Leadership Programmes. What Makes Them Successful?

Leadership Programmes seem to be a buzz word in todays career society.

As a Performance Coach who works in career advancement and designs leadership programmes you could say I am pretty bias in thinking all leadership programmes are effective. However, I dont. Especially, if a) the delegates are not happy in their employment and b) the client isnt willing to create a leadership programme bespoke to the company mission.

A lot of the time I work with large corporates but when I work with some of the smaller start-up companies I see a huge difference. Innovation is one of the big differences along with camaraderie amongst the workforce.

Coming in as an outsider I usually have a different viewpoint to those who have been working within the company for many years and that puts me at a great advantage. I am a fresh pair of eyes with market experience, usually knowing what their competitors are doing.

The thing is, leaders need to be developed and they also need to know that they need their team. It is all very well holding a half day or even a weeks generic leadership programme but then these skills need to be integrated into the workplace itself and this is where leadership programmes become stuck.

Speaking to David Cliff, a fellow business coach and in fact, the pre-eminent coach and mentor based in the North East of the UK. Davids company Gedanken helps business leaders and their team members to find a clearer direction and purpose, and to improve performance. David is also Vice-Chairman of the Institute of Directors. He believes that there is certainly a place for leadership coaching. But like me he also agrees that we as coaches should be uniquely coaching to the people.

One of the biggest issues is that research needs to be conducted prior to the programme and it needs to be tailored for the organisation. Otherwise the content will usually be irrelevant. I see so many online courses providing leadership training. I myself have a range of online courses and in fact when I worked for a certain big name institution I was given an online course as the extent of the training I received to be a manager.

While online courses in areas such as time management and managing others are useful, leadership courses on their own without bespoke guidance are not that effective and struggle to be applied directly to the workplace. The issue with generic online courses given to them by the workplace, is that employees see it as a tick box exercise rather than something they can use in the real world and with that mind-set unfortunately the value of the leadership course is diminished.

So what does this mean for those wanting to become future career leaders?

This means companies need to step up. If they want to fast track their valuable chosen employees into leaders then they need to provide the investment. Not just financially but also their time.

As David says, They have got to balance former training skills and operational skills learnt. They have to allow employees 1-to-1 coaches.

A fantastic term David used was Thinking-mans Daleks. That is sadly what is happening to the workforce. I was once a bright eyed employee coming into the office environment and was on more than one occasion asked for my opinion on working processes. Could I see ways of them being more effective? - Of course. Did I put my views forward? Yes. Was I listened to? No.

After a while, you learn to keep your mouth shut and you just keep to the processes that they have always used and this is the issue. People become institutionalised and they start to lose interest but surely what we need in an ever-changing world is new ideas and ways to make our processes more effective.

David also quoted that We are meaning making machines and what is found in effective leadership programmes is that these future leaders need to feel valued. They need to know that their employer is not only interested in targets but in how the employees feel about themselves in the process.

David and I were both instrumental in our belief that employers need to move away from the primitive survival thinking which covers the job security, annual pay increase etc. and realise it should be a given. In order to progress your best employees they need to focus beyond survival means and concentrate on what we as human beings have evolved into. We now want meaning and passion in our careers. We want to feel we are making a difference. We want our emotional minds to be met.

Interviewing a recent client of mine who is in a senior position for a large computer manufacturer, she told me that originally she moved companies for financial gains however she has never been happy in her job. Why does she stay? Security. Would she leave at the first chance she got? Yes.

This woman has been through more than one leadership programme with her employer but really all she wants is to feel valued and to feel part of a community. The issue is that the company has moved forward without listening to their employees and while she has found the leadership programme interesting everyone in her office hot desks so she no longer feels she can lead a team.

Working with individuals I see a lot of employees crying out for help in their careers. They arent receiving the support from their employers and this is where the infamous quote:

CFO asks CEO: What happens if we invest in developing our people then they leave us?

CEO: What happens if we dont and they stay?

What is missing from this is We need to LISTEN to our people.

We need to ask them what they really want and ensure that their needs are met. Then when we put them through leadership programmes tailored to both the business and the employee we know that we have invested wisely and both employer and employee needs are met.

Only then, will leadership programmes be effective.