By: Brian Hallahan

Optimizing Your Leadership Development Strategy for Better Business Results

Going into 2021, the importance of executing business results has never been more urgent for all business leaders. At the same time, we’ve arrived at this moment with an appreciation of societal expectations for businesses to harness and represent all that is good about us as individuals and society. Thus, business results will not come from an anachronistic ethic.

Success today is achieved by having the right leaders, the right leadership culture within your organization. The right leaders lead to better employee engagement, improved customer engagement, and better business results. So, how do you optimize your leadership development strategy for better business results? Here are four suggestions:

Identify your business needs.  No business is going into 2021 unscathed by the events of 2020, even those that prospered. As tempting as it is to go back to 2019’s plans and act like 2020 didn’t happen, we can’t go back. You need to assess the business needs and identify the leadership qualities needed to go forward. For instance, leaders need to be adaptable and resilient in the face of disrupting events. Reassess your leadership pipeline in light of how the business and leadership needs are redefined.

Uncover your managers’ and leaders’ needs. It’s time to also have conversations throughout the organization about leadership. What are others looking for in a leader? What is working, and what isn’t? Many of our business processes were suspended due to the pandemic and the shift to remote work, but now may be a good time to do a quick engagement or culture survey. To lead forward, you need to connect with the people of your organization from where they are today.

Match your development methods to your leaders’ needs.  In a recent webinar, we conducted a poll among our attendees where it was asked what their approach to development was in 2021. The top answer, with 41%, was “comprehensive virtual learning program for leadership." This does seem to be the more resilient solution in times of disruption in comparison to in-person training. But eLearning also has its pitfalls. It can be unstructured, self-paced, and lack reinforcement or application to one’s job. This leaves the door open to whether eLearning can and will improve the business and improve your leadership bench strength.  

Set objectives and measures of success. While the industry may still be working towards an exact point of measurement to uncover the ROI for development programs, we can always measure retention, application, observable behavior change, and the business results produced by those who receive training.

If you are seeking a partner for leadership development who has a solution that combines structured content on a scalable technology platform with reinforcement, accountability, and remote-live coaching, please contact us to learn more about our Accelerator Program.