leadership pipelines

Companies want scalable leadership development. Here’s how to do it right.

Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning recently surveyed leaders and L&D professionals about what they’re looking for in a leadership development program. At the top of the list? Scalability. 

One of my passions—and one of the reasons my company developed our own learning platform—is expanding access to leadership development, so it’s exciting to see companies recognizing how important scalability is. At the same time; however, I know that making scalability work at your organization can be a tall order. 

For a long time, scalability and quality have seemed at odds in leadership development. An organization could spend its budget on highly effective, but expensive options like coaching for fewer people. Or it could bring leadership development to more employees, but settle for cookie-cutter programs. 

But that conundrum is becoming a thing of the past. Scalability and quality can go together in leadership development—no matter the size of your training budget. To get both, though, you have to embrace an approach that’s both high-tech and high-touch. 

Why is scalability so important? 

Before we get into the nuts and bolts of scaling quality leadership development, let’s talk about why it’s such a big deal right now.

For starters, there’s a real gap in leadership pipelines. Only 20% of companies feel confident that they have strong future leaders lined up, and this is something we hear from clients all the time.

At the same time, companies are starting to recognize the power of informal leaders—the people who don’t have a leadership title but still play a huge role in driving teams forward. A recent Harvard Business Publishing report highlights how organizations are shifting toward flatter structures and more cross-functional collaboration. That means people who used to simply carry out tasks are now expected to influence stakeholders, make strategic decisions, and communicate business impact—in other words, to lead, even without a formal title.

With leadership expectations evolving, the challenge isn’t just developing leaders—it’s making sure leadership skills reach everyone who needs them.

With tech, think beyond AI 

That brings us back to the question of how to make leadership development more scalable while maintaining quality. With just about any issue in business, people seem to rush to AI as the answer. While exciting things are going on, AI isn’t a magic-bullet solution for leadership development yet. The lingering problem is getting people (and teams) to actually use and benefit from them. But AI can be part of your scalability solution. In the Harvard survey, 60% of respondents said they’re incorporating AI into their development programs. (As my own company trains an AI coach, we’re focusing on making sure that using the coach will fit into people’s busy schedules.) 

However, don’t let AI overshadow other useful technologies. Micro-learning platforms are another huge trend right now, with nine out of 10 L&D professionals saying that the employees they serve prefer them. I’ve seen firsthand with our own platform how busy professionals embrace using “snackable content” to get leadership insights when and where they need them. 

Technology can also extend the reach of other leadership development tools. If you’re used to thinking in terms of using a single leadership development program at your organization, this may require a shift in mindset. But there’s lots of potential. For example, my company is very excited right now about the potential of combining our learning platform with our coaching services to help companies stretch their budgets farther. 

Enlist your current leaders for development 

 As I touched on earlier, technology is only part of the story when it comes to scaling leadership development. Leaders will always need to learn from other leaders, no matter how advanced AI and other high-tech tools become. I’ve also found that most organizations haven’t fully tapped into the knowledge their own people have. Unleashing this knowledge makes it a whole lot easier to scale leadership development. 

One strategy I always recommend is teaching your current leaders (including the informal ones) how they can help develop others. Ensure that the development they receive includes both coaching and delegation skills. Employees whose managers are adept coaches are eight times more engaged. And delegation gives employees a chance to grow “in the flow of work”—I’ve seen firsthand that this approach amplifies engagement, innovation, and customer satisfaction. 

Another way to enlist current leaders in scaling development is creating a mentoring program or updating your current one. Some of your employees may already have mentors or mentees, but formalizing mentorship programs makes them more powerful. Mentorship doesn’t just impart the information your people need to develop as leaders. It also ensures that information is relevant—the “touchstone” of an effective leadership development program—and it helps build the relationships your future leaders need. 

What’s next? 

I’m optimistic about scalable leadership development and the possibilities it holds. Making leadership development available to more employees will affect productivity—and even small shifts in productivity across a large population of employees can lead to big results. So how do you want to get the ball rolling to integrate scalability into your organization’s approach? 

This article was originally published by Neena Newberry in Fast Company.

Why an ‘affordable’ leadership program may be the most expensive mistake you make

A low-cost library might not yield results, while premium coaching could spark a game-changing ripple effect across your entire organization.

If you’re in charge of selecting a leadership development solution for your organization, your budget might feel dwarfed by the goals and needs the program must address. And while the money you have to spend is limited, the options you have to choose from—coaching, learning platforms, content libraries and more—are not. 

Image by Tung Lam from Pixabay

 All of those factors can make it difficult to identify the option that will deliver the best ROI.

An “affordable” subscription to a vast digital library of leadership videos and courses is no bargain if it doesn’t deliver the results you need. On the other hand, premium coaching for a few key executives might feel extravagant at first but ultimately create a huge ripple effect across the organization. 

It’s not that content libraries are “bad,” and coaching is “good.” The right solution for one company could be a waste of time and money in another. So how do you make the best choice based on your goals and your budget? 

Before you contact a single provider or even start reviewing the options available to you, consider the questions below. As a CEO focused on transforming leadership development through technology, I can tell you that the organizations that are clear on their answers get the best results from leadership development, no matter what their budget is or the specific programs they choose. 

What are your specific goals? 

Leadership development is too expensive (U.S. companies spend more than $81 billion on it per year) to be merely a feel-good purchase or a box to check for the year. Your investment in a program will pay off only when you know exactly what you want it to achieve. So think about your company’s priorities right now. A few examples: 

  • Does your CEO want to create a coaching culture? 

  • Has low performance by new managers surfaced as a problem? 

  • Is innovation one of your priorities this year? 

  • Is your organization worried about the state of your leadership pipeline? 

If your goals seem way out of alignment with your budget, you may have to determine which goals need immediate attention and which ones can be acted on later. For instance, if your mid-level managers are jumping ship to your competitors, developing your current leadership bench needs attention right away. On the other hand, a broader initiative to build leadership capabilities across all departments could wait. 

How many people do you need to target? 

Is a company-wide program necessary to achieve your goals? Or would it be more effective to focus on a particular department or type of employee, such as first-time managers or a new executive team?

Your answer can help you start narrowing down options. For example, if your top priority is developing a new executive team, coaching could be the right choice. It’s highly customized and effective. But your focus is on a larger group—like new managers—coaching might be out of your budget, and a digital learning platform could be a better fit. Similarly, perhaps you can send all first-time managers to a conference or bring in a facilitator for a weeklong program, but you can’t afford these options for every employee who’s interested in leadership development. 

What’s going on right now with the employees you want to develop? 

The capacity of the participants is often overlooked as a key factor in whether a leadership development solution succeeds. So, once you’ve identified the employees who’ll be part of your program, think about what might be affecting their current bandwidth to learn, grow and change. 

Let’s say you’re considering a program that would bring in a facilitator for a week of daylong classes with your managers. That might sound like an amazing development opportunity, and for some organizations, it is. But if your managers are already overextended with their workloads, this “opportunity” could become just another source of stress. Instead of paying attention and learning from the facilitator, the managers might be covertly multitasking through sessions just to stay afloat. And what if program participants don’t work onsite full time? Will a fully remote employee get the same experience as in-person participants? Will hybrid employees resent an extra day in the office?

In such cases, a program that empowers your managers to learn on their own schedule might be a better solution. You could provide them with a micro-learning app or access to a learning library. (With those options, just be sure to also give them customized learning paths. Busy, stressed managers don’t have time to sort through piles of content to figure out what they need, either.) 

Thinking through these questions will help you zero in on what your company really needs from leadership development and the type of program that best fulfills those needs. I know the vast array of options out there can seem dizzying, but this variety also means that you have a better chance of finding a program that truly aligns with what you need and can afford. The more clarity you can bring into the selection process, the more likely you are to avoid costly mistakes and choose a leadership development program that delivers the results you need. 

This article was originally published by Neena Newberry in Fast Company.

5 Factors That Weaken Your Leadership Pipeline

Have you had a chance to download our new white paper, “Transforming Leadership Development Through Technology: A Strategic Imperative”?

We created this report when we saw that today’s change-filled business environment is making it increasingly difficult to cultivate the leaders that organizations need. Only 12% of companies report confidence in their bench of prepared future leaders, according to DDI's Global Leadership Forecast 2023

What’s behind this crisis? Here are a few factors we’ve identified. Each is covered in more depth in the white paper. 

1.   Training Budgets Are Stretched Thin

There’s no question that leadership is valuable. But that value can come at a hefty cost. Executive coaching can run from $200 to $3,500 an hour, and the average length of a coaching engagement is nine months. Bringing a leadership trainer in for a class of 15-20 people also has a daily price tag in the thousands of dollars.

2.   Potential Leaders Get Overlooked

Because of those budget realities, organizations tend to limit leadership development to high performers and high potentials. That means we’re missing out on the skills and talents of countless other potential leaders.

3.   Employees Say They’re Too Busy

Time also gets in the way of leadership development. For busy professionals, finding room for training in their packed schedules is a tall order. In one survey, employees said they have only about 24 minutes for learning during a 40-hour week. That’s no surprise when we consider that 55% of workers say their jobs have gotten more intense and demanding.

4.   Distractions Take a Toll

But a lack of time isn’t the full story. Even if an employee manages to set aside an hour to take an online course, they may have trouble focusing on it for long. The average amount of time that people spend on any single event before being interrupted or task switching is about three minutes. Our attention spans are taking a beating: The average time we can pay attention to one screen is 47 seconds.

5.   The Forgetting Curve Is Real

Leadership development isn’t just about what employees learn. It’s about what they retain. You’ve probably heard about the “forgetting curve”: A week after training, those busy, distracted employees we’ve been talking about will remember only about 10% of what they learned. Why does this happen? Info just doesn’t stick in our minds if it’s not relevant to us or we can’t use it immediately.

Transform Your Approach to Leadership Development

If these problems are affecting leadership development at your organization, our white paper can be your roadmap to solving them and building a stronger leadership pipeline. In it, you’ll learn how technology now enables to do some pretty cool things:

  • Create training that makes a real difference in just a few minutes.

  • Make learning and development happen every day.

  • Expand access to leadership development.

To learn more, get your free copy of “Transforming Leadership Development Through Technology: A Strategic Imperative.” We’re excited about all the possibilities that the tech revolution in L&D creates. And we think you will be, too. Check out our white paper, and then join the conversation about it on LinkedIn.