How to Create a Culture of Leadership Development
Make Development Part of How your Organization already Operates
Many organizations say they want a culture where leaders are continuously developing, but the path to creating one can feel less clear. The good news is that it doesn't necessarily require adding another process or meeting.
Instead, start with the mechanisms your organization already uses and look for opportunities to make leadership development a natural part of how they operate.
#1 - When You Plan the Work, Do You Also Plan the Development?
When organizations take on a major new initiative, they typically spend time determining what work needs to be done and who needs to do it. That conversation often centers on organizational structure, job codes, headcount, and technical expertise.
But technical skills aren’t always the limiting factor. Leadership capabilities can have a significant impact on whether a program succeeds, which means there is another question worth asking: What will our leaders need to be good at for this initiative to succeed?
A major transformation might require technical expertise in new systems, but it could also require leaders who can influence across functions, make decisions with incomplete information, communicate through uncertainty, or lead teams through significant change.
Once you understand the capabilities the work will require, you can assess whether the leaders taking it on already have them and where development may be needed. This allows you to develop leaders proactively for the challenges ahead rather than waiting until they begin to struggle.
#2 - Turn 1:1s Into a Mechanism for Development
1:1s are one of the most frequent opportunities organizations have to develop leaders, yet many become almost entirely focused on projects. Those conversations are necessary, but a strong development culture also creates space in the 1:1 to talk about how the leader is leading the work.
Two things should happen during that part of the conversation.
First, development should come from both directions. Managers should provide actionable feedback while also encouraging leaders to reflect on where they want to improve. Questions like “What has been hard recently that you'd like to get better at?” or “What skills do you think you'll need in the future to succeed?” give leaders greater ownership of their development while still allowing the organization to provide perspective on where growth is needed.
Second, the conversation shouldn't end when the development need is identified. Simply telling someone, “You need to delegate more,” leaves the individual to figure out what to do next on their own. Managers should be able to point leaders toward available resources where they can learn more about the capability, practice it, or get additional support, because identifying what someone needs to develop is only useful if they have a path to actually develop it.
#3 - Make Sure Talent Reviews Actually Develop the Talent
Organizations invest significant senior leadership time in talent reviews and calibration exercises discussing individuals’ performance, potential, readiness, strengths, and opportunities.
Too often, however, those conversations don't translate into anything meaningful for the individual. What should happen is that the most important development insight identified during the talent review gets back to the individual.
If ~twenty senior leaders invest their time discussing someone's performance and development, the additional 20 minutes required for a manager to translate the most important takeaway into an actionable development conversation is a relatively small incremental investment, particularly if development is already part of regular 1:1s.
Organizations can also build simple accountability into the mechanism. For example, roughly six weeks after calibration, send a survey to employees asking: “Do you have a plan with your manager to continue to develop and improve based on the recent talent conversations?”That one question helps determine whether the significant investment made during talent reviews is actually making its way back to the people the process is intended to develop.
Development Culture Is Built Into How the Organization Operates
As a next step, start creating a culture of continuous development by examining the mechanisms you already have.
When you plan new initiatives, discuss the leadership capabilities required to deliver them.
When managers hold 1:1s, make development part of the conversation and give leaders a path to improve.
When senior leaders invest time in talent reviews, make sure the most important development insights make their way back to the individual.
Because a culture of leadership development isn’t created by how many programs an organization offers. It’s created when developing leaders becomes part of how the organization operates.
Once those mechanisms are in place, the next question is whether leaders are actually experiencing the development system the way you intended. Use our Leadership Development System Health Check to find out.