Leadership development strategy: an investment in the future of your business

Avoiding the pitfalls of a superficial approach

Effective leadership cannot be decreed; it must be cultivated. This is where a robust leadership development strategy comes into play—an action plan designed to identify, train, and support the leaders of tomorrow at all levels of your organization.

Unfortunately, many companies fall into the trap of a superficial approach, due to common mistakes:

• Lack of clear vision: Without specific goals, a clear understanding of required skills, or relevant training programs, leadership development efforts can lack some focus.

• Insufficient investment: Effective leadership development demands not only a suitable budget for tools and training but also time and commitment. Companies need to allocate resources to provide ongoing support, such as coaching, mentoring and hands-on opportunities, to ensure lasting impact.

• No impact evaluation: Without monitoring, analyzing results, and measuring effectiveness, it’s hard to pinpoint areas that require improvement. This lack of insight makes it challenging to make the necessary adjustments to optimize programs, which can ultimately lead to a lower return on investment.

Repercussions of such a flawed approach extend beyond the low return on investment: they can result in employee demoralization, difficulty adapting to unexpected market changes and decreased competitiveness.

Building a solid foundation for effective development

Only what you measure can be improved: this fundamental principle also applies to leadership development.

To improve your leaders progress, you must start by identifying their strengths and areas for improvement. Here is how:

• Psychometric tests: Assess the natural behavioral preferences and motivations in an objective way, identifying leadership alignment and areas needing development.

• Self-assessment: Encourage leaders to reflect in their own perception of themselves and to identify areas for improvement.

• Performance analysis: Measure leaders’ performance against predefined company goals.

• 360° evaluation: Gather feedback from peers, subordinates, superiors, and sometimes clients to assess the leader’s impact around them.

After identifying strengths and areas for improvement, set clear and precise objectives for leadership development: ideally, SMART objectives – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound.

Then, you must define relevant key performance indicators (KPIs) to monitor the impact of leadership development on your organization such as turnover rates, engagement levels, team performance, employee satisfaction.

Personalized support methods for leadership development

The best approach to developing leadership within your company depends on a thorough assessment of your leaders’ skills and the organization’s needs. This diagnostic phase is essential for targeting the right areas for improvement and customizing your leadership development programs.

Here are some methods to consider – each with its advantages and limitations:

• Coaching: This offers individualized and personalized support from a professional coach. It aims at improving specific skills and achieving quick results through regular, structured sessions and guided reflection techniques within a defined time. As the support is tailored, it may require more resources.

• Mentoring: This method involves sharing experience and knowledge between an experienced leader and a more junior individual. It offers practical and supportive guidance allowing the mentee to navigate the challenges of leadership with greater confidence and gain new perspectives on complex situations. The challenge with this method is finding the right mentor/mentee combination.

• Training sessions: A classic in the field of professional development. It targets specific skills (e.g., conflict management or communication) and typically train a large number of people at the same time, which is often unfeasible with mentoring or individual coaching. However, training sessions can be expensive, and their effectiveness depends on participants’ engagement and content relevance. Additionally, there can be challenges in applying the theoretical knowledge acquired to the practical leader’s role.

• Peer-to-peer workshops: It enables interactive and collaborative learning, encouraging the exchange of ideas and practical observations between participants which can enrich training. However, it may lack personalization compared to coaching or mentoring, and some participants may be less engaged in a group setting.

Select methods based on the assessment results, company culture, available resources, and leaders’ learning preferences.

Personal commitment as a determining factor for success

Unsurprisingly, the success of a leadership development program hinges on a commitment to talent development and active investment in the process.

Tools that enhance self-awareness can motivate leaders to engage more deeply in development programs. Equipping them with a clear vision of how they present themselves at work and their real impact, leaders become more receptive to improvement opportunities.

SuccessFinder Ladder of Leadership is a research-based competency model that identifies key competencies for successful leadership. It provides guidance when developing the skills of your leaders and planning a transition from one level of leadership to another. It promotes performance across all leadership levels.

Tailoring leadership development for sustainable success

Every organization is unique, with its own culture, values, objectives, and challenges. To maximize the impact of your leadership development program, it is essential to tailor your strategy to your organization’s specific context.

You can collaborate with specialized external partners such as leadership consulting firms, training organization or LMS to help customize your program and learning tools. Drawing on market best practices and benchmarking the leadership development strategies of companies in your sector can also help you identify innovative approaches to implement.

Remember, a leadership development strategy is not static. Regularly evaluate and adapt it based on results, organizational changes and market development.

By adopting a personalized approach and integrating tools that are adapted and relevant to your context, you build a sustainable and effective leadership development strategy.

Investing in your leaders is an investment in your company’s future. SuccessFinder solutions help you make informed, data-driven decisions and align leadership skills development with your business goals.