What does leadership development actually do for the business?

A lot of our decision making is influenced by our habits of thinking.

Data is secondary, even for people who pride themselves on being "data-driven decision-makers." (We're all human, sorry.) We go to what we're used to doing, first. Then, if we're in a good mental state we will look for data to check our initial assumptions.

In technical fields, our decision making habit is to assume that the biggest constraint on talent is technical skills. So we spend a majority of our training budget on keeping up to date with the technology we use (or hope to use).

That isn't necessarily wrong!

Remember, Tech Savvy is one of the four leadership success factors for technical leaders. You must have this.

But is it really what's limiting your team or organization from reaching higher levels of performance?

Maybe. Maybe not.

At the individual contributor level, after a certain amount of basic job skill has been gained, fear is the greatest limiting factor. (Look to my PQ articles or ask me why.)

But when we're looking at team, department, group, and functional levels, the effectiveness of leaders, processes, and systems usually has a much greater impact on performance than technical knowledge.

I do leadership development. I help leaders become stronger, more effective, and more confident. I often have to explain what this does in concrete terms for a business.

Leadership development is the intangible of intangibles. A VP of IT recently asked me, “What am I going to get for spending my limited budget on development for my leaders?”

Here is a quick business case for leadership development. We can quantify everything on this list! (Ask me how.)

• Skilled leaders make things happen faster, better, and with fewer errors than less skilled leaders. (Speed, Quality, Accuracy)
• Skilled leaders help employees recover from mistakes faster, with less performance impact, and prevent more errors from occurring in the future. (Quality, Productivity, Continuous Improvement)
• Skilled leaders focus employee attention on the right things to maximize collective efforts while economizing on necessary tasks. (Productivity, Strategic Focus, Customer Focus, Compliance, Risk Reduction)
• Skilled leaders attend to the wellbeing of their teams effectively, maintaining high performance and engagement levels. (Performance, Productivity, Retention, Resilience, Labor Cost)

Effective leadership is crucial for organizational success. Investing in leadership development is a strategic move that yields tangible benefits.

It's okay to start decision-making with your habits. Then, get curious. Ask "What could be?" Make sure you consider the information you need to have a complete business case. Focus your investments and efforts on opening up areas where your growth is limited by the biggest constraint. Make the case for growing leadership skill. Then, measure and reap the rewards.

Cheers,
–Steve

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P.S. - Plan for development in your 2025 budget and initiatives! Contact me to get some ideas based on your unique situation.