Make an Impact: 5 Ways to Strengthen Your Leadership Development Strategy

We've partnered with many organizations to create strategies for leadership development. As we've done so, we've refined an approach that drills down everything into a one-page strategic plan. This plan enables three things: alignment, action, and accountability. To define it, we work closely with our client partners. Here are five questions that we answer as a part of the process.

1. What it will Take to be in the Winner's Circle?

This is a loaded question, but it brings out thoughtful responses. Another way to frame it is, "How can learning guarantee your company's success?" By answering this question, you're better equipped to purposefully prioritize and align with the few most critical strategic business objectives that aren't being met yet. Even more importantly, when paired with the right context, you will have metrics that are meaningful. This is a winning combination.

2. What's Your Role in Making This Happen?

This is simple yet often overlooked. And, it's powerful in terms of learning. Why? Because it will help you decide what role your team will play in how leaders learn and develop in your organization - especially if you're a one-person function or have limited resources. Is your role to develop all leaders? Only executives? What roles will the leaders, themselves, play? These are all legitimate questions that require thoughtful discussion.

3. What do Your Stakeholders Expect from You?

We all know that partial strategies don't work, and this is a great way to avoid that trap. You have many different stakeholders with very different expectations of leadership development; there is no one-size-fits-all. That's why it's critical to identify each group, what each group expects learning to do for them, and the criteria that each group will use to decide if "learning" did an excellent job. By understanding the expectations of your stakeholders, you're able to define the few things you have to get right. This is your mantra, your competitive advantage. It is also critical for another reason. It will ensure you have the right mechanisms in place to meet their expectations, help them perform their very best, and contribute to an increase in performance.

4. What's Your Strategic Statement?

Your strategic statement goes beyond a vision and mission. It is a statement of what your strategy is, and it is summarized in 30 words or less. It's what is going to set your strategy apart from others that get dusted off once a year (If, at all). To make sure it's impactful, make sure it has three parts: what you're going to achieve, who it will serve, and what you will do differently to reach your goal.

5. What's Your ROI?

If it's not a financial measure, it doesn't mean very much. If you want a seat at the table, and budget, then you need to measure strategy in terms that matter to the business. Whether people like the leadership development experiences they engaged in or can apply what they learned is nice. But ROI is what executives care about. It's also what's going to help you receive funding and resources. As a part of your strategy, define ROI upfront. Consider your overall objectives, how you will isolate the effects of learning from other contributing forces, and how you will convert data into financial values. Then, start collecting data and translating it into ROI.

So, Now What?

Create your one-page strategic plan. The front should define your vision, mission, stakeholders, strategic statement, key focus areas, and measures (including ROI target). The back should show alignment to the 3 -to 5-year business plan, one-year plan, and quarterly initiatives.

The Bottom Line

With increasing pressure for high-performance and a need to pivot, fitting strategy to the need has never been more important. It applies to every organization striving to maximize its ability to deliver value as it develops leaders. Businesses and HR professionals must understand that strategy has a great deal of power, when done right. And, it is critical to get the right budget allocation. Use this time as a time for change. By creating powerful strategies that fit to the need, you will make impact.

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