Underperforming Leadership Development Programs Are More Costly Than You Think
One of the world’s largest accounting firms EY, recently faced claims of sexism and misogyny in a training course provided to executive women to develop their leadership skills. The firm hired a training company that designed and delivered the course in New Jersey last year. The leak of the offensive training materials as well as some of the assertions made about the female brain versus the male brain resulted in uproar across social media and the press.
When EY responded initially they said after a review the course would be offered after a revamp. But several days later EY announced it was cancelling the course in it’s entirety.
“The Power-Presence-Purpose program has been cancelled. This voluntary program, which was delivered to a small group of approximately 150 EY professionals, does not reflect EY’s values or culture and should not have been offered to any of our women,” the company said in its statement.
“To ensure this can never happen again, we are undertaking a comprehensive review of our processes and controls around program content as there is no question that elements of the program included offensive content that is inconsistent with our core beliefs.”
As a world-renowned accounting firm, I am sure that EY has done considerable work in determining the ROI (return on investment) for it’s training programs. Their ROI calculations are probably a thing of beauty, demonstrating a balance between cost and investment in staff.
But like many corporates who undertake training, either internally or externally, they failed in the most critical aspect of professional development.
A corporate training program is ultimately about fostering behaviour change, either through knowledge or the adoption of practical skills. Investing in staff development should be viewed through the wider lens of enabling change.
Leading people through change, when done well, can make a tangible difference to any organisation’s capabilities and capacity.
Not only did EY fail to review and vet the Power-Presence-Purpose program’s content, the leadership team missed the opportunity to strengthen the capabilities of the leading women in their ranks, and help focus their talents to company goals and future needs.
Invest in Leadership Development Your Staff and Company Will Benefit From
The problem with EY’s training misadventure began well before the actual training event, and they are not alone in taking a misguided step to leadership development.
Research by Saks and Belcart (2006) show that 12 months after training only 35% of the (taught) skills, competencies and behaviours were still in use by the participants.
When you invest in fostering leaders and developing leadership skills, an organisation needs to first assess how well those skills can then be applied to the desired effect.
Simply evaluating the learning needs of professional development participants and attempting to plug the gaps or reinforce strengths is not enough.
Learning and development must serve a greater purpose – to spark innovation, to improve behaviours in individuals and groups, to guide staff on where to next and how to get there.
If you’re about to invest in leadership development, don’t merely look at the content (though please, ensure it passes your values test at the very minimum!), ask your Executive team:
Does our organisational culture support staff improvement?
Do individual and team KPIs reflect the behaviours we value?
Are we setting up our freshly trained staff to succeed? Are we guiding and supporting them to make the changes in team management, communication and leadership that our development program intends?
If you’re unsure about any of the above, chances are you need to take a closer look at your Leadership Development Program.
In order to avoid a costly investment in underperforming learning and development we recommend:
Outline where your organisation needs to go, ie: your strategic goals.
As you translate your goals into milestone outcomes to be achieved, create a list of the behaviours that will help you get there.
Assess, honestly, the extent to which your organisation needs to change in order to meet your goals.
What role, will your leadership team and future leaders play in making these changes?
Evaluate your organisations ability to support change agents. Identify any barriers to change and recognise that change won’t happen overnight.
Design a learning and development program that fosters the skills, transfers knowledge and reinforces your support for new behaviours. Include sessions with trained staff to discuss the differences between now and your goal state to reinforce expectations and acknowledge that change is required, and ask what they can do to make a difference.
Provide clear guidance on what behaviours are valued, recognise and reward these when you see it.
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