Why your leadership development programs don't create lasting change and what to do about it.
Maria (name changed to protect her privacy) received an angry email from a peer manager, accusing one of her employees of failing to complete a critical task and jeopardizing a pivotal project. Maria's heart races, her stomach churns, and her chest tightens. "This can't be right!" she exclaimed. She quickly opened the project schedule and was stunned to see the missed deadline. The question "How could this happen?" was replaced by shame and disillusionment as the implications became clear. Maria's boss will be furious if they miss the project deadline. She is at a standstill as she considers her next steps. She can't have a productive conversation with her direct report because of her current state. She is uncomfortable speaking with her manager and needs a resolution plan before contacting the project owner. Maria feels overwhelmed and struck by a sense of loneliness. Despite her successful track record as a Senior Engineering Manager, Maria feels ill-equipped to have difficult conversations with her stakeholders and lacks safe relationships to help her process her thoughts and feelings.
Maria’s experience is not unique. Our research across the tech industry revealed that leaders lack a strong support system and thus feel lonely. We also found that their training was not effectively assisting them in navigating the complexity of their daily challenges.
Loneliness is pervasive
The isolation that leaders experience impacts performance, engagement, and overall well-being. It was true before the pandemic but worsened with remote work. We found that three main factors drive this loneliness. First, the myth that managers are expected to have all the answers and are incompetent if they don't. In some cases (like Maria's), sharing challenges with their managers may feel risky. Second, leaders often have small and competitive peer networks, making reaching out for help unsafe. And third, leaders handle confidential issues they can't discuss with their team.
Big investment does not equal stickiness
Have you ever taken a leadership training course and forgotten everything you learned soon after? Maria had a similar experience. Despite attending various leadership courses over the years, she couldn't recall anything to help her prepare for the difficult conversations she needed to have.
According to TrainingIndustry.com, the global spending on leadership training in 2020 was estimated at $357.7 billion, with $165.3B in the US alone. Yet skills gaps persist. Predictive learning analytics expert, Ken Phillips, forecasts that "scrap learning," or learning that is delivered but not applied, is approximately 60%. Other studies suggest that this waste is closer to 85%.
A new approach starts with a fundamental human need.
When our clients asked us to design a leadership program that has a lasting impact, we asked ourselves, "what would it take to address the stickiness and the loneliness challenges simultaneously?" After listening to leaders, conducting interviews, and reviewing the data for root causes, our insight was that it starts with a human connection. The current leadership development strategies are insufficient to effectively close the skills gap and combat the loneliness leaders experience.
Human connection increases psychological safety and creates an environment to self-reflect, experiment, learn, coach, get coached, and support one another. Traditional training prioritizes delivering information over making connections. Our approach addressed this human need for connection by creating a cohort-based leadership development program with community and coaching at the center. One of the participants in a cohort described it well: "I get to examine my life and myself as a leader with someone that really cares about me and gives me the space to develop."
Program Impact
With over 280 global leaders across 26 cohorts in a Fortune 50 company, the participants reported an average revenue or cost savings increase of $3.5 million per participant. Reduced attrition yielded a cost savings of $40 million over three years. Participants in the cohorts had a 2.7X promotion rate compared to their counterparts.
Notably, the participants' employees were surveyed and reported a much higher frequency of observed desired leadership behaviors. Consequently, overall employee engagement increased. These compelling business results showed that a leadership development program with community and coaching at the center positively impacts leader behaviors and the bottom line.
To build and evaluate leadership programs that impact the bottom line, bridge the skill gap, are sticky, and address the loneliness challenge, consider the following principles:
Principles to build connection and optimize for learning
Connection before content: The case for Community
Begin any learning experience by forging strong bonds between participants. A psychologically safe community is created when a group realizes they are not alone in their struggles and are accepted and understood by their peers. We invested time in- participants getting to know each other beyond their job titles and education. Creating a variety of experiences like "Improv for Business" and dedicating time to share pivotal moments in their lives proved to accelerate feelings of trust and psychological safety. Participants frequently expressed how much they looked forward to the cohort sessions to step out of the fray of their jobs and get support. Most cohorts continued to meet monthly after graduation (some still meet three years later).
Coach more, teach less
New information alone won't change behaviors. Coaching is a proven method of achieving a mindset shift, creating new possibilities, taking new actions, and sustaining behavioral change.
The coaching took several forms: 1) Cohort Coaching: facilitator-coaches provided participants with structured "fishbowl" demonstrations and real-time coaching. 2) Peer-to-peer coaching: in small breakout sessions, participants coached one another on a real-time challenge by leveraging their newly acquired learnings. 3) 1:1 coaching: Facilitator-coaches deepened insights by incorporating powerful questions that helped participants see their challenges differently which provoked reflection and new thinking.
Using multiple coaching formats proved to be effective and "sticky." In addition, we found this approach reinforced a sense of community and collaboration. A participant said, "The program increases your self-awareness... and equips you with real tools to navigate the challenges of being a leader. The peer-to-peer sessions help you practice the tools, and the 1:1 coaching sessions really enhance your awareness and sharpen your skills."
Make it relevant: More real challenges, fewer case studies
According to the well-documented "Forgetting Curve," humans forget about 70% of what they learn within 24 hours. To increase stickiness, each participant brought a current challenge to every cohort session. These challenges encouraged conversation and provided the focus for the coaching they received throughout the cohort session. Applying this principle yielded four significant advantages: 1) Participants made tangible progress on their most pressing challenges by practicing new approaches. 2) Ensured peer-to-peer accountability. 3) Better integrated participant learning.
A year after the program, leaders reported, on average, using 71% of the content in their roles. One participant said, a year after graduation, "...With all the challenges and tragedies [from Covid-19], I couldn't help but reflect on how … the class equipped me to deal with unforeseen circumstances all of us faced."
What about Maria?
The future is not linear. We are living in an era of complexity. Maria's story serves as a reminder that managers and leaders are often ill-equipped and feel isolated when confronted with complex challenges, particularly during unprecedented change. Later that year, Maria joined the leadership coaching cohort, where, among other skills, she grew her competency in having productive conversations. As a result, she deepened trust with her manager, peer manager, and direct reports.
Her success story and many others resulted in improved execution, reduced attrition, increased employee engagement, and the bottom line. The compelling data and participant testimonials resulted in the enterprise adopting this strategy to develop future leaders and high-performing employees. Organizations must prioritize the growth and development of leaders to deliver on the present and create the future. But the answer is not throwing more money at the problem. The solution is investing differently in development-focused communities that create a safe space for leaders to connect, collaborate on real challenges, receive coaching, practice with new skills, and innovate.
Co-authors Lynette Winter and Nir Megnazi.
