Organizations worldwide recognize the importance of building a robust leadership pipeline to navigate a dynamic and competitive economic landscape. Investment in leadership development is expected to triple in size over the next decade, with the global market expected to grow from $61 million in 2021 to nearly $180 million by 2032. Despite this investment, leadership development efforts often fall short, with only about 10% of development spending yielding concrete results.

If you are considering implementing a leadership development program in your organization, where do you start?

We often see organizations jump in and launch efforts without in-depth reflection on their specific needs and organizational goals. To build a program that will engage your talent and drive realized return on investment, we suggest aligning with executive leaders on the following questions:  

1. What problem are we solving?

Leadership programs should aim to develop knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to drive future success in your organization. Think: What is missing in our organization? What kind of leaders will we need that we don’t have now?

Potential gaps in leadership effectiveness can be examined by surveying stakeholders, reviewing employee engagement surveys and performance reviews, or assessing the current bench strength of your leaders in comparison to a competency model for their role or level.

Once gaps emerge, define the antidote. For example, for more strategic leaders, you may have them engage in more executive collaboration or offer continued education on industry trends to build broader thinking. To elevate emerging leaders’ capacity, skill building in coaching, delivering feedback, and influencing can help to close gaps.

While it may be tempting to only invest in courses on a few tactical topics, keep in mind that industry research suggests that initiatives focused on whole-person growth are beneficial at every level of an organization. By creating a space for participants to reflect on their strengths and areas for development and providing strategies to shift their mindset and thinking process, employees are equipped with the resilience and problem-solving skills needed to build skill across domains.

2. Who do we target?

The talent that receives your investment should be carefully selected, and the selection should align with the strategic goals for the organization. For example, are you finding it difficult to hang on to high potential leaders at the mid management level? If so, then consider a development program that helps form social networks and targets individualized goals to improve retention. On the other hand, if your organization needs to shift directionally (driving strategic goals, enhancing organizational culture, etc.) then you should focus on more senior leaders.

If you don’t know where to start, we always recommend focusing on high potential leader talent in your line of succession. With a generation of executives reaching retirement, succession planning is at the forefront of many talent initiatives. With high potential groups in leadership development, there is an opportunity to build the competencies required to carry your organization into the future while boosting engagement and retention in your next-level leaders.

3. How will we develop them?

Adult education theory stresses that professionals learn most effectively when they can take ownership of their learning with self-directed content, are engaged in topics that relate to their experiences, and make connections with fellow learners. With that in mind, it’s important to create an environment conducive to your priorities.

Traditional classroom or virtual learning sessions may suit knowledge acquisition (e.g., financial acumen, technical skills, etc.). Job rotations and stretch assignments build applied leadership skills. Cohort-based activities (e.g., peer coaching) foster cross-organizational relationships and shared learning. Learning cohorts also help organizations break down silos and facilitate synergistic efforts.

When it comes to shifting mindsets and changing habits, incorporating feedback and coaching in a developmental program presents an avenue for deeper reflection and awareness throughout a leaders’ growth journey. Individual assessment and coaching gives leaders clarity around their personal developmental needs and provides a sounding board for their unique leadership challenges.

4. How will we know they’re developing?

Leadership development is an ongoing process for any organization but building a realistic timeline for each initiative is critical to monitoring progress and measuring success. The roadmap will differ based on your organization’s developmental priorities, number of participants, content, and availability of all relevant stakeholders. Short-term solutions like learning sessions and workshops could be implemented and completed within a few months, while more extensive initiatives involving coaching, on-the job experiences, and cohort activities may warrant longer program intervals.  

In any case, tracking progress is key to maintaining leaders’ awareness and engagement throughout their participation as well as measuring your organization’s return on its leadership development investment. As leadership experts, we track behavioral change, most often through 360-degree pulse surveys and qualitative feedback. Further, maintaining alignment and feedback loops between participants, managers, and stakeholders helps ensure accountability and continued growth during and following the program’s timeline.

5. Do we have the capability to deliver a program?

Start by asking yourself “who,” “what,” “where,” “when,” “why,” and “how.” Answering these questions upfront in your leadership development efforts is critical for strategic planning. Consulting an external partner in the leadership development space may help you better grasp the “how.” A good partner should combine an understanding of your organization’s culture, strategy, and people to help you create a tailored solution that meets your unique needs.

Objective partners provide valuable support at any step—from developing custom success profiles to hands-on coaching or skills training—and they are more than willing to share their expertise. Ultimately, having predetermined objectives before engaging an external partnership optimizes your development investment and helps you build a powerful pipeline of leaders.

Are you ready to unlock your organization’s leadership potential? Vantage Leadership Consulting has been a trusted advisor for over four decades to companies around the world seeking to build exceptional leadership capability. Contact us to learn more about how we can help you.

When does innovation occur? Rarely, I would suggest. Most organisations don’t innovate unless they are threatened, out of necessity. If things are going along well why innovate?

The theory of the S Curve (or innovation curve) suggests that the performance of a product, or an organisation improves over time as you refine and get better at it. But then decay begins, followed by a rapid decline. We see examples of this all the time. Once great organisations disappear (think Kodak).

More often than not organisations fail to see the tipping point, the point at which their product reaches the end of its time in the spot light. Only when they realise that they are in decline (falling sales, falling enrolments, poor product reviews, etc.) do they realise that they have to innovate or perish.

The good organisations realise that they have to innovate before their current product reaches its pinnacle.

So how does innovation occur?

The secret is in your people.

When groups work well the result is usually a product of more than the sum of individual achievements.

Organisations that rely on the ‘hero’ CEO, or leader will only ever be as good as that single individual. The ideas that he/she generates will only be as great as that person’s imagination.

The role of the leader then, is not to generate the ideas, but to create the conditions for innovation to occur. Those conditions are simple. They have nothing to do with ‘innovation camps’, innovation hack-a-thons, programs or professional development, and everything to do with trust.

Humans are naturally creative beings. We all have imaginations. We love to dream. But when we come to work we leave the dreaming for lunchtime and get on with the business of our job. The boundaries for our work are put in place and reinforced with KPIs, accountability measures and deadlines (and for schools, league tables).

For innovation to occur the leader has to let go of control and allow people to dream, to ponder on the ‘what if’, and take risks with ideas that could at first glance, appear contrary to the organisation’s key objectives. Essentially, the leader has to create a culture of trust.

It is mind-blowing when the leader does this successfully. In high trust cultures people will willingly put in the extra effort. They will work harder. They will do their set job and generate new ideas and solutions. They do this because people love to create. They love to know that what they are doing is making a difference. They are naturally loyal, particularly to places that value and trust them.

How does innovation occur? It occurs when people are allowed to think, dream, take risks, try new things, collaborate and learn. When organisations realise that it is as simple as trusting their staff they will become amazing.

The four questions are

Can I count on you?

Can I depend on you?

Do I care about you?

Do I trust you?

These four questions are fundamental to developing what we describe as Ally Relationships and it’s the fourth question, “Do I trust you?” that is the most critical question of all. It’s the foundation that underpins every single professional relationship. Whether it’s the boss-employee relationship, peer-to-peer relationships, customer-to-business relationship or employee-boss relationship. Without it you will struggle to develop an Ally Relationship, and struggle to deliver the results expected of you.

During the Q&A conversation that followed the keynote one of the leaders asked us

“How long does it take to build trust and be a ‘yes’ to question #4?”

A great question, unfortunately there is no formula that guarantees that after x days, y minutes, z seconds you will have a trust-based relationship. Trust is something that is both given and earned.

However, we all know when our trust account is in the red and overdrawn. One of the first symptoms is when we inwardly roll our eyes when the other person speaks in a meeting, or when we complain to the dog or our significant other “You won’t believe what happened at work today! What [insert name] said or did!”

“You won’t believe what happened at work today! What [insert name] said or did!”

When trust is broken performance suffers. Toxic behaviors infect the team, backstabbing, fear of making mistakes cause otherwise smart individuals to hesitate in taking action, candor and debate become stifled and as a result creativity and innovation suffers.

When it’s high we see teams that exceed expectations, where healthy competition is rife, team members look forward to coming to work, look for ways to improve processes and systems, anticipate needs and share warnings of potential disaster so that course corrections can be made. As a result engagement is high.

What does trust look and feel like?

At work we are perceived as someone who can be trusted based on our words and actions. The challenge with trust is that it while it can take time earn, it can be lost in an instant.

You know YOU ARE TRUSTED when others:

Share their concerns, and ask for your coaching and support.

Talk about the success of the team with you and others outside of the team.

Celebrate the team’s success and acknowledge individual contributions.

 Identify mistakes and don’t try to hide them because they’re treated as learning opportunities, not as opportunities to punish.

Provide feedback that’s two-way and balances ‘do more’ with ‘do differently’. No soft-soaping!

Bring warnings of impending disaster, and then discuss them to identify potential solutions or an alternative course of action.

Demonstrate accountability – for their own actions, and in holding others accountable to their commitments. Others don’t drop the ball or make excuses.

They’re allies and have your back on the good days and especially tough days.

You know YOU TRUST OTHERS when you:

Don’t feel the need to ‘check up on progress’. When a commitment is made the other person will follow through.

Know you only have to pick up the phone and ask to have others rally around to help you achieve a tough deadline.

Provide feedback that others need to hear, and not just what they want to hear.

Listen to feedback from others that you need to hear, but may not want to hear.

Encourage candor and debate in your meetings, and have the right conversations at the right level, with the right people, and are not caught in the weeds and minutia.

Are able to work things out when they don’t go to plan. No drama, no retribution.

Are open with your hopes and fears, and don’t need to wear a mask at work.

When you choose to be an Ally and have your colleagues’ backs at all times.

What would you add to the list? What does trust look and feel like to you?

Trust start with you

A final thought, as you seek to build trust, to help others to trust you, have you considered that building trust isn’t about the other person. Building trust starts with you. Are you willing to give trust?

Our reader poll today asks: Have you ever called someone out publicly for their bad behavior?

I do it all the time 6.76%I’ve done it, but only after trying to resolve it between just the two of us 38.40%I’ve never done it but have considered it 29.54% I would never do that 8.01%I would never do that, and I think it’s inappropriate for anyone to do so 17.29%

Public “call outs” are controversial. 25% of respondents said they’ve never considered calling someone out publicly for bad behavior (and most of that group thinks it’s inappropriate to do so). Another 30% of you have considered doing it but haven’t taken the step but a full 45% of respondents said they do it after trying to resolve the issue one-on-one. Obviously taking that step toward making a public call-out is a big one. For those who say they’d never do so, how would you handle it if the other party simply refuses to rectify the bad behavior? Do you just accept that they’re not going to change and let them continue acting that way? Their failure to address the bad behavior can be a passive-aggressive stall in the hopes that you’ll give up trying to correct the behavior. In doing so, you’ve let them know they can continue behaving badly without consequence and you’ll get more of the same. While taking a grievance public can feel like you’re escalating things too much, consider your alternatives if you don’t do something drastic to change their behavior.

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

Did you enjoy this post?  If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog.  It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!).  SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!

These results were originally a SmartPulse poll in SmartBrief on Leadership which tracks feedback from more than 240,000 business leaders. Get smarter on leadership and sign up for the SmartBrief on Leadership e-newsletter.

What do you believe about greatness? Do you hear the call to greatness or is it reserved for a select special few?

Great Quotes on Greatness

“Everyone has the power for greatness — not for fame, but greatness, because greatness is determined by service.” ~ Martin Luther King Jr.

“Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion: The potential for greatness lives within each of us.” ~ Wilma Rudolph

“The starting place for your greatness is desire. The desire to succeed, to serve others, to keep on going no matter what.” ~ Assegid Habtewold

“Nothing liberates our greatness like the desire to help, the desire to serve.” ~ Marianne Williamson

“Just do what must be done. This may not be happiness, but it is greatness.” ~ George Bernard Shaw

“You treat people with greatness and greatness will come back to you.” ~ Afrika Bambaataa

“You can only become great at that thing you’re willing to sacrifice for.” ~ Maya Angelou

“The price of greatness is responsibility.” ~ Winston Churchill

A Great Story About Greatness

It is said that president Abraham Lincoln often slipped out of the White House on Wednesday evenings to listen to the sermons of his friend Reverend Phineas Gurley of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church.

One evening on the walk home, the aide asked Mr. Lincoln his appraisal of that night’s sermon.

The president thoughtfully replied, “The content was excellent; he delivered with elegance; he obviously put work into the message.”

“Then you thought it was an excellent sermon?” questioned the aide.

“No,” Lincoln answered.

“But you said that the content was excellent and it was delivered with eloquence,” the aide pressed.

“That’s true,” Lincoln said, “But Dr. Gurley forgot the most important ingredient. He forgot to ask us to do something great.”

Greatness is not for you – it’s not for your benefit. Greatness is not about being famous nor even about being appreciated by others. Greatness lies in being of service to others, participating in creating a better world, and calling others to greatness.

“Use your life to serve the world, and you will find that it also serves you,” ~ Oprah Winfrey

The secret to greatness lies in the small actions we each take every day. Each of us is capable of achieving greatness through our everyday actions. Most of the good in the world is built on the accumulated efforts of ordinary people doing small things in a great way.

Photo Credit: This work is in the public domain and featured on Wikimedia Commons

Here’s a great way to improve your time management: take time at the end of every day to “right-size your calendar”. What does this mean?

Simply put, you “right-size your calendar” by looking back at your day and adjusting the appointments or the time blocks in your calendar to accurately reflect what you actually did that day.

Perhaps you had planned to spend an hour in a meeting with your team, but the meeting ran overtime and took two hours. You would adjust the time blocked in your calendar for the team meeting from one hour to two hours during the specific time frame that the meeting took.

Or maybe you planned to spend time reviewing your expense reports, but got caught scrolling your social media accounts and didn’t even look at your expense reports. In this case you might re-plan the time for your expense report review to a future day and update your calendar appointments to reflect the time that you spent browsing social media that day.

Or maybe you planned to take an hour for lunch with your spouse at a local restaurant and in fact everything went as planned and you had a great time. In this case, you don’t have to adjust anything since you did what you planned in the amount of time you planned.

Why should you take time at the end of each day to “right-size your calendar”?

It gives you an accurate record of where you actually spent your time – this gives you the ability to look back to the previous week / month / year and to see what you actually did each day.

It allows you to see how things might have changed on daily basis from how you planned – this enables you observe how much of your planning is accurate, take time to re-plan things that were bumped or require more time, and recognize what you were able to accomplish that day.

It enables you to identify time wasters – as you review the daily use of your time, by honestly documenting how you spent your time, you may be able to see instances and/or patterns where you are wasting time in activities or distractions that aren’t what you are intended to do.

It builds your future planning intuition – as you pay more attention to how long things actually take, how accurate your planning is relative to your execution, how many interruptions or unexpected events are impacting your time management, etc. you will instinctively be able to better estimate how long things will take when you so you take your future weekly planning time.

So if you want to significantly improve your time management, take time at the end of every day to “right-size your calendar.” It takes only a few minutes and when done consistently, it will transform your effectiveness.

Are you willing to try it out this week?

Even though we’re still weeks away from the rumoured launch of the Galaxy Z foldable handsets, a new leak from GalaxyClub in the Netherlands skips past the foldables and reveals details about the Galaxy S25 series.

The report claims that the Galaxy S25 and S25+ will sport the same triple camera setup on the back and the same 12-megapixel shooter on the front. Samsung has been giving the lesser S series devices the same cameras since the S21, which is disappointing. We want new camera hardware, Samsung.

The S25 Ultra will get an improved 200-megapixel shooter, 50-megapixel ultrawide, and 50-megapixel 3x and 5x telephoto shooters.

The leak also indicates that the S25 will not get a battery bump either.

Samsung’s S25 series isn’t expected until early next year, but until then, Samsung will have the foldables to tie you over. Samsung is expected to launch its foldables in July.

MobileSyrup may earn a commission from purchases made via our links, which helps fund the journalism we provide free on our website. These links do not influence our editorial content. Support us here.