The statistics on the effectiveness of leadership training and executive education programs are both shocking and depressing! Despite a plethora of executive education and leadership training programs and many consultants offering them, most executive education and leadership development programs waste time and money! Why does leadership training fail? Because there is a fundamental problem with them! Read on to find out what this problem is and how to fix it.
A fundamental problem with leadership programs
Executive education and leadership development programs have a fundamental problem. What is it? They often assume that leadership knowing equals leadership doing!
Unfortunately, knowing is not the same as doing! Neither in life nor in leadership. We know many things, but we only consistently do a minuscule of the things we know!
Let me give you an example that I often use in my training sessions to drive home this point. “How many of you have attempted to lose a few pounds?”
Often many people raise their hands when I ask this question. During adulthood, most of us have put on a few extra pounds that we want to shed.
Knowing is NOT the same as doing!
Then I ask – “Do you have any suggestions for me to lose a few pounds around my waist?” And I get a lot of suggestions like – eat more fruits, more raw vegetables, cut down on sugar, exercise more, eat mindfully, join a gym, take the stairs instead of the elevator, walk 10,000 steps daily, and on and on.
Most of them are usually excellent and useful suggestions. I then say – “Thank you for the lovely and useful suggestions!”. My next question is – “How many of you consistently implement one or more of these suggestions regularly?”
Very few people raise their hands in answer to this question! Knowing how to lose weight is not the same as doing it consistently enough to get the desired outcome.
Read: Is your leadership development effective? Or is the money going down the drain?
Awareness is NOT the same as Action!
There is high awareness amongst Americans about weight loss. Diet books are popular and are often on the list of best-selling books.
Americans are buying more and more diet books than ever, and yet there are more obese people in America today than ever! People simply do not lose weight by reading a diet book!
More diet books are sold than ever, yet more Americans are obese than ever!
Leadership is no different. The fundamentally flawed assumption in leadership training and executive education programs is that attending a course for a few days and knowing about some leadership skills and tools will translate into job leadership behavior change. Unfortunately, leadership development doesn’t happen this way. Read the article on how leadership development really happens here.
“Leadership awareness may happen in a training program – leadership development occurs when a leader is at her work, interacting with her team! “ – Tushar Vakil.
Approach leadership development like a fitness regime and fix why leadership training fails
We should approach leadership development like a fitness regime. If we want to get fit, a one-week routine at the gym once or twice a year, just doesn’t work!
We need to work out regularly, probably daily. The exercise routine should be customized based on our individual needs and not a standard curriculum of one size fits all. Our diet regime should be designed similarly. Despite the help and despite the good intentions, we will fail to go to the gym.
Failing, dusting ourselves off, and getting “back on the wagon” should be part of the fitness routine’s design and shouldn’t come as a surprise. Why?
That is how human beings learn and form habits. Losing weight and keeping it off is a process and not an event – and so is leadership development! It takes time, effort, and commitment.
Hiring a personal trainer for our fitness regime increases our chances of losing weight and getting fit by a wide margin. How wide a margin? Research studies have shown that hiring a personal trainer increases your success rate by a whopping 1100%!
Read: The Swiss army knife of talent development is leadership coaching!
“Personal trainer” for your leadership development – to fix why leadership training fails
Using Marshall Goldsmith’s stakeholder-centered coaching process, our leadership coaching program is like hiring a personal trainer for your fitness regime! Here, the coach is the “personal trainer” for our leadership growth! He will help you shed leadership fat and build some leadership muscles.
The leadership coach will help us reduce or eliminate leadership bottlenecks and build on our leadership strengths. And best of all – it guarantees results. If there are no improvements in leadership behavior, there is simply no charge. Period!
Executive education and training programs help in creating awareness for change – however, behavior change requires customized solutions and consistent follow-up and accountability, which executive coaching provides by its design.
Guaranteed and measurable leadership growth
Would you like to develop leaders in your organization? We use Marshall Goldsmith’s stakeholder centered coaching process to deliver measurable and guaranteed leadership growth.
NAL Triple Advantage Leadership Coaching
That delivers guaranteed and measurable leadership growth. It is based on a stakeholder-centered coaching process with a 95% effectiveness rate (in a study or 11000 leaders on 4 continents). It is used by companies ranging from startups to 150 of the Fortune 500 companies to develop their leaders.
Here are some of the salient benefits of NAL Triple Advantage Leadership Coaching
Time and resource-efficient: The leader does not have to leave work to attend training programs. We go to the leader and her team. And it only takes 1.5 hours per month. The rest of the time, the leader is working to implement with her team.
Separate and customized improvement areas for each leader: Every leader is different. One size fits all approach doesn’t work. Individual development areas for each leader aligned to the business strategy.
Involves entire team: Unlike most leadership programs, NAL Triple Advantage Leadership Coaching involves the leader’s entire team, and it has a cascading effect – increasing the team effectiveness and improving organizational culture.
The leader becomes the coach: for continuous improvement for leaders themselves and their teams. It is like kaizen for your leadership development.
Cost-Effective: Our entire one-year coaching engagement often costs less than sending the leader to a short duration leadership program at any reputed B school.
Guaranteed and measurable leadership growth: as assessed – not by us – but anonymously rated by the leader’s own team members.
Pay us only after we deliver results! : We work with many of our clients on a pay for results basis. What does it mean? If the leaders don’t improve, you simply don’t have to pay us.
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