No Time to Develop Leaders? How to Make It Happen Anyway!

“We don’t have time to do leadership development!” It might come as a shock, but this thought occurred to me countless times throughout my 31-year manufacturing career.

I never doubted that we would be doing so much better if we invested in our people, but often there was literally not enough time in the day to fight all the fires, get the work done, and also devote time to training and development. It was a vicious cycle that I couldn’t find a way to break out of.

I always seemed to find a way to squeeze in coaching and development because it was what I was passionate about but it wasn’t until I was knee-deep in operational problems and countless urgent issues in the toughest challenge of my career that I was able to crack the code in a way that was repeatable.

One day, in a desperate attempt to break free from the status quo, I got my ten leadership team members together and asked each of them to choose one challenging priority to work on and set specific goals they were going to accomplish in the next three weeks. I did the same. We also agreed that I would personally coach them every week as they pursued their projects.

Over the next few days, we each filled out a simple project form I threw together that listed the following: the name of our project, the specific results it would deliver, why those results were important in the grand scheme of things, who we were going to work with to complete the project, growth and development objectives for ourselves and the people we were going to work with in the process of delivering the results, and the weekly milestones we were going to hit.

At the time, developing the project sheets felt like extra work—and truthfully, it was—but we hung in there and, as a result, we gained a lot of clarity on our focus and got further aligned on our plans.

We hung our project sheets up on a board that was visible to all employees. It was our way of role-modeling accountability and making bold declarations in the absence of any official announcements.

We each also agreed to fill out a simple weekly plan that I also threw together. Nothing fancy, just a sheet that showed what we had accomplished the previous week, what we had learned, who we wanted to recognize for their contributions, and our plans for the following week. We also put these weekly plans on the board, right under our project sheets, for everyone to see.

As we undertook our projects, we did so without taking anyone away from their work. We all continued juggling the many priorities that were on our plates, but we paid special attention to making progress on the specific priority we had each put on display for all to see.

For three weeks, I made time to coach every team member every week about how their project was going. We discussed real-life challenges they were facing and I was able to provide timely, bite-sized coaching and training.

During those three weeks, we had setbacks that we learned from and triumphs that we celebrated. Not all of the desired results were achieved, but we got a lot more done than we would have otherwise. Every one of us, including myself, also learned a great deal that was applicable to areas of our work outside of our projects.

In just three weeks, so much enthusiasm was generated, not only on the part of the participants, but everyone who saw us make a bold declaration and go for it. That included observers as well as all the people who were directly or indirectly involved in getting the projects done.

In the end, the campaign was so successful, we decided to do it again using the same process. In some cases, we expanded the projects we had worked on during the first round and in other cases, we undertook new initiatives. This time, we knew we were on to something, and I started standardizing the process.

And this is how the program known as the “Transformative Leadership Academy” was born! The 3-week experiment was reformulated into a 3-month program with a bit more structure and some formal training blended in. We engaged others in the organization to be coaches to avoid my availability becoming a bottleneck. In the process, we developed a ton of coaching capability in the organization and cultivated organic coaching/mentoring relationships that lasted long after the projects were over. Our little program turned into a movement.

My boss at the time, who was not exactly a fan of my approach, eventually wanted me to export the methodology to our other sites. So we began bringing the program to other sites, where it was just as successful. After a couple of years, even the leaders at the corporate offices, who initially thought this work was only good for the plants, also started asking for it.

Over the years, I have brought different versions of the program—in-person or virtual, light or with all the bells and whistles—to various clients, and it has been massively transformative every time.

Let’s get back to what you can do if you don’t have time for leadership development. First of all, I totally get how that feels and I hope you find my thoughts and suggestions to be practical. If not, or if you’d like to discuss your situation further, feel free to reach out or schedule time on my calendar.

As tough as it may be to hear, if you’re waiting until you have enough time to develop people, it will never happen. There will always be more “little rocks” to fill any time you free up, and most companies I know are not projecting to be *less busy in the future. So, if you can’t make it happen *now, forget about ever making it happen *someday.

My suggestion is that you shift your paradigm from leadership development being yet another priority to it being something that can and must get done in the course of getting regular work done.

There is a lot of foundational training and development that’s beneficial if you’re in a position to take people through it. We do it all the time for our clients in the way of workshops, book studies, live webinars, 1-1 and group coaching, and content that is available on-demand on our On the Court platform.

However, as this foundational work is being done, it is always a good idea to lean in and coach and develop people in the course of doing the work. We often do that in the form of the official Leadership Academy program, but remember, the program was not always a program. It was created ad hoc by adding some coaching and development into our routines rather than taking people away from their work, and it can still be implemented that way.

In fact, once an organization has gone through a few rounds of Leadership Academy, I shift the focus to operationalizing the tools and principles of the Leadership Academy and building them into everyday work. There is definitely benefit in the total immersion and community-building aspect of an official Leadership Academy cohort, but the ultimate aim is for both the graduates and others in the organization to adopt the habits that make the program successful.

Identifying a focus area, setting clear goals and milestones, knowing who you are going to work with, and being intentional about how each of you will grow in the process. Everyone can and will benefit from doing these things. I won’t pretend that it won’t take a bit of extra work on the front end to change the way you do your work, or that it will be easy to pull off, but I guarantee that the returns will blow your mind in a short period of time.

If it still sounds overwhelming, I’d suggest you start small. Try the principles I’ve presented here with a couple of people and be intentional about developing them in the course of getting the work done. Then, as you develop more capacity, reinvest it into additional coaching. I am confident you will be amazed at the compound effect of the investment you make.

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Further Resources

If you’d like to learn more about topics covered in this week’s newsletter article, check out the related resources I’ve included below.

If there are topics you find to be of special value to you, or if you’d just like to get in touch and chat about what’s going on with you, simply reply to this newsletter or send me an email at [email protected].?If you’re experiencing challenges that you would like my perspective on, or you’d like to explore how we can partner with you to support you in your transformative journey, please click here to schedule a call with me.?I’d love to hear from you.

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• "I felt like you were talking specifically to me!"
• "Your perspective is so real and practical!"
• "Are you sure you don't work at my company? Because you were talking about exactly what we’re dealing with!"

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The top problems we solve for clients with our coaching, speaking, and consulting services are:

1. People working in silos and lack of collaboration toward a shared vision.
2. Functional experts in leadership roles who aren’t equipped with the right skills and mindset to lead effectively
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