Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning recently surveyed leaders and L&D professionals about what theyre looking for in a leadership development program. At the top of the list? Scalability.
One of my passionsand one of the reasons my company developed our own learning platformis expanding access to leadership development, so its exciting to see companies recognizing how important scalability is. At the same time; however, I know that making scalability work at your organization can be a tall order.
For a long time, scalability and quality have seemed at odds in leadership development. An organization could spend its budget on highly effective, but expensive options like coaching for fewer people. Or it could bring leadership development to more employees, but settle for cookie-cutter programs.
But that conundrum is becoming a thing of the past. Scalability and quality can go together in leadership developmentno matter the size of your training budget. To get both, though, you have to embrace an approach thats both high-tech and high-touch.
Why is scalability so important?
Before we get into the nuts and bolts of scaling quality leadership development, lets talk about why its such a big deal right now.
For starters, theres a real gap in leadership pipelines. Only 20% of companies feel confident that they have strong future leaders lined up, and this is something we hear from clients all the time.
At the same time, companies are starting to recognize the power of informal leadersthe people who dont have a leadership title but still play a huge role in driving teams forward. A recent Harvard Business Publishing report highlights how organizations are shifting toward flatter structures and more cross-functional collaboration. That means people who used to simply carry out tasks are now expected to influence stakeholders, make strategic decisions, and communicate business impactin other words, to lead, even without a formal title.
With leadership expectations evolving, the challenge isnt just developing leadersits making sure leadership skills reach everyone who needs them.
With tech, think beyond AI
That brings us back to the question of how to make leadership development more scalable while maintaining quality. With just about any issue in business, people seem to rush to AI as the answer. While exciting things are going on, AI isnt a magic-bullet solution for leadership development yet. The lingering problem is getting people (and teams) to actually use and benefit from them. But AI can be part of your scalability solution. In the Harvard survey, 60% of respondents said theyre incorporating AI into their development programs. (As my own company trains an AI coach, were focusing on making sure that using the coach will fit into peoples busy schedules.)
However, dont let AI overshadow other useful technologies. Micro-learning platforms are another huge trend right now, with nine out of 10 L&D professionals saying that the employees they serve prefer them. Ive seen firsthand with our own platform how busy professionals embrace using snackable content to get leadership insights when and where they need them.
Technology can also extend the reach of other leadership development tools. If youre used to thinking in terms of using a single leadership development program at your organization, this may require a shift in mindset. But theres lots of potential. For example, my company is very excited right now about the potential of combining our learning platform with our coaching services to help companies stretch their budgets farther.
Enlist your current leaders for development
As I touched on earlier, technology is only part of the story when it comes to scaling leadership development. Leaders will always need to learn from other leaders, no matter how advanced AI and other high-tech tools become. Ive also found that most organizations havent fully tapped into the knowledge their own people have. Unleashing this knowledge makes it a whole lot easier to scale leadership development.
One strategy I always recommend is teaching your current leaders (including the informal ones) how they can help develop others. Ensure that the development they receive includes both coaching and delegation skills. Employees whose managers are adept coaches are eight times more engaged. And delegation gives employees a chance to grow in the flow of workIve seen firsthand that this approach amplifies engagement, innovation, and customer satisfaction.
Another way to enlist current leaders in scaling development is creating a mentoring program or updating your current one. Some of your employees may already have mentors or mentees, but formalizing mentorship programs makes them more powerful. Mentorship doesnt just impart the information your people need to develop as leaders. It also ensures that information is relevantthe touchstone of an effective leadership development programand it helps build the relationships your future leaders need.
Whats next?
Im optimistic about scalable leadership development and the possibilities it holds. Making leadership development available to more employees will affect productivityand even small shifts in productivity across a large population of employees can lead to big results. So how do you want to get the ball rolling to integrate scalability into your organizations approach?
