Why Leadership Training Typically FAILS: A Roadmap to SUCCESS!

Companies spend millions of dollars each year on training programs that fail to deliver a meaningful return on their investment. The positive attitudes and “let’s do this” enthusiasm at the beginning of a leadership training program can fade quickly if they are not set up correctly.

Leadership Training is a Cornerstone of Organizational Development

Leadership training needs to be designed to ensure individuals and teams acquire and apply the skills and behaviors they are learning. Only then can they achieve the ultimate goal of delivering performance and productivity at the enterprise level. To achieve this, leadership training must provide a learning experience that professionals will fully engage in and feel inspired to utilize in their daily work.

Let’s explore the common pitfalls that often undermine leadership training initiatives and present a clear roadmap for organizations to overcome these challenges.

Here’s why most leadership training programs derail and what you can do about it:

Lack of Customization to Your Cultural Needs

One of the primary reasons leadership training falls short is that it is not tailored to the lifecycle stage and cultural needs of the organization’s talent bench. Customization of program design and delivery is critical for success. Every company has a unique culture and way of operating. Sometimes, the company is entrepreneurially driven and needs more processes and a common language to solve problems. Other companies may need to be more flexible and unlock their talent bench’s voices and creativity.

Generic, one-size-fits-all training often needs to pay more attention to the cultural skills gaps, operational readiness, and marketplace challenges that leaders face. To address this, companies should invest in customized leadership development programs, recognizing that their culture and talent bench have unique strengths and areas for improvement.

Disconnection from Real-World Challenges Your Company Is Facing

Leadership training often fails when it is detached from the practical realities of your specific workplace. Traditional training modules focus on theoretical concepts and offer generic actionable approaches for “hypothetical” real-world challenges. Unfortunately, the dynamics of every organization are different, so leadership training that will genuinely make a positive impact will specifically connect learning content to your unique company context.

This can only happen by integrating real company challenges into experiential learning, real case studies from your successes and failures, and structured role-play simulations considering the personalities of real people in their leadership programs. This ensures that leaders can skillfully and confidently apply their leadership training directly to their daily responsibilities.

Insufficient Follow-Up and Support to Ensure Realized Benefits

A fundamental element of successful leadership development is the ongoing support and reinforcement of learned skills. Many training programs are single or multi-day “events” that take place annually and leave the organization without a structured follow-up mechanism to provide leaders with the necessary guidance to continuously practice applying their new skills and behaviors “on the ground” in their day-to-day roles.

Organizations must establish mentorship relationships, peer-to-peer support networks, and continuous learning opportunities to sustain leadership growth beyond the initial training period.

Underestimating the Impact of Emotional Intelligence

Leadership is more than just having the technical skills required for a position. It requires high levels of emotional intelligence or soft skills to coach, influence, and inspire the performance of others. Unfortunately, many companies not only narrowly invest in technical training programs but also need to pay more attention to the impact of weak, soft skills in their leaders and underestimate the longer-term adverse effects this has on their next-generation talent bench development and future growth.

Leaders today must be skilled in communication, building healthy relationships, demonstrating empathy, inspiring others and working through the challenges of productive conflict to secure alignment across their enterprises. This requires leadership training that emphasizes the skills of emotional intelligence.

Overlooking Talent and Generational Dynamics

Organizations now have up to 5 different generations of talent in their workforce. This, coupled with the dynamics of hybrid workplace expectations, has created environments where securing clear and consistent communication and building healthy relationships is more challenging. Leadership training that fails to consider the diverse needs and styles of the different generations at work will not have the required engagement and impact. Today’s bar is higher, and leadership training needs to meet the talent’s individual and social needs so engagement is secured and collaboration is nurtured across your enterprise.

Your Roadmap for Success with Leadership Training

To overcome the challenges associated with failed leadership training, your company can take proactive measures to revamp its approach:

1. Invest in a Customized Learning Journey at the Enterprise Level:
   • Invite your organization to engage in a leadership learning journey together.
   • Your organization is a System—and real change happens together in systems.
   • A Leadership Journey that involves everyone will build cultural skills.

2. Integrate Real-World Application into Your Program Design:
   • Your learning content must be linked to how to apply it in your company.
   • Integrate actual challenges and opportunities your company currently faces.
   • Use your leadership training forums to discuss and address potential solutions.
3. Ensure Support Mechanisms Are in Place to Create Ongoing Learning Experiences:
   • Integrate Mentors into your program design.
   • Establish Peer-to-Peer learning groups for knowledge sharing.
   • Schedule the rhythm of personal learning along with social reinforcement.
4. Prioritize Emotional Intelligence in Your Criteria for Leadership Advancement:
   • Emphasize emotional intelligence in all aspects of leadership development.
   • Focus developmental feedback on self-awareness and self-management.
   • Ensure leaders have the temperament to inspire others before being promoted.
5. Activate What Makes Your Organizational Culture Unique:
   • Identify the cultural dynamics you want to gap-fill and leverage with training.
   • Create expectations for what success looks, sounds and feels like with training.
   • Ensure you include FUN elements in your training program design and delivery!

TAKE Immediate Action: GIVE Your Organization the Gift of Leadership Development

Two things are probably true if you are considering investing in leadership development.

First, you already know your organization needs leadership training to realize its growth potential. Second, your organization probably needs to act and implement something to address the current leadership gaps. So, make the bold and courageous moves you need!

We can be your change partners. Working with CEOs and their Executive leadership teams, we co-create customized leadership learning journeys that take performance and productivity to new levels. We go beyond team building and focus on enterprise-level leadership training that builds a stronger and more cohesive community.

Based on the best-selling book Leadership Rigor, we have the language, models and frameworks that will allow you to successfully progress your enterprise through 3 levels of leadership development—Leading Yourself, Leading Teams and Leading at the Organizational level.

Introducing the Leadership Rigor Virtual Academy

Until now, there has never been an online platform specifically targeted to the needs of Private/Family Businesses.

The Leadership Rigor Virtual Academy specializes in designing and delivering Enterprise Level Customized Leadership Learning Journeys. This newly launched online academy is a comprehensive program integrating personal deep-dive learning and social community experiences to ensure our content is connected to your unique company context. The result is meaningful conversations, insights, and changes that your current and next-generation leaders identify and execute together!

This program design and delivery will advance you through learning and leading in a fun and engaging way! We have “cracked the code” on a leadership training that can accelerate your talent development and provide your organization with competitive leadership advantages to secure your future growth.

Start your journey today! Learn more at The Leadership Rigor Virtual Academy or Email: erica@ericapeitler.com