Part 1 : How to design an award-worthy leadership programme

Ever wondered what it takes to scope, design and deliver an award-worthy leadership programme? If leadership development is on your list of priorities then we've got just the thing for you. We're breaking this down into five parts to keep things interesting.

This first part is all about getting buy-in to your learning and development programme.

Align commitment and ambition

We see a lot of people leaders fail at this early stage because there's an assumption that stakeholders are as bought in to the time, effort and budget that is required to create an award worth programme. Only to find later down the line that there's been some misalignment of expectations. Never a fun situation to find yourself in. So to avoid that disappointment make sure everyone is on the same page from the beginning.

• What are your goals?
• What are your measures of success?
• What are your constraints?
• What awards are you going after?
• Who needs to be in alignment?
• Who could derail the plans?

If you're making compromises from the outset or stakeholders are asking you difficult questions (like the ones below) and you're conceding to them you'll likely find your programme has limited impact. However, if your commitment, as a business, matches your ambition then you're onto a great start!

‍

Common compromises to watch out for:

"Our leaders are busy. Can we have something that doesn’t take much time?"

"We don't want to spend much. What can we do for [insert unreasonable amount] budget?

"Sometimes participants will need to miss a session or drop out to manage workload. Is that ok?"

"We assume the programme will fix all the other cultural challenges we're experiencing too?"

‍

Okay, that last one might not be something you hear, but it's definitely something that's expected and unsaid.

Here's how you can respond and get ahead of these stakeholder challenges.

‍

How to plan for stakeholder challenges

"Our leaders are busy. Can we have something that doesn’t take much time?"

Programmes that deliver transformational behaviour change are those that create a space for people to heighten their self-awareness, to move away from behaviours that don't serve them and develop new ones that have a more positive impact.

This change does not happen over night. Leadership is a practice that emerges over time not in a two day course. We actively recommend against quick and dirty training, instead encouraging people to opt for little and often approach, spread over a number of months. This approach maximises engagement and learning and most importantly, it allows space for reflection and practice in between training moments.

‍

We don't want to spend much. What can we do for [insert unreasonable amount] budget?

Everyone has a budget. Understand up front what budget you have to play with. We're often asked how much a programme is and the answer is often "it depends" on factors such as how much bespoke design you want, the number of people and the length of the programme. As a guide, expect to invest a minimum of £1,000pp for a first time manager programme and £1500pp+ for a senior leadership programme.

A lot of companies allocate learning budgets as a default amount of spend per person for everyone in the business. Everyone gets £1,000. Yay. But the reality is that a good 40-50% of that budget is never spent. Get creative with how you're distributing budgets across the people in the business. A one size fits all approach doesn't work when it comes to providing learning.

‍

Sometimes participants will need to miss a session or drop out to manage workload. Is that ok?

Short answer is no! Commitment to a leadership programme should be prioritised alongside other commitments, regardless of seniority. Spend time up front setting the expectations for those joining the programme. This includes ensuring they (and their managers) prioritise attendance, show up on time and are fully present. That means no email, slack or other notifications during the live sessions.When you share expectations be firm with any consequences and follow through. We've worked with our clients to create learner contracts so the expectations are not just shared in an email, but physically (okay, digitally) signed by each learner.

‍

I assume the programme will fix all the other cultural challenges we're experiencing too?

Investing in your leadership team and people managers is an incredibly important part of fostering the right culture. However, one programme is unlikely to fix all the challenges you're experiencing. Whether you're designing your programme in house or partnering externally, be candid and open with the challenges you're experiencing and where you'd like to get to so your programme can be designed and targeted at the right level of leadership to help support towards those goals.

One common mistake we see if focusing leadership development on a mid-manager level first without first addressing the skills and behaviour gaps at a senior level. Which then creates a 'best practice vs reality' gap which fosters more resentment in the long term. Start at the top and work your way down.

‍

Next in this series, we explore setting the goals and measures of success for your programme in more detail.‍‍

Go to Part Two >

‍

‍

‍