Kenneth Eng Shows How Your Program Can Benefit From Leadership Training

One of the underlying goals of any executive development program is to develop the quality of leadership within the organization.  This is done by improving the quality of leadership in individuals who will eventually carry that trait with them into the boardroom or the managerial role.

Businesses should understand that leadership development makes common sense and has a positive influence on their bottom line.  Strong, quality leadership in an organization has a positive impact on every business aspect from efficiency and employee morale to business goal setting.  In addition, businesses with strong leadership are more likely to recover from setbacks and are more able to effectively manage inter-company conflicts.  Executive development programs can improve an organization’s leadership potential, and thus improve the business.

However, not all possess the ability or the desire to assume a leadership role just as not all possess the ability or the desire to play the guitar like Kenneth Eng of Vancouver, BC.  But leadership can be learned much like the guitar can be learned. And just like learning any (new) skill, the process takes focus, practice, and persistence.  Traditional classroom-style instruction is an effective method to help prospective leaders learn more about what it means to lead well.  But it is important to remember that knowing what to do and doing what you know are two very different skills.

An article in the 1988 journal Personnel Psychology entitled “Transfer Of Training:  A Review And Directions For Future Research” by T. Baldwin and K. Ford posits that successful leadership development programs revolve around three variables:

1)  Individual learner characteristics

2)  The quality and nature of the program

3)  Support from above for behavioral change

Over my fifteen years as an executive development professional consulting for companies such as Re/Max, the David Suzuki Foundation, Second Wave Sports, and North Shore Disability, I have found these ideas hold true.  That means that in any executive development program, the majority of variables that determine success are in your control.  Obviously, the characteristics of the learner are out of your control – at least at first – but the quality of the program and the support present are entirely up to you.

When considering the structure of your executive development program, keep in mind that leadership development is more likely to occur when the program does the following:

1)  Integrates a range of activities over a set period of time (typically, the current business cycle).

2)  Incorporates goal setting, assessment, and evaluation.

Leadership development is a much-investigated topic and the business world has been no small beneficiary to this research.  Key concepts of leadership development can help structure a successful executive development program.  Among those important concepts are:

1)  Self-efficacy

 Self-efficacy is defined as the measure of the belief in one’s own ability to complete tasks and reach goals.  The right training will reinforce and strengthen this important trait so the executive trainee can feel confident of her abilities.

2)  Vision

 A good executive development program will help engender trainees with the ability to conceive what the future of an organization will look like.

3)  Experiential Learning

This type of learning positions the individual as the focus of the learning process.  The trainee gains concrete experience, reflects on the efforts and the process itself, and applies the conclusions in novel situations to test its efficacy.

While it’s not necessary to focus on leadership development, a good executive development program will incorporate the above ideas into its activities in order to train leadership in conjunction with other skills.

 A client recently sent me the following text question which I think is applicable to this concept and will help transition nicely into the next article.

Kenneth Eng, Vancouver, BC

Do you make a distinction between leader development and leadership development?

Thanks.

To answer the question as simply as possible in the limited space left to me, I do make a distinction between the two types of development.  I’ll develop this idea in the next article.