What's your strategy for developing leaders?

1 Assess your current situation

Before you start planning your leadership development strategy, you need to evaluate your current state of affairs. How do you define leadership in your organization? What are the skills, competencies, and behaviors that you expect from your leaders? How do you measure and reward their performance? How do you identify and nurture your high-potential employees? How do you address the gaps and challenges in your leadership pipeline? These questions will help you understand your strengths and weaknesses, as well as your opportunities and threats, in developing leaders.

2 Define your objectives and outcomes

Once you have a clear picture of your current situation, you need to set your goals and expectations for your leadership development program. What are the specific and measurable outcomes that you want to achieve? How will you align them with your business strategy and culture? How will you communicate them to your team and stakeholders? How will you monitor and evaluate your progress and impact? These questions will help you create a SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) framework for your leadership development strategy.

3 Design your learning activities and interventions

After you have defined your objectives and outcomes, you need to design the learning activities and interventions that will help you achieve them. How will you deliver your leadership development program? What are the best methods and formats for your audience and content? How will you balance formal and informal learning, as well as individual and collective learning? How will you ensure that your learning activities are engaging, relevant, and impactful? These questions will help you select and customize the most appropriate and effective learning solutions for your leadership development program.

4 Implement your leadership development program

Once you have designed your learning activities and interventions, you need to implement your leadership development program. How will you manage the logistics and resources of your program? How will you coordinate and collaborate with your team and partners? How will you motivate and support your learners throughout their journey? How will you deal with any issues or challenges that may arise? These questions will help you execute your leadership development program smoothly and efficiently.

5 Evaluate your leadership development program

After you have implemented your leadership development program, you need to evaluate its results and outcomes. How will you collect and analyze the feedback and data from your learners and stakeholders? How will you measure the effectiveness and impact of your program? How will you report and share your findings and recommendations? How will you celebrate and recognize your achievements and successes? These questions will help you assess and improve your leadership development program continuously and systematically.

6 Adjust and refine your leadership development strategy

Finally, you need to adjust and refine your leadership development strategy based on your evaluation and feedback. How will you identify and implement the necessary changes and improvements to your program? How will you communicate and explain them to your team and stakeholders? How will you ensure that your program remains relevant and aligned with your business needs and goals? How will you foster a culture of continuous learning and development among your leaders? These questions will help you maintain and enhance your leadership development strategy over time and in response to changing circumstances.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?