A paradox: A survey of 3,000 leaders and associates in 117 organizations reports that 63% plan to increase spending on leadership development programs that 75% of HR executives surveyed don't give a high quality rating to.
The paradox of spending more on what's not working is due to leadership development being seen as a classroom event. Yet, you don't fix people by sending them off to executive education. Managers need ongoing coaching to get in the habit of being good leaders.
The survey reported that two-thirds of the respondents said leaders at their company exhibited at least one potentially fatal flaw or "derailer"--a personality attribute that interferes with leadership effectiveness. Here are a few examples of derailers: an inability to listen, lack of self-control, pessimism, self-centeredness, know-it-all, not a team player. Derailers are more personality-oriented than skill-based and are more difficult to change than teaching someone a new skill.
For all the money spent on them, we still don't know if leadership programs spent in the classroom work but we do know that personal leadership coaching does work.
Bottom Line: Leadership development is self-development. Learning how to not micromanage, not be overly concrete, not fail to explicitly state expectations and other unproductive inter-personal behavior only happens through the increased self-awareness gained in a personal coaching or mentoring relationship.
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