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Best practices and trends for developing the next generation of talent.

Career and Leadership Development

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Get a monthly dose of the latest leadership development content, tools and templates, best practices, events, and more.

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Leadership and Management Newsletter

Prepare top performers at all levels in your organization to take on management responsibilities through high-impact leadership development programs.


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Creating Leadership Development Programs: ElaineBiech

Creating Leadership Development Programs Certificate

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TD Magazine Article

Building Strong Habits

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Servant Leadership Is Not for the Fainthearted

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3 Reasons Your Organization Needs to Invest in Leadership Development

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4 Tips for Maximizing SME Interviews

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ATD
Talent Development Leader
Inspiring TD Leaders and Their Teams

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Despite resource constraints, a municipality’s training program for aspiring and rising leaders has enabled participants to advance their careers.

Leadership Development With a Limited Budget

Billions of dollars are spent on leadership development, and yet, our leaders are not ready for today’s challenges. Research increasingly shows that most programs are failing.Read our whitepaper to explore the research and how to fix your leadership program. Leadership Development for Long-Term ChangeWhat makes a leader? Psychologist and leadership expert Daniel Goleman has researched this for decades. His answer is emotional intelligence. The need for it is greater than ever in today's complex global world. Linear thinking and command and control were successful after the industrial revolution, but people now expect fluid leadership styles along with synergistic intuition.And these things can’t be taught. They have to be experienced, because to develop these traits, we need to tap into the limbic system. This area of the brain that deals with feelings, impulses, and desires is essentially the connection to emotional intelligence.As Goleman mentions in his HBR article “What Makes a Leader,” the “limbic system learns best through motivation, extended practice, and feedback.”Despite this, most leadership programs try to teach in ways that appeal to the prefrontal cortex, or in other words, the logical part of the brain. This makes little difference to leaders because we need to target the emotional brain, which requires a different approach. Successful leadership development programs need the following:Stories – By being exposed to international projects and assignments as well as various coaches, mentors, and stakeholders, leaders don’t just listen to different viewpoints. They also question their own mental models to start fine-tuning their leadership identities.Learning challenges – Without facing tough experiences in life, we never learn. So, we all need challenging projects and even so-called difficult people to grow. Making sense of it all – As we touched on in our blog on the comfort food of learning, vertical development allows leaders to change. Book clubs and group coaching are great examples because they provide multiple ideas whilst giving leaders the confidence to try things out in their day-to-day. Who Ate Our Culture?Management and leadership guru Peter Drucker famously said, “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” But who or what eats culture?We are our environments and vice versa. As such, we need both a learning culture and a safe environment that encourages individuals to challenge their biases and to come together for a common goal.However, most organizations promote individuals and support hierarchical career development rather than focusing on teams. As a result, self-interest takes over and your culture is devoured by the needs of a few elite individuals.As this paper on leadership development further explains, not only do most leadership development programs neglect the team, but they also often ignore politics.No one wants politics, but if we don’t talk about the issues and dangers, how can we hope to make leaders aware of the delicate balance between self-interest and the common good?To nurture the best culture for your organization, ensure:Cohort learning – As previously explained in “How to Stop Failing at Leadership Development,” learning should involve the community. Groups that co-learn, for example, book clubs, develop a common language and way of behaving that inspires them to support each other.Inclusivity – Everyone can be a leader within their remit. In fact, the more people you develop, including low performers, the more you transform your culture and reduce politics.Measurability – Development programs are increasingly being measured with, for instance, the Kirkpatrick model. The Dupont Bradley Curve also gives you a useful framework to check in on culture. Make Your Transition to Modern Leadership DevelopmentDeveloping leaders, or any adult, is hard because it means we have to appeal to the emotional part of the brain. The one that’s wrapped in mystery and instinct.Nevertheless, book clubs are a powerful way to open up that mystery. They leverage the wisdom of groups and stories such that people can self-reflect and practice in-situ.Furthermore, a book club or group coaching session promotes social connectivity and co-responsibility that encourage people to grow into new perspectives and ways of being. As a result, you rewire some neural networks and you set the stage for long-term change.Don’t miss our whitepaper for all the details. 

How to Fix Leadership Development Programs for Actual Results

September 2024 - TD Magazine

An online career development community can raise awareness about internal opportunities, enable staff to explore their career options, and increase employee engagement.

Make Career Development Social

A review of The Mentally Strong Leader by Scott Mautz.

In-house programs can be a means to upskill staff.

Connect Mentors and Mentees for Low-Cost Development

In the talent development field, we talk a lot about “getting a seat at the table.” The idea is that the talent development function of an organization should be aligned strategically with the mission of the business or organization, and its head (such as the chief learning officer, or CLO) should be at the same level as other senior executives (like the chief information officer and the chief marketing officer). Regardless of the title used, the head of talent development needs to be a part of the strategic leadership team.But every executive “seat” needs to be filled with a strategic leader in its respective discipline. So, how do you make the leap from training manager to CLO? Well, there are three areas you should pay particular attention to as you plan for your development and your leap into the executive suite: technical skills, business savvy, and strategic leadership. Let’s look at each.Technical SkillsEach person in the “c-suite” brings to the table their professional background and expertise. And even at the highest levels of executive leadership, they’re still called on to provide that expertise in leading the enterprise. In talent development, that means the CLO needs to have a clear understanding of—and experience in—the various functions of that department, including assessment, design and development, andragogy, measurement, knowledge management, and more. You probably won’t be an expert in every aspect of the talent development field, but having a good handle on each one is vital to your role as an executive.So, how do you get this expertise? Here are some questions to ask yourself. Have you done a professional credential like ATD’s Certified Professional in Talent Development (CPTD®) or the Associate Professional in Talent Development (APTD®)? Or perhaps a certificate program? Are you engaged with your local ATD chapter? Do you keep up to date with the latest trends in the field found in magazines, journals, and books? In short, how engaged are you with the profession’s body of knowledge?Technical skills are one piece of the developmental ladder to the executive suite. Let’s look at the others.Business SavvyWhat do you call a member of the US Air Force who spends their entire career on the ground, never setting foot in a plane? Airman. Everyone is an “airman,” regardless of what specialty they hold and perform. Why? Because a key to cohesiveness and mission performance is that everyone understands the mission and embraces the organizational culture.What do you know about your enterprise’s mission beyond your own contribution to it? For example, if you are a leadership trainer for a nationwide homebuilder, do you understand the dynamics of that field? Do you know how land is acquired and planned, how homes are constructed and financed, how they’re sold, and how customers are serviced? If you’re going to move into an executive role, you will need to understand the context in which you operate—and understand the people and culture surrounding you—if you’re going to make meaningful contributions to the leadership of the business.Strategic LeadershipLeadership comes in two varieties: interpersonal and strategic. Interpersonal leadership centers on employee engagement, performance management, interpersonal communications, and more. It is a management function. Strategic leadership, on the other hand, is focused on the direction of the business or organization into the future—into the unknown. Strategic leaders need to be able to anticipate new trends and developments, create new solutions and innovations, and situate the business into the greater society. Effective strategic leaders relate to people, are highly self-aware, embrace authenticity, examine issues systemically (not in a vacuum), and achieve results.How do you develop your strategic leadership skills? The first step is awareness—what are your strengths and weaknesses? Where do you excel and in which areas do you need to improve? Evaluations—for example, a 360-degree assessment—can give you insights and help you to create a development plan. Universities, companies, and professional organizations offer training in strategic development skills. And, books specifically written for the developing executive are all means you can use to elevate your strategic leadership game.SummaryIt’s easy to get trapped in our technical expertise as we grow into our profession. After all, that’s what we get paid to do, right? But if we want to move beyond growing and we want to develop to later career stages, we also need to ensure our understanding of the business environment (business savvy) and strategic leadership skills are highly developed, as well. As Marshall Goldsmith reminds us, “What got you here won’t get you there.”

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