We live in times of constant change; times where long-established notions are constantly being challenged and replaced with newer ones. One such notion around leadership is – Leaders are born, not made.

Innate talent is no longer the only parameter that qualifies one to eventually grow as a leader. Today, a systematic approach of talent and skill development has transformed several individuals with the willingness to learn, into excellent leaders. This system is deployed in the form of leadership development interventions.

Let’s look at some statistics published by leading leadership development organizations, suggesting the need for leadership development-

• Only 7% of CEOs in a Fortune survey opined that their organization was building effective global leaders.
• 84% of organizations anticipated a shortfall of leaders over the next 5 years
• 77% of the organizations reported the existence of a leadership gap.

The question thus arises is: what is required for the success of such development interventions? Leadership Development programs rely on some key factors for their success which are as follows:

• Buy-In From Top Management – A successful leadership intervention should have its strategy and business value aligned with the organization’s strategy and business goals for it to have the acceptance of the top management. A program not aligned with the organizational vision, mission, values and business goals would fail to deliver any real measurable positive business impact.
• Contextually Apt To Enable Learning Transfer & Retention – The program should be designed according to the organizational context where the learning has to be applied. An intervention would fail if its learning cannot be transferred to the workplace and applied for a successful learning transfer and retention.
• Application-Based & Measurable – A successful leadership intervention should be application-based by design so that the learning comes in a practical hands-on manner rather than just a conceptual understanding. This would enable better development of the participants as future leaders. Moreover, the intervention results should be measurable in the form of concrete business impact. An intervention that’s not measurable cannot be said to be successful or unsuccessful, just on the basis of the participant reaction it generates, because then its focus would end up staying limited to generating a favorable participant experience.
• Favourable Individual Attitude & Ownership Towards Learning And Change – For an intervention to be successful the participants should have a favourable attitude and ownership towards learning and change. They should not feel it to be a forced upon process; they should rather feel encouraged and supported while being proactive about their learning and development journey, and take ownership for it. A resistance or lack of desire towards learning and the accompanying change can prove a bane for the most well designed and implemented leadership development intervention.
• Adaptable According To The Changing Scenario–Existing in a VUCA environment change is the only constant. Keeping this in mind, leadership development interventions need to be futuristic in nature. This means that not only should it aim to develop the leaders to meet the current business challenges but also the ones that may arise in the future. This would enhance the relevance and business impact of the leadership development intervention making it more effective.
• Developmental In Nature–The aim of any leadership development program should be to develop the leaders as a whole in a gradual and continual manner. An intervention designed as a quick fix is bound to fail. Unlike a management development program, a leadership development program is not a task oriented intervention; it is rather a continual process of building the overall capability of the individual as a business leader. Moreover, the program should be customizable to the specific individual in accordance with where s/he is in their leadership development journey.

As a successful leadership program is critical to fill the leadership gaps in any organization, an intervention designed keeping the above aspects in mind would inevitably be a success thereby delivering a positive business impact via some vectors such as low turnover; higher productivity; higher motivation, better engagement and commitment levels; greater alignment to the business goals, and high creativity& innovation to name a few.

GrowthSqapes follows a diagnostics based leadership development approach that creates a positive business impact.

This blog has been written by Namita Singh, Consultant & Project Manager at GrowthSqapes.