How to Implement Leadership Training

Business owners and senior executives understand that developing competent leaders within their organizations is key to maintaining a competitive position and fostering future business success. Implementing a successful leadership training program should start with senior management and flow throughout the organization. No matter what leadership training program you choose, implementation begins with assessing organizational culture and training needs, and follows a process that includes effective communication of program goals and expected outcomes.

1. Assess your organizational structure and culture and the specific needs of your internal leaders to decide what type of training program to implement. If the organization has a definite hierarchy, you should present the leadership training program first to senior leaders, then to others lower on the organization chart. If the organizational structure is flat, with many people sharing similar responsibilities, the leadership training program should be more team oriented, with everyone participating from the start.

2. Establish goals for your leadership training program. If your company is planning a major expansion, the training should emphasize not only a vision for the expansion, but also one for future employee recruitment and development. If the company is established but needs to improve its processes, the training should stress how to meet the goals for improvement.

3. Choose a training program that fits your organizational structure, culture and goals. You must present the program in a way that meets your organization's cultural, logistical and fiscal needs. If employees telecommute or work in field offices throughout the country, it will not make sense to offer a program that requires physical attendance as getting employees together would be both time consuming and costly. If your culture and structure are flat and based on groups making joint decisions, choose a program that emphasizes leader participation in team-building exercises. The ultimate goal of leadership training should be to empower your leaders to make decisions in line with how your organization operates.

4. Communicate the leadership training program to all levels of management based on your organizational structure and culture. The exact details you present need to match the organizational hierarchy. If there are many management levels, the trainers will communicate a different focus to different ones, but the overall message of leadership development will be consistent. Senior leaders need to participate initially to assess how trainers present details of the program to the rest of the organization. Whatever path you choose, you need to communicate the overall goals of the program from the start.

5. Follow up with managers after the training to gauge the perception of the training program and assess the success of various program aspects. Provide continued communication with managers at all levels to gain insights to perceived benefits and identify program weaknesses. You can conduct these follow-ups by means of simple evaluations, or the trainers can conduct focus groups.