A CUSTOMIZED LEADERSHIP
DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM
(A Model Around Which To Begin The Discussion)
Abstract
Creating a high performing culture demands commitment from the senior members
of your organization around a strategically aligned leadership development program.
Dr. Martina Carroll-Garrison/ MCG Consulting Group, LLC
info@MCGConsultingGroup.com, 2015©
“… development programs need to be strategic and focus on real
business issues. “Educational initiatives have to become far more
customized and tightly integrated with the organization’s strategic
agenda; their aim will be to build leadership capabilities while
simultaneously
facilitating
progress
towards
critical
strategic
objectives”
https://hbr.org/2010/06/time-to-shift-the-paradigm-of
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High Performance Cultures Don’t Happen By Accident!
A Leadership Development Program represents a significant tool for
businesses striving to attract, motivate, develop and retain a competitive
workforce, which will sustain a high performance culture. Creating such a
culture demands a continuous and focused commitment from the most
senior members of your organization.
Envisioning, Building And Sustaining A High Performance
Culture Depends Upon Two Conditions.
The first condition is the preparedness of your leaders and
influencers 1 to support the creation of high performance as a cultural
norm. The second condition is the depth of passion and commitment of
your leaders and influencers with regard to the three axes of your
organization; including (1) your product, (2) your customers, and (3) your
people.
Developing and sustaining leaders and influencers who can master
the disparate demands of these three axes is not easy. A Leadership
Development Program aligned with your long-term business strategy can
help ensure you have the people in place to drive a high performing culture
towards creating superior business results.
1
For the purpose of this discussion “influencers” with the organization include (1) senior employees
who are not serving in a leadership or management position, and (2) non-senior employees who are not serving
in a leadership or management position, who by virtue of their position and inherent skills serve as a significant
influence and ambassador within and for the organization.
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What Are Other Organizations Doing About Leadership
Development?
Source: Leadership Development Program: Three Key Success Factors, by McNally,
Christina. Leadership Excellence; Mar 2014; 31, 3; ProQuest Central pg. 17
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Background
The following concepts are presented for the benefit of HR Directors and Chief
Learning Officers contemplating deployment or expansion of an internally developed
and customized Leadership Development Program. The ideas below represent
strategies for building consensus for, and socializing the benefits of your customized
Leadership Development Program, as well as several considerations for designing and
developing the structure, content, communication process, and metrics for success.
“….. given the continuing evolution of HR as a corporate function. Traditionally, the HR
function of a firm has stewarded leadership training and development as an area of activity
….Progressively, the HR function in many firms has evolved into a more far-reaching driver of
corporate direction and behavior. As the HR function takes on this broader role as a strategic
partner, it becomes an asset that offers a source of hard to imitate, competitive advantage …
traditionally isolated HR practices such as leadership training and development, compensation
administration, job analysis and design, and performance management, have become more
tightly integrated into a coherent force that collectively can shape employee behavior in
conjunction with clearly articulated statements of organizational core values, vision, and
mission …. firms that have adopted this sort of strategic view of the role of the HR function are
more capable of developing … holistic leaders ….” Human Resource Management Review 17
(2007) 427–441 2
This approach to creating a customized Leadership Development Program is
based on three central assumptions. The first assumption pertains to each individual
employee’s potential for professional success, while the second assumption pertains
to the organization’s role in supporting the individual employee in being successful,
and the third assumption pertains to the subsequent advantage to the organization’s
business strategy as a result of helping the employee to be successful.
2 Developing holistic leaders: Four domains for leadership development and practice Scott A. Quatro a, ⁎, David A. Waldman b,1, Benjamin M. Galvin c, 2
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Assumption #1: Throughout the typical career progression of each leader and
influencer, several workplace and worklife hurdles will be encountered, which must be
overcome. (Stated another way – in the worklife of each individual the workplace
presents challenging conditions that must be successfully dealt with in order to
progress professionally)
Assumption #2: Both emerging and seasoned leaders and influencers can be
supported by their organization in their learning about how to identify, navigate, and
overcome these typical workplace and worklife hurdles. Facilitated learning
accelerates problem solving and growth.
Assumption #3: By identifying, and facilitating leadership development
practices, ranging from (1) entry level or tactical, (2) mid-management level or
operational, and (3) the executive or strategic level, your customized Leadership
Development Program serves as a tool towards creating a high performance culture.
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Setting The Stage
The importance of socializing the benefits of and building consensus for a
customized Leadership Development Program cannot be ignored. Prior to any
program design or developing of the structure, you must first create an understanding
of what are the specific needs of your organization. This step can be accomplished
when you directly engage with the group of individuals holding the greatest level of
influence in your organization. Specific to each organization are explicit and implicit
wants, needs and desires towards creating superior business results.
A suitable mechanism towards identifying organizational needs, all-the-while
socializing the benefits of and building consensus for a Leadership Development
Program, is the initial facilitated workshop. A facilitated workshop could include three
pre-prepared artificats , (1) a workshop charter and agenda clearly linked to the longterm business strategy, (2) advance socialization of program benefits through preworkshop data collection (surveys and interviews), and (3) prescribed workshop
outcomes for the way-ahead for launching a Leadership Development Program
towards enabling superior business results.
Strategy
The success of any good plan is based on the measures that are laid out by the
various stakeholders. The following seven strategies are presented for consideration
towards building consensus while building and executing your customized Leadership
Development Program:
Strategy #1: Do your homework – create a succinct “needs”
narrative which speaks to the experiences of your stakeholders,
including sponsors, senior leaders and influencers.
Intuitively we understand that each stakeholder’s workplace and worklife
experience is both unique and complex, however career progression can be depicted
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in simple terms. Part of your homework preparation includes assessing and
understanding the respective career paths and challenges encountered by the
program sponsors, senior leaders and influencers. Presenting a leader development
program proposal against the backdrop of each leaders' personal career experiences
will resonate with them (and create an emotional connection) and also begin to pave
the way for commitment of resources necessary to support program deployment. The
value of being able to say “….I’ve talked to most of you…I've listened to how you
overcame workplace and worklife hurdles….I’m familiar with your current
challenges…..I can appreciate your current worklife pressures….I am also deeply
aware of the contemporary challenges facing our new employees and mid-level
managers…..I am cognizant of how our industry, and more specifically our direct
competitors address their professional development needs…" can not be overlooked.
Strategy #2: Socialize the program- create a succinct
“program” narrative with the language unique to your business and
industry.
Describe your Leadership Development Program within the context of your
business SWOT – ranging from strengths and weaknesses within current operations,
to opportunities and threats around the envisioned future state outlined in your
organizations’ strategic plan. Make the program’s narrative relevant to the worklife of
your stakeholders. Use language and activities that are familiar to the group and
introduce learning platforms and methodologies currently employed or valued by your
organization or industry. Your customized Leadership Development Program is
designed to answer your organizations’ specific development issues, therefore using
the organization’s current successful methodologies builds acceptance.
Structuring the Leadership Development Program around easily understood
career transition periods enables your stakeholders to rapidly identify relevant KSAs,
and accept a program design corresponding to each set of leadership challenges. An
easily understood leadership development architecture is the three-tiered progressive
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and sequential model (Figure 1), which includes the (1) Aspiring Manager Program,
(2) the New Manager Program, and (3) the Senior Leader Program.
Figure 1
Tier #1: Aspiring Manager Program.
This fundamental program addresses predictable organizational needs towards
creating a pool of manager candidates, while providing tactical skills to first line
supervisors for immediate use. Generating awareness of, and interest in, management
positions also serves as an effective recruiting and retention tool, as new entrants into
your workforce can envision a path to positions of greater seniority and influence
across the organization. The Aspiring Manager Program offers an insight to how
organizational expectations translate into daily operational challenges for managers.
In addition to exploring the fundamentals of people-management, aspiring managers
will take their first steps into developing self-awareness, awareness of others, and
assessing their communication and decision-making style, as an avenue to evaluating
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their suitability for more demanding organizational roles. The Aspiring Manager
Program offers tactical skills while illuminating each participants' management
suitability, and also serves as a self-screening activity for those employees envisioning
a management career path. Coaching underpins the program and serves to enhance
self-awareness and awareness of others towards positively pursuing desired business
results.
Another outcome of the Tier 1 program is the collection of data and awareness
to support a subsequent career development discussion.
Tier #2: New Manager Program.
This mid-level program offers skill-building training and tools necessary to build
a team, organize and delegate work, monitor progress, and provide effective feedback.
The operational-level training offers a pragmatic solution to the deployment of new
managers, and to help them quickly assimilate into their new role. The New Manager
Program establishes your organizational benchmark for managers by creating a
performance standard for management skills and competencies. Executive Coaching
underpins the program and serves to explore behaviors and perspectives as
impediments to superior business results.
Tier #3: Senior Leader Program.
This senior-level program offers strategic level training and development to the
most senior leaders and influencers in your organization. The program offers an
intensive, data-driven approach, designed to examine personal effectiveness and build
leadership capacity and executive presence. Executive Leadership Coaching
underpins the program and is inextricably linked to development of individual executive
competencies while pursing superior business results. Executive Leadership Coaching
is used as a professional development multiplier towards complex behavior change.
Understandably, certain behaviors that helped you to become today’s successful
manager and leader, may be standing in the way of tomorrow's professional
advancement or superior business results.
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Strategy #3: Identify and leverage internal sages, coaches,
teachers and mentors.
Aspiring, emerging, and practicing leaders can learn from internal sages,
coaches, teachers and mentors. Identify and leverage existing capabilities towards
accelerating growth and development. Capitalize on the connection between learners
and other learners, as well as leaders and learners. Peer learning will strengthen
organizational bonds and build competence and confidence for learners at the tactical
and operational level. Leader learners from each higher level of leader development
can also share their journey and insights with their more junior colleagues. Employing
peer learning and leader learning mechanisms creates substantial linkage both
horizontally and vertically within the organization. Deploying leader learners within
lower learning echelons ensures greater alignment with the strategic vision and
business strategy of the organization. Assessment of leader learner competencies will
also offer opportunities for select individuals to serve as faculty, panel members,
project mentors, and individual coaches and mentors.
Additionally, second-hand learning from open training (i.e. leadership
development programs), is accomplished by transfer to workplace colleagues, and
supervisors and program participants can facilitate transfer of learning by actively
encouraging relevant interactions of program graduates and their colleagues.
Specifically, had a stronger relationship to transfer than closed training.
Strategy #4: Employ your published strategic plan and
business strategy as the program’s compass, and use the current
performance indicators (and competitor threats) to steer discussions
regarding program focus and allocation of resources.
Your strategic plan envisions a future state, while your business and
management strategy addresses the competitive and operational challenges of your
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marketplace. The leadership program’s competency model addresses the “what” and
the “how” for your current and emerging leaders to be successful in meeting current
and future business challenges and enabling superior business results. Intertwining
your Leadership Development Program within the organizations’ strategic plan, and
including program outcomes in the business strategy and management plan creates
traction for and awareness of the programs’ potential, while simultaneously creating
space on the financial ledger for recurring allocation of training and development
resources.
Strategy #5: Socialize and communicate your Leadership
Development Program with your entire organization.
A successful deployment of your Leadership Development Program has
positive implications for all your employees (current and future). Employees – both
current and potential ones will want to make informed decisions about hiring on with,
remaining with, and growing with your organization. Allocation of program resources
will be indirectly linked to the perceived value of the program from all quarters.
Application to participate and approval of participants will require a complete
understanding of the program and its linkage to the organization’s long-term business
strategy. Line and staff personnel will have to make informed decisions about their
own needs and the needs of others participating in the program; as some employees
will require greater amounts of development resources than others towards achieving
the organizations’ minimum competency levels. An implicit assumption about program
participation is that merit, especially at the mid-level and senior level is a key
differentiator. Supervisors and managers will need to be able to correlate employee
performance reviews with current and future professional development needs.
Directing significant training and development resources to higher performers beyond
the aspiring leader level is consistent with building a high performance organization.
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Strategy #6: Don't become a martyr to the cause – begin
building consensus early by first creating a steering committee.
The first rule of creating your Leadership Development Program is to identify
the significant consumers, supporters, and sponsors, and then establish a steering
committee. Also assess and invite operations leaders and other staff leaders to serve
on various workgroups. The steering committee make-up should be diverse and
reflective of your entire workforce as well as the workforce and customer base in your
industry as a whole. In addition to early socializing and consensus building there are
additional reasons for employing a steering committee to assist in the creation of a
customized Leadership Development Program. There are at least three other
compelling reasons to work through a steering committee (and you will begin to identify
more based upon the unique culture of your organization). The first reason is that the
steering committee offers cultural and intellectual diversity, which mirrors your
customer base, and which may be a significant factor if you are lagging behind your
peer competitors in penetrating new markets. The second reason to employ a robust
and diverse steering committee is to establish organizational relevance. Effective
steering committee members from the operational side of the business will naturally
lean toward business strategy decisions and resource allocation, which lend
themselves to creating superior business results. The third reason refers back to
Strategy #3. The purposeful activity of the committee offers a valuable secondary
consequence, as it serves as a sorting mechanism to identify existing skills and
capabilities among your workforce. Assessment of unidentified skills and leader learner
competencies during steering committee meetings will offer opportunities to identify
faculty, panel members, project mentors, and individual coaches and mentors to
become part of your Leadership Development Program’s future instructional cadre.
Strategy #7: The Elephant In The Room: How to answer the big
ROI question about your Leadership Development Program
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Your Leadership Development Program represents a substantial investment
of resources on behalf of your organization, thus the ability to articulate how you will
measure the return-on-investment (ROI) is important from the outset. To begin to
develop your ROI methodology it will serve you well to incorporate certain definitions
into both the program’s charter as well as your subsequent calculations about the
efficacy of the program.
Definition #1: Leadership Confidence reflects self-assuredness in one's
personal judgment and ability to lead and positively influence others internal and
external to your organization.
Definition #2: Leadership Competence reflects a combination of practical and
theoretical knowledge, cognitive skills, behavior and values used to positively lead
others within your organization, industry and customer base.
Definition #3: Training ROI Satisfaction reflects a positive valuation of your
training program relative to return on investment (ROI) provided; reflecting (1)
increased skill capacity, (2) counteracting performance gaps, and (3) support of
business goals.
Quite simply, demonstrating a return on the investment for your Leadership
Development Program will not be an easy task. Anecdotal evidence will serve as a
significant indicator, as stories from the program’s participant’s offers tremendous
power.
Significance of the program can also be demonstrated by capturing and
recording vignettes and accomplishments of successful program participants.
However, there are two other qualitative mechanisms that can be successfully
deployed to establish ROI. The first qualitative mechanism is an ongoing survey and
assessment
of
each
student’s
Leadership
Confidence
and
Leadership
Competence. The second qualitative mechanism is more significant however, as it
presents an insight to the organizations Training ROI Satisfaction metric. The specific
goal of the Training ROI Satisfaction metric is to illuminate themes, describe
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constructs, and explore patterns of awareness and reaction to the Leadership
Development Program. This approach will also lead to suggested improvements in
instructional content and/or post-training activities and outreach.
Theoretical Framework:
The theoretical framework for addressing the
leadership program outcomes would be the Kirkpatrick Four-Level Evaluation Model
(1976). The selected model reflects a contemporary approach to the evaluation of
training and supports delineation of four levels of training outcomes; including reaction,
learning, behavior, and results.
Conclusion
High performance cultures don’t happen by accident!
A customized
Leadership Development Program represents a significant tool for businesses
striving to create and sustain a high performance culture. Leadership development has
emerged as a key business strategy for contemporary organizations within a highly
competitive and global marketplace. Creating a high performance culture demands a
continuous and focused commitment from the most senior members of your
organization around the development of all personnel within the organization.
A customized Leadership Development Program built by your staff and for
your staff, and which is aligned with your long-term business strategy, can help ensure
you have the right people in place to drive a high performing culture towards creating
superior business results within a complex, diverse, challenging and global
marketplace.
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