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6 steps to building a robust leadership development programme

It's clear that good leadership is a key lever of organisational success. What's less clear, however, is the "how" of creating good leadership: finding the right development solutions and implementing them in a way that delivers a high ROI.

In a new whitepaper, The RBL Group has listed out the six steps of building a robust leadership development programme (LDP) from start to finish.

STEP 1 – Audience: Who needs to be developed?

Bucket your audience into three groups: executives, managers and individual contributors. If leadership development has never been formally undertaken in your organisation, then starting an LDP at the top of the house i.e. for executives can be beneficial, especially when when culture change is needed.

However, the most frequent type of LDP is targeted toward high-potential managers (generally 5-10% of your total employee population), because firms want to ensure that they have a strong cadre of leaders to sustain the business for years to come.

When technical and interpersonal skill development is the desired outcome to support the strategy, LDP dollars may be best spent at the individual contributor level.

STEP 2 – Curriculum: What should be taught?

Selecting the “meat” of the curriculum (or the high-quality protein portion, for vegetarians) should be done through a targeted needs analysis. Why are we proposing to teach this and not that?

Ascertain what the programme needs to address: business needs (get traction on strategy or major initiatives); leadership training (strengthen specific leadership competencies); or technical training (skills such as project management, quality processes, communication, etc.).

Examples of potential measures in four impact categories.

STEP 6 – Process: How do we put it all together?

Organisations generally have a process they intend to follow in developing training programs. Consider your process and discuss whether there are needed changes to the usual flow given your LDP design and delivery, in particular. It’s imperative to include milestones with affixed dates.

ALSO READ: What leaders must start doing immediately to build a culture of trust

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