Four Ways to Make Leadership Development "Ridiculously Practical"

"You're a talent leader. That means you have below average positional authority in your organization but above average influence."

I've shared these words many times, both as a talent leader in several Fortune 500 organizations and now as a talent partner with my company Leadership-in-a-Box?.

No one can force leadership development onto a workforce, no matter how badly they need it. And even in situations when you do obtain a full training classroom, there's no guarantee learning objectives will translate to organizational outcomes.

In today's workforce, effectiveness actually has less to do with content (the "what") and more to do with its design (the "how").

If you're a talent or learning leader, you have a tremendous opportunity to shape the performance outcomes of your organization by creating a ridiculously practical leadership development experience in four key ways.

Know Your Users

Your users aren't just the learners. They are any stakeholder who touches the development process.

These can include talent & learning leaders (you!), facilitators, coordinators, HR business partners, supervisors of learners, executives and more.

For leadership development to "work," it must work for each of them.

Care About Your Users... and What They Care About

It doesn't take long to realize that each individual user has their own set of priorities and needs... which are often very different from each other. Several key user priorities for leadership development include:

• Learners - Highly relevant, fits their limited availability, is easy to apply and generates quick and meaningful performance outcomes; (And if possible, enjoyable and interactive!)
• Talent/Learning Leaders - Easy and rewarding to manage, implement, manage and report
• Facilitators - Minimal upfront and ongoing preparation requirements, easy to facilitate and adaptable for a wide variety of audiences
• Coordinators - Easy process to manage
• HR Business Partners - Easy solution to provide to departments and business units
• Supervisors - Awareness and ability to provide input, reinforce and coach toward team-specific performance outcomes
• Executives - Engaged and productive workforce with a high return on both financial and human capital investments in leadership development

Do you notice a trend for ease of use and high performance outcomes above a need for comprehensive content? In a world of increasing complexity, talent leaders must be the designers of simplicity and practicality.

Design Leadership Development That Fits Your Users' Needs

In these modern times, the focal point of leadership development has shifted from being "true to the content," to being "true to the learner," to now being "true to each user group."

This applies whether talent and learning leaders build their own leadership development materials or utilize outside vendor resources.

The possibilities are endless, but some relatable examples might include:

• Having 30 min, 60 min or 3 hour options of the most requested topics (vs. one full-day option)
• One page worksheets (instead of lengthy workbooks) that can be utilized during the performance cycle
• Digital instead of print materials
• Providing facilitators with adaptable talking points instead of scripts
• Reducing a 10-step coordination process to three steps (or automating it altogether!)
• Pre-drafting program communications so coordinators don't need to write their own each time
• Sharing discussion guides with leaders to reinforce key concepts

There isn't a one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to design. Each user's needs will continue to change as our workforces shift.

Go Home on Time!

Most teams across any given organization are short-staffed due to economic conditions, competitive pressure and limited ready talent pools.

This means as much as each user might want to participate in leadership development, when it creates extra work that ultimately requires an individual to work later into the evening or weekend or sacrifice an already depleted capacity for wellbeing, the value proposition costs more than it produces.

This is one of the greatest benefits of "ridiculously practical" leadership development. When designed well, everyone gets to go home on time with their wellbeing intact!

Remember, talent and learning leaders are organizational influencers. But being an influencer is more than just giving orders - it's about being a thoughtful designers of actions.

When you design ridiculously practical leadership development, your users will flourish and your organization's top leaders will constantly seek your guidance and offer their sponsorship.

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About Nathan Magnuson

Nathan Magnuson the founder of Leadership-in-a-Box?, a corporate training company with "ridiculously practical" 60 minute leadership workshops and micro-video programs that are easy to implement, easy to facilitate and priced to scale.

Nathan spent 12 years working in talent development leadership roles at Fortune 500 organizations such as Accenture, HCA Healthcare, Tenet Healthcare and MASCO before launching Leadership-in-a-Box?. He's also a military veteran and author of Stand Out! and Ignite Your Leadership Expertise and over 300 articles in various leadership publications.

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