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Why Most Leadership Training Is A Waste Of Money And What You Can Do About It.

A group of senior executives arethat uses methods that are more
finishing up a three-day program at aeffective than lecture, or even lecture
top leadership training center. They'vewith PowerPoint and handouts. We need to
already filled out evaluations of theuse more methods that offer
courses they took and the instructors.opportunities to learn from specific,
Now they're grading the facilities andrelevant situations. And we need to use
meals. Soon they'll be heading back homemore methods that allow for reflection.
to see what work has piled up while theyBut, just because training is different
were gone.from our Medieval model doesn't
This scene is played out countless timesautomatically make it effective. There
every day, all across the country. Itare a lot of programs out there based on
also tells you a lot about the mistakesthe principle that we have to do
companies make with leadership training.something special to make learning fun.
Companies spend millions every year toOther programs grow from the need for
send top managers to multi-day, off-sitetrainers and consultants to sell
leadership programs. At the same theysomething "new."
spend only about 7 percent of theThat's why you have leadership training
training budget on first linethat isn't training at all, at least not
supervisors.in leadership. Executives can try
But it's those first line supervisorsoutdoor adventure training which can be
that make most of the difference. Jefflots of fun or they can learn leadership
Immelt, current CEO at General Electric,by cooking, which probably helps the
says that when he was a boy, he alwaysexecutive be more helpful at parties.
knew the name of his father'sBut how do either of these make you a
supervisor, but rarely knew the name ofbetter leader? None of these trendy
the CEO. That's normal.methods seem to do much about helping
First line supervisors determine whetheryou learn leadership, but they're a fun
workers are engaged or not. They're theway to spend the training budget.
leaders who assure that teams have bothHere's another really important thing. A
high morale and high productivity. Whylot of great classroom training never
not spend some training money on them tofinds its way back to the workplace. It
help them do a better job?never seems to make any difference in
The other thing wrong with spendingwhat the leader-trainee does.
leadership training money on seniorThat's because companies spend their
managers is that they're not likely totime and money on the training and
change much. A manager who's been plyingforget about the learning. That's up to
the leadership trade for a couple ofthe individual, but companies usually
decades isn't likely to make a big,don't even bother to set learning
effective behavioral change because of aexpectations or check to see whether a
couple of classes.trainee is using what he or she was
To make matters worse, most leadershiptaught. They should.
training uses ineffective methods.Marshall Goldsmith reviewed how well
Companies spend millions every year on86,000 leadership training participants
classroom-based training that isn't muchactually learned from the experience. He
different from what you'd see if youfound that the people who went home,
could go back in time to almost anytalked about the learning and worked,
Medieval university.deliberately to implement new behaviors
In both cases there's one person inlearned best. But those who just went
front of the room talking to a bunch ofback home and did no follow-up showed no
other people. Oh sure, today there wouldimprovement at all.
be PowerPoint slides and the seats mightThe sad fact is that we know how to do
be more comfortable, but Martin Luthergood leadership training; we're just not
would have no trouble recognizing what'sdoing it. Here are some things your
going on.company should consider.
In this medieval training model, theSpend time and money training your first
instructor lays out some basicline supervisors and new managers. Help
principles and then works down tothem put together a self-development
specific applications. That might beplan that will help them learn on the
great for the teacher, but it's not thejob. You'll get the most bang for your
way that most human beings learn best.buck that way.
Think about any baby you've been around.Make sure the leadership training you
There's not a general principle inchoose addresses specific skills and
sight. The baby sees things, touchesuses effective instructional techniques.
things, runs into things and tastesSet specific learning objectives for
things and then turns all thoseeveryone you send to training.
experiences into general principles.Make sure that people who go through
That's how most adults learn, too. Thetraining get help and encouragement when
most effective sequence is from specificthey get back on the job. Follow-up to
point or experience to generalsee that they're working to implement
principle.what they learned.
What we need is more leadership training



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