The best leadership development programs lead to deep personal growth and boost the happiness, meaning, and vitality people experience at work and in life… fostering wellbeing is both an end in and of itself and a critical strategy to drive performance and retention.
Ayse Yemiscigil, Dana Born, Horace Ling
7 Strategies to build leadership training that delivers concrete results:
1. Focus on whole-person growth – less about learning specific, tactical skills; more about cultivating broad capabilities necessary to adapt to dynamic, evolving challenges (i.e. self-awareness, resilience, etc.)
2. Provide opportunities for self-reflection and meaning-making – offering chance to pause from daily grind and reorient self, work, & life; can lead to renewed purpose at work & beyond.
3. Offer targeted programs to support leaders with acute or chronic stress – leaders with traits associated with chronic stress, experienced greater reductions in stress after completing a development program; can help destress employees & bolster psychological resources.
4. Don’t underestimate short, intensive programs – shorter programs often yielded surprisingly large improvements.
5. Acknowledge and address psychological barriers to growth – participants have different levels of readiness for growth; some may need more support than others in order to benefit; not everyone is equally open to self-improvement.
6. Ensure that short-term growth leads to sustained, long-term impact – build on initial changes with reminders & ongoing interventions designed to establish long-term habits & continued engagement.
7. Embrace online learning – found no significant differences between online & in-person programs re: impact on personal growth & wellbeing.