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. 

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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.

Bite-size learning can fill employees' craving for development

As someone in the leadership development space for over 15 years, I’ve seen a big gap emerge between how much employees want (and need) to learn on the job and how much they’re able. I believe the solution to this problem will come from thinking small—at least in leadership development content—to bite-size learning.

Image by reallywellmadedesks from Pixabay

The desire to learn isn’t the problem 

One reason I love my work is that I get to fulfill employees’ desires to learn and evolve professionally. In one survey, more than nine of 10 respondents said learning opportunities would motivate them to stay with their employers longer. About the same number believe that learning and development increase engagement. Meanwhile, HR executives say they are feeling the pressure to provide more training 

That pressure isn’t just coming from employees, though.  Executives are losing sleep over whether their employees have the skills and potential to become their organization’s future leaders. 

So if executives believe employees need more development, and employees want to learn more themselves, what’s the problem? 

Too little time, too many distractions 

First, we’re all squeezed for time these days. More than half of workers say their jobs have gotten more intense and demanding. We already recognize that overstuffed schedules lead to burnout. But they also take a toll on learning and development. Over 40% of employees lack time for training and education. Another study found that employees have an average of 24 minutes to spend learning during an average workweek. 

And those minutes probably don’t all come at the same time. We’re only able to spend an average of three minutes on any task before being interrupted or switching to do something else. 

While we joke about our goldfish-like attention spans these days, the reality isn’t funny. Typically, we can only pay attention to one screen for 47 seconds at a time. 

It’s hard to think about taking even a half-day away from work for leadership development in this kind of work environment.

Teach in the way people learn 

When my company was developing New Lens, our own learning platform, we knew we had to design it for busy, distracted users. Our embrace of micro-learning content is part of a larger trend.    

“We have to teach in the way people learn,” leading analyst Josh Bersin says. “People want engaging, bite-size learning that is integrated into everyday work. Twenty minutes feels too long in this day and age. Focus on content that is two to seven minutes long.” 

Priyanka Mitra of the research firm Everest Group is another advocate for “bite-size” learning: “This less-is-more approach often aligns well with the modern learner, who grapples with shorter attention spans and limited time availability.” 

Today’s technology makes it possible for training and development to be available wherever and whenever we can engage with it. Imagine a busy professional who wants to build her leadership skills, but who can’t find room on her calendar for a full-day, offsite development class. However, the same professional has a few minutes between meetings each week she can use to complete lessons on her phone. 

When bite-size learning is better 

It’s important to note that bite-size development content isn’t just a response to our harried schedules. In some situations, shorter, more accessible material is actually a more effective way to learn. 

As you’ve probably experienced yourself, knowledge is easier to retain when you can put it into practice. Let’s imagine two employees, Carmen and Vanessa, who want to get better at leading productive meetings. 

Carmen attends a daylong offsite event that’s packed with information. Vanessa uses a learning platform that delivers five- to seven-minute lessons and that she can access from any of her devices. While the offsite event provides useful advice on meetings, the pace of the training makes it hard for Carmen to remember every point. Back on the job, it’s a pain to dig through the materials to find the relevant information when she needs it. 

But with the learning platform on her phone, Vanessa can easily access relevant information when she needs it—for example, when she’s creating a meeting agenda—and view the material as many times as she needs to for retention. 

“Where bite-size learning excels is that it recreates the ‘spacing’ that learners need because it’s designed to be returned to again and again,” says Ryan Chynces, senior manager of online education at Hootsuite. “(T)he learner’s effort of going back and retrieving that material makes it easier for them to recall it later down the line.” 

Longer-format forms of leadership development are not going away. And, as an experienced executive, consultant, and leadership development expert, I don’t want them to. But I’m also excited about the different forms that learning can take today. By embracing bite-size learning alongside traditional methods, we can create a more flexible, accessible, and effective approach that better serves both organizations and employees. 

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

4 ways to develop your team on a tight budget

Everywhere I look, I see restructuring and streamlining—even in companies where growth is strong. In the current business climate, many companies are playing it safe. This may mean freezing budgets or deferring spending by a quarter or two to see how things play out.

Photo by Nataliya Vaitkevich

If you’re a leader working with a lean team, you know that you can’t afford to wait to develop your team, especially if you have recently lost more experienced members or if some are close to retirement. 

During the pandemic, we saw the impact of pressing pause on training. It affected employee engagement and retention and slowed their readiness for bigger roles. The Great Resignation may be over, but its aftermath isn’t. Leaders (and employees) still haven’t recovered from the fatigue.

So, what can you do on a tight budget? Here are four key strategies to develop your team.

Leverage Existing Resources

This strategy is always a powerful one because it leverages the talent already available in your company. One option is to do strengths-based peer-to-peer cross training. Start by identifying the strengths of each of your team members (and perhaps for some of the direct reports of your peers).

Once you’ve done this, what valuable experiences or expertise should be shared across the group, whether that’s one-on-one or in an informal virtual or in-person lunch and learn? Think about technical knowledge and leadership skills. The key is to make it relevant to the audience and as easy as possible for people to teach what they know.

Another option is to invite business leaders to speak to your team, even if it’s for just 15 to 30 minutes. This is far less about doing a formal PowerPoint presentation and more about arming the group with critical lessons learned or providing valuable business perspectives.

Give People Experience

People don’t learn by just reading, listening, or observing. They need opportunities to practice by applying what they are getting exposed to. For example, if you’re already using job shadowing as a strategy, take it one step further. Don’t just have people attend and observe in meetings they wouldn’t normally get to participate in. Have them play a role, whether that’s doing the preparation (defining the objectives and how to meet them), presenting content to the audience, and/or debriefing what worked well and what they would do differently.

You can also hold problem-solving sessions where you bring a business issue to the group and facilitate a conversation around it. The goal is to get people to think critically.

Coach Your Team

As leaders, sometimes we get too focused on problem solving for our teams, especially when we have deep expertise. The next time an employee escalates an issue to you, pause. Is this a situation where you should coach or provide a solution?

Remember that you can empower your direct reports to think through the issues themselves. This means asking thought-provoking open-ended questions, not leading them down a path of yes-or-no questions to your preferred solution. If you do this consistently, you will quickly learn more about your team’s critical-thinking skills and you will accelerate their development.

Use Tech       

The pandemic did wonders to accelerate the advancement of technology, especially as employees worked remotely. However, far too many companies continue to rely on approaches that either overwhelm their employees with content or don’t make it easy to apply the learning.

There are new breeds of learning platforms that integrate the power of the other approaches outlined in this article. As we developed ours, New Lens, we knew it would be critical to combine individual and collaborative learning and make it as easy as possible for participants to gain insight and take action.

Regardless of the approach you take, remember that there are always opportunities to maximize learning in the context of what you are already doing. Look for that low-hanging fruit.

This article was originally published by Fast Company.