Leadership Programmes
Leadership Development Programme
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Building A Leadership Programme
Building a leadership development programme can feel like a daunting task. There are many considerations, not to mention a host of avenues down which you can take a leadership programme. Ultimately, where you begin should be influenced by where you want to end up. To put that another way, start with the end in mind.
To help provide some substance to the touchpoints involved in a leadership programme, Innovation Central has compiled the below overview of the considerations and options available when building a successful leadership programme. All organisations are different; consequently, the below is provided as a guide. Innovation Central works closely with each client to identify an approach for their unique requirements.
What are you developing against?
Frameworks
If you have them in place, leadership programmes can be designed against behavioural frameworks, competency or leadership frameworks. These provide the luxury of a clear line of sight towards the specific skills, knowledge, and behaviours you want to equip your learners with. Suppose your frameworks provide frequency measures or benchmark performance against the behavioural indicators. In that case, you are one step ahead in having access to the proportion of your population that need specific development.
Values
If your organisation does not have appropriate frameworks, an alternative solution would be to use your organisational Values. Values can provide a suitable foundation to start building your programme. However, it is worth keeping in mind that you will need to have some form of behavioural indicators that sit underneath the Values to support this process.
Performance Management
Your performance management process is likely to be a good source of insights for your leadership programme – tap into the personal development plans; those chats should highlight the skills, knowledge and experience people feel they need to succeed in their roles.
360 Feedback / Engagement Surveys
Finally, you can capture relevant MI by using tools such as 360 feedback or engagement surveys. 360 feedback has to be measured against behaviours to add genuine value, so that process will provide a good snapshot of the type of development you want to focus on. Engagement surveys will need to be tailored to ensure they drive out relevant information – this requires a bit more planning but is straightforward to achieve your desired results.
Leadership Programme Logistics
Delivery Method
A leadership development programme can be delivered through traditional face-to-face facilitation or via digital platforms (Zoom, Teams. etc.). Regardless of the delivery method preferred, the programme architecture ensures a blended approach to learning with a variety of learning inputs, for example:
- Professionally facilitated learning modules (face-to-face or digitally)
- Self-directed learning between modules
- Learning check-ins with the programme coach to provide wrap-around support and direction
Schedule
We recommend a minimum 12-month delivery period. This provides plenty of scope for delegates to apply and refine their approach back in the workplace.
Programme Architecture
Investigate
Our kick-off point is to get to grips with what you want to achieve from the leadership programme. In essence, we will tap into all the elements we have alluded to in the introduction. The investigation stage:
- Creates clarity for what should versus should not be included in your leadership programme
- It provides us with a framework to design against
- Create a line of sight between the learner’s need, content creation and target ROI
Create
We design the programme to meet your learner and organisational needs. This includes:
- Any relevant assessment criteria
- Identification of any specific models you need us to weave into the programme
- Identification of the programme structure, objectives, and engagement plans
Selection
A structured application process to ensure each colleague receives the development they need. It is beneficial to incorporate Line Manager sponsorship at this stage to aid the application of learning back in the workplace throughout the learning journey. This selection process ensures:
- Fairness and consistency in accessing learning
- Delegates are set up for success
- Line manager buy-in.
Onboarding
Innovation Central believes that all leadership and management programmes need senior sponsorship. Consequently, we guide clients in delivering group onboarding sessions co-delivered with senior stakeholders. This approach provides the following:
- Clarity of expectations for participants
- Visible buy-in across the organisation
- A sense of support for delegates
- A level of gravitas for the programme.
Mentoring
Innovation Central believes in a proactive approach to ensure adequate support for learners as they develop and apply their new skills in the workplace. Consequently, we recommend a systematic matching process for mentors and mentees. Consideration is given to both parties’ styles, and the delegates’ development aims to ensure the best-fit relationship.
Development Activities
The delivery content and activities will be directed by the insights that fall out of the investigation stage. Critically, each activity will focus on building your leaders’ necessary skills, knowledge, and behaviours. As a minimum, you can expect the following:
- A tailored programme that directly meets your needs as a business and the learner’s needs as individuals
- Blended learning activities that address the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of being a great leader.
1-2-1 coaching
Individual coaching input for each learner through the journey of the programme. The focus of the coaching sessions will be dictated by where your learners are in their leadership journey. As a minimum, learners can expect:
- Opportunities to overcome barriers they face in applying their learning
- Structured and professional support that will challenge them to make the step-change in the leadership impact
Experiential Learning
Innovation Central works with experiential experts to create and facilitate scenarios and exercises to pressure test individual and team leadership skills. Innovation Central believes it is an effective way o test and observe innate leadership skills and behaviours.
A full risk and health assessment would be required to ensure all learners could safely engage in the activities.
External Input
Innovation Central is an advocate of exchange activities to support leadership development. When scoping external input, it’s imperative to be specific on the learning required from different organisations/experts. Examples of external input activities that can support leadership programmes typically focus on the following:
- Organisational re-design
- Brand realignment
- M&A activity
- Commercial turnaround.
Project Assignment
Participants are allocated a project aligned to key business challenges or objectives, providing the opportunity to apply learning to a genuine business challenge with clear deliverables. Project assignments can form a critical element in ROI measures, providing tangible returns that are easily tracked and celebrated.
Job Shadowing
Job shadowing exercises enable leaders to step into the shoes of existing leaders, providing them with a taste of the day-to-day activities associated with specific leadership roles. This approach:
- Dramatically enhances their learning experience
- Allows the opportunity for successful leaders to step into a mentorship role, critically supporting an autonomous learning environment within the organisation.
Evaluation & Celebration
Consolidation process to assess qualitative and quantitative measures of success and identify the lessons learnt by participants, highlighting and promoting these successes to the broader organisation. Through this process, we can:
- Identify and celebrate the lessons learnt by participants
- Highlight and promote their successes
- Capitalise on any project success
- Develop and improve leadership development for future delegates in your organisation.
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