Think you know executive leadership training? Here are a trio of things you may not have considered.

Executive leadership training can be difficult to implement in an organization.  We want to help simplify the process. Use these three handles to start your training off in the right step.

1. Small Mistakes Now… Or HUGE Ones Later? The best reason to start leadership training early is to minimize huge risk in the future. Companies need to start putting young leaders into leadership roles earlier. Why? Wisdom is gained from making mistakes. The sooner we force leaders to understand that failure is NOT fatal, the sooner the company profits from their experience. Why are we waiting so long to bring young leaders along? We think we are protecting them, but the opposite is true Forbes confirms this:

On average, supervisors are 33 years of age (which means that many are younger than 33) but less than 10% receive training below the age of 30, and less than 1/4th of leaders receive training prior to age 35. This suggests that more than three-quarters of managers receive no formal training for their first position. They make mistakes that they could have avoided. They establish bad habits that need never have begun.

2. You ARE the Expert! Look for ways to raise up internal experts. What is the old standard for qualifying as an expert? You must live more than 50 miles away from the company you are providing executive leadership training.  When was the last time you asked someone on the “inside” to provide training? One of the main reasons to stop outsourcing leadership projects comes from a 2005 Deloitte Study that found, “Outsourcing often reduces organizations’ responsiveness to market changes and poses internal political, organizational, and cultural challenges.”

Ask your best leaders to take on the challenge of executive leadership training because you will save time, money, and the fear of compromising valuable intellectual property. Experts need not be 50 miles away… they might be five feet away, or just across the hall.

3. It’s Not A Knowledge Issue. Make sure attitudes are in check. You can provide all of the executive leadership training you want, but if the leader does not have a good attitude, all of that training is for nothing. The reason is simple. Leaders with negative attitudes:

…do not listen effectively and avoid responsibility and accountability. They also blame others and are threatened by other views. Moreover, they do not seek or value feedback, see disagreement as conflict and their mindset is survival.

Before launching into a knowledge-based program, investigate personality profile tests or psychological assessments. Although a negative attitude can be toxic in the workplace, it is “fixable” and is a very good place to start with your executive leadership training.

To talk more about this, or anything else, please contact us.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/joefolkman/2014/06/18/the-urgent-need-to-develop-global-leaders-for-company-growth/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkotter/2014/06/26/the-fastest-way-to-build-leadership-in-your-company-insource/