5 Essentials of any Leadership Development Program.

I like to consider myself primarily a practitioner of leadership in that I am actively teaching and developing leaders as well as leading my own teams. From time to time, however, I use my teaching faculty and research background to think out loud about certain topics, especially as it relates to the MECHANICS or PROCESSES of developing leaders.

I believe that there as 5 ESSENTIALS to any leadership development program. Too often, however, many of these are ignored due to time or cost concerns. The point is that leadership is a PROCESS and so is the method to improve upon leadership skills. So whether you are wanting to use these 5 elements to improve individually or institute a LEADERSHIP CULTURE on an organizational level, make sure you include ALL of the following. The first 3 elements are proposed by Dr. Dennis Roberts who is a thought leader in this area of leadership development. The last two are based upon my observations of what is lacking in most programs. 

Education – to improve as a leader, it is imperative that you dive into content. There are a great many books, articles, videos, etc. now widely available on the web. In short, to become a better leader you need to STUDY what great leaders do!

Training – along with increasing your knowledge-based, you must immerse yourself in skill building activities. These may include seminars or on-line programs related to a variety of topics such as communication, delegation, resilience, decision making, ethics, etc.

Development – along with Education and Training, in order to get better you have to practice and apply the new skills and knowledge you have acquired. Obviously, it is best to do this in real world environments such as your work arena. If you are self-employed, then volunteer to assist a non-profit or faith-based organization and eventually chair a committee or lead a project.

Process Coaching – Whereas the above elements are critical, they are incomplete. In order for leadership development to “stick” you need to get feedback on how you are performing. Acquiring the services of a leadership coach can be a great way to do this. You and the coach can discuss what you are learning, how you are applying new skills and content, and then processing or debriefing what happened when you attempted to do so.

Assessment – finally, you need to keep score! How will you know if you are improving if you do not assess your progress? Assessment can occur in a variety of formats but I suggest two in particular. A) trait-based assessments like DiSC or StrengthsFinder give you a baseline as to how you like to view and respond to the world around you. B) behavior-based assessments track on what you actually DO! The Leadership Practices Inventory by Kouzes and Posner or the Maxwell Leadership Assessment (based upon Maxwell’s 5 Levels of Leadership) provide you with both a pre and post snapshot as to how you are improving along with a 360⁰ feedback loop from those you are leading or observing your leadership.

Again, any leadership development MUST include ALL of these elements. I would suggest you design a logic-model or curriculum that incorporates ALL elements whether you are doing this individually or on an organizational level. The good news is that you do not have to abandon everything you have done or have planned, just organize your efforts in a more cogent model!

Speaker and author Charlie “Tremendous” Jones states that “You’re going to be the same person 5 years from now that you are today except for two things, the people you meet and he books you read!” The point is that leadership will not develop on its own. You have to be intentional if you want to get where you want to go! A word of caution, not all programs or relationships are worthy of your investment so choose wisely!

As always if I can help you and the people you associate with Get Better, Be Ready and LEAD OUT LOUD, I would invite you to email me or to visit my website below and see if any of the training or coaching experiences I offer can provide an impact! Also, as a bonus, if you go to my Out Loud Strategies website (www.outloudinc.com) and enter your contact information, I will send you a FREE guide to establishing a mentoring initiative program in your organization! Such an initiative would be critical in order to add value to your organization!

Yours in Leadership,

Bill Faulkner

Principal Consultant – Out Loud Strategies

Independent Coach, Speaker, and Trainer with the John Maxwell Team ^TM

Email = bill@outloudinc.com

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