Global IT Leadership Development Program
As educators with years of experience designing leadership development programs, we can test from personal experience that program evaluators are often eager to share glowing accounts of participant growth and learning, and that these reviews can be enough to help employers determine the program’s effectiveness. However, our published and ongoing research indicates that these rosy reviews do not necessarily tell the whole story.
As educators with years of experience designing leadership development programs, we can test from personal experience that program evaluators are often eager to share glowing accounts of participant growth and learning, and that these reviews can be enough to help employers determine the program’s effectiveness. However, our published and ongoing research indicates that these rosy reviews do not necessarily tell the whole story.
We found that under the right circumstances, leadership development can benefit both employers and employees through tests, long-term surveys, and quantitative and qualitative data analysis of more than 1,000 participants in six different leadership development programs in companies and educational institutions around the world. More specifically, these programs can promote happiness, a clearer sense of self, a greater sense of meaning and purpose in life and the workplace, reduced stress, and personal growth—all of which can lead to real change and improved mental health and well-being. being. As a result, this can lead to greater effectiveness and engagement, allowing leaders to better support their teams and organizations.
Leadership Development Program
However, organizations frequently fall short of rrealizingthe full benefits of developing their leaders. As a matter of fact, according to one estimate, the return on investment for corporate leadership training is only 10%. To close this gap, we’ve compiled a list of seven scientifically supported tactics that program designers may use to avoid frequent mistakes and create engaging user experiences that genuinely promote change:
1. Emphasize Personal Development:
Learning precise, tactical talents is only one aspect of leadership growth; another is developing the broad qualities, like resilience or self-awareness, that are essential for adjusting to ever-changing, dynamic problems. Since these attitudes and behaviors are generally applicable by nature, effective leadership development must address and transform leaders’ entire beings as well as how they do specific job responsibilities.
Global IT Leadership Development Program
“This pprogramis transforming not just how I lead but how I live,” an executive who participated in our study said. “This program opened up the possibilities in my career, but also the possibilities within myself,” said another. One individual expounded on how a development program benefited them in all facets of their lives, saying, “I recognized chances to enhance my interactions with teammates in groups. I also saw chances to interact with my adolescent children more skillfully. A whole-person approach to growth enhances the worth of the leader on a personal and professional level while also improving organizational results.
2. Offer chances for introspection and the creation of meaning:
Offering employees the opportunity to take a break from the daily grind and reposition themselves, their jobs, and their livess is one of the key ways that leadership development produces value for them. A refreshed sense of purpose at work and elsewhere may result from this. “The program helped me slow down and intentionally consider my purpose in life,” said one participant in reflection. It was the first time I had permitted myself to think about my purpose, my motivations for doing what I do, why I am here, how I present myself to the world, and how I want to present myself going ahead. Additionally, this increased their productivity at work:
The participant said, “I am more focused and clear about what I want to accomplish at work.” “I’m having more fun at work than I did before.”
Global IT Leadership Development Program
It is essential to provide employees with ample time and space for systematic self-reflection and to expressly encourage them to consider their purpose if they are to fully capitalize on this unique opportunity. Dov Seidman, a businessman and the creator of The HOW Institute for Society, a nonprofit organization whose goal is to develop and foster a culture of moral leadership, makes a strong case for the benefits of this kind of thinking by pointing out that “a machine stops when you press the pause button.” However, when you give people a pause, they begin to think, reflect, and envisage a better course of action.
Encouraging leaders to occasionally hit the stop button provides them with the space to reflect on both professional and personal achievements, which can lead to transformative realizations and adjustments in viewpoint.
3. Provide leaders experiencing acute or ongoing stress with focused programs:
Effective leadership development, according to our research, provided participants with a fresh sense of purpose and direction, which frequently increased happiness and decreased stress. One leader said it this way: “I’ve found greater peace with the work I am (and am not) doing when I actively identify how the tasks I perform relate to my purpose in life and remember to focus on that.” Consequently, it has made a significant contribution to my enduring satisfaction. After finishing a leadership development program, another person shared how they felt revitalized: “I realized that I was worn out. I felt energized after using the program; it restored my battery.
Global IT Leadership Development Program
Significantly, individuals with higher baseline stress levels and those whose programs were delivered during the pandemic—a time that was especially difficult for many leaders—saw greater decreases in stress. Additionally, we discovered that after finishing a development program, leaders with higher degrees of emotional variability or neuroticism—qualities that are frequently linked to chronic stress—saw significant decreases in stress. This means that when stress levels are very high due to personal or group issues, employers should give priority to leadership development programs since they can help employees de-stress and strengthen their psychological resources.
4. Short, intense programs are not to be undervalued
Our studies’ most intriguing discovery was that, frequently, shorter programs produced unexpectedly significant gains. We discovered that a two- or four-day intensive could sometimes have an even bigger effect than a four-week program of the same length, and in certain situations, it could even result in increases in well-being comparable to those seen following therapeutic mental health therapies.
Therefore, it may be advantageous for both program developers and participants to actively look into ways to shorten these initiatives since a more intensive, shorter program might produce better effects while requiring less time and money.
5. Recognise and deal with psychological obstacles to development:
Not everyone is as willing to work on themselves. Specifically, our study discovered that the most self-aware and highly conscientious individuals showed the least amount of improvement in response to development initiatives. Â Naturally, having a strong sense of self is beneficial. It’s possible that our findings only show that these people are naturally stronger leaders and don’t require as much development. But it’s also likely that leaders who have an overly optimistic self-image avoid vulnerability and are therefore less inclined to grow.
Organizations need to help participants select programs that align with their learning objectives while managing expectations regarding the precise learning outcomes of various programs in light of these constraints. Before beginning a new development program, it’s also frequently beneficial to invest some time in developing the mentality required for learning and development, such as by encouraging vulnerability and comfort with ambiguity. In the end, our study demonstrates that various individuals will differ in their preparedness for growth, and some may require additional assistance than others to reap the benefits of these initiatives.
6. Make sure growth in the short term results in long-term effects that are sustained:
Numerous studies in psychology have demonstrated that when a one-time experience triggers a shift in well-being, the initial boost frequently wears off over time. Long-term transformation is not always the result of short-term gains because people generally adjust to their new circumstances. Our research also revealed this phenomenon: gains in leaders’ well-being tended to vanish in the months after the conclusion of a development program.
Given this, it would be prudent for organizations to make a distinction between genuine, long-term effects and temporary success, and to make sure that their development initiatives do notprioritizee the former over the latter. The most successful programs build on these initial improvements with reminders and other continuous interventions meant to create long-term habits and continued engagement, even though it is frequently simpler to assess instant effects.
7. Accept online education:
Finally, a growing number of businesses are looking into online leadership development programs as remote work becomes more common. These initiatives let instructors reach a wider audience and are typically more effective and affordable. However, it makes sense that some leaders are still unsure about whether online courses can be just as successful as in-person ones.