Why Leadership Programmes Fail

Leadership programmes and where they go wrong: McKinsey Is pretty scathing of these, sometimes extortionately expensive, investments in accelerating employees with potential. There are four main reasons that these programmes seem to fail:

From “overlooking context…”

Rules, guidelines, and protocol are only effective when they are fit for purpose. They can only be fit for purpose when they are developed according to the needs of the people who will use them and the environment in which they will be applied. If you develop your interventions in a vacuum, without consultation with reality, then they will never be effective out in the world.

To “decoupling reflection from real work …”

In the Gestalt cycle of experience, it is such an important part of the learning process to reflect on what happened. In order to progress we all need to celebrate what was good and to learn from what was not fit for purpose. How can you ever ascertain what works and what does not, if when you reflect, you do so only on a theory. Whatever learning style you have, active, kinaesthetic, theoretical, the proof of efficacy can only be found in reality. We have to actually DO things to learn if they work for us. To engage only with theory is totally redundant. How will you cope in the real business world when the sh*t hits the fan… where will your tutor be then?

To “underestimating mindsets…”

You cannot you best play to an individual’s strengths if you take no account of them in the first place. And only once you know these strengths can you stretch them further. Such insight is gained when we are nudged slightly beyond our comfort zones. … no pain no gain… but to push in the wrong direction or the wrong way for that person is purposeless.

“Leadership programmes and where they go wrong”

and finally, to “failing to measure results… “

To set goals and to measure the outcome is THE most basic of training and development processes. It is an elemental flaw to fail to measure the impact of the service you are providing. This is blatant irresponsibility and says to me that these Leadership programmes might well be more about getting your money, and organisations ‘ticking boxes’, then providing anything useful out in the business world.

Leaders will each lead in your unique way. Each leaders context will have it own unique needs too. Do you want to develop leadership that is actually fit for your business purpose?

You can find Rebecca here at the Daemon Career Coach