadership assessment that gets to the core of leadership development.
