Here’s a depressing statistic. Less than 10% of leadership development brings sustained change or has meaningful business impact.
Now, that depresses me. I’ve invested a lot of my working life in this field.
Because of this, I’d like to believe these kind of statistics aren’t true, but the sources are ones I trust – Harvard Business Review, the Institute of NeuroLeadership and McKinsey.
I’m especially concerned because a huge amount of the billions invested in developing leaders every year includes at least some element around communication skills.
Influencing, handling difficult conversations, performance management, coaching, leading successful change, engaging your team… communication’s central to them all.
And the truth is, I know just how hard it is to help people change the way they communicate. (I’ve been working in this specific field for 25 years now.)
Changing communication means changing deeply embedded habits – habits that have been building from our earliest days.
So, that lets us all off the hook, right?
Leadership development is just tough, especially when you’re aiming to change the way people communicate. So, let’s not worry.
I don’t accept that.
Whether you’re a senior leader who is part of the 90% who hasn’t changed long-term, or you’re the internal HR/L&D professionals who are guiding the leaders…
Or, like me, the external specialists bringing insights and expertise…
…settling for 10% ROI isn’t good enough.
Apart from the actual financial and time investment in leadership development, there’s a huge cost to organisations when development in leadership communication doesn’t pay.
- Miscommunication that sets people running in all the wrong directions
- Lack of the feedback that helps people grow and develop
- Unclear boundaries that leave people unsure what’s expected
- Dull, dull, dull meetings that don’t achieve anything…
Yes, the real cost to organisations is far beyond the actual money and time.
And that’s why we won’t settle for 10% ROI, or even 20% – or even 50%.
We’re focused on making sure that leadership development actually brings significant changes, long term.
And that’s exactly what we do – in fact, we guarantee it.
In my next blog, I’m going to share with you one key way we do this – because it will work in your organisation too.
Looking forward to sharing more…