Leadership Development Program

The evolution from manager to successful leader often requires formal leadership training. Many leadership development programs are left in the hands of resource-squeezed HR departments already responsible for hiring, employee onboarding, performance reviews, and succession planning. Depending on the resources available to them, HR departments have three options for moving forward with leadership training: put together a program internally and have one of the organization’s employees or HR team members lead it, hire an independent consultant to work with HR to run the program, or hire an outside firm to run the leadership program and maintenance programs and implement a system to measure ROI or effectiveness of the program.

Both leadership development programs focused on high-potential newer employees and those aimed at developing more seasoned, longer-tenured leaders can benefit from having a portion of the leadership training dedicated to self-awareness. Teaching the fundamentals of leadership is essential, of course, but using assessments or other exercises that help build self-awareness can individualize the broad spectrum of leadership lessons by focusing on a participant’s strengths and challenges. Tools such as the CPI 260® assessment add self-awareness to leadership development programs and can help ease the burden of organizations that choose to run leadership trainings internally by providing clear, detailed action plans for personal development. For example, the Coaching Report for Leaders (a report generated using one’s results on the CPI 260 assessment) provides an action plan on the last page.

In addition, layering assessments to target different stages of development can ensure the development of well-rounded, self-aware leaders. In a presentation at the 2015 MBTI® Users Conference in San Francisco, California, Martin Boult detailed how he generally starts his leadership development programs by having participants take the MBTI assessment to give them a better understanding of core differences in how they organize their outer and inner worlds, take in information, and make decisions. In the second part of the program, Boult employs the FIRO-B® assessment, which measures interpersonal needs to help participants better understand their motivations, behaviors, and orientation toward relationships. Finally, Boult uses a 360-degree assessment or a tool such as the CPI 260 assessment to help leaders better understand how they are perceived by others (and, in the case of the CPI 260 assessment, how their results compare to those of a normative sample of leaders from across the country).

When concluding a leadership development program it can be helpful to follow up with a mentorship program within your organization. Leaders can then put the learning they’ve acquired into action as they nurture the development of others in the organization. This is a wonderful way to both continue the development of the leaders and provide a wealth of information that they can relay to their mentees.