The Failure of Leadership Development Programs

In spite of billions of dollars being spent by organisations on leadership development programs globally, 75% have found their programs ineffective. Add to that the 70,000 books and videos on leadership development, and leaders are still left with big gaps in skill development. With some programs and courses costing a fee of anything from $50,000 – $150,000, organisations are realising a poor return on their investment.

The reasons for the failure of so many leadership development programs are varied, but the key criticisms are that the programs are too theoretical and academic, not addressing in a practical way the real issues that leaders are facing. There is no follow up within the organisation afterwards, and no support to implement what was taught and learned. Gallup’s research had shown that 87% of the skills learned in a single workshop are lost within a month and participants revert to the way they did things before.

The mentoring I offer provides the exact opposite experience to those programs described above that generated those deeply concerning statistics about their failure.

Mentoring is highly personalised to the learning needs of the individual leaders. It focuses on highlighting their strengths and supports them to use those to front the performance challenges they have.

I create a confidential, empowering, psychologically safe space in which they can openly share the “what-keeps-you-awake-at-night” issues that have a high potential to derail their leadership. These are the issues they cannot discuss with anyone, for fear of losing leadership credibility.

The on-going process that mentoring offers means continuous support in their leadership development and the building of their self-leadership skills. These skills, for example, self-awareness, emotional intelligence, proactivity and resilience, are those that build the confidence they need to lead through these challenging times into the future.

But what has happened recently is that many people are coming wanting support to change careers. Some have retired but want to refire doing something different. Others are jaded and want a new career. Some have been made redundant and fear they won’t be able to find new work. Whatever their reason for wanting a change, the mentoring provides them with a space to explore their options, face their fears, especially their risk aversion, discover their transferable skills, and most times leave the mentoring with new focus and direction,

Much research has shown that mentoring is the preferred leadership development process. It has also been shown that engaging external mentors brings more significant outcomes than internal mentors.

I have always understood the benefits for both the mentor and mentee in a mentorship but in my entire career, I’ve actually never had one – up until this year that is.

I’d been tootling along on my own accord, knowing roughly what my 5-year goals were but I hadn’t put anything down on paper nor talked about my of plan of attack to anyone.

Sometimes you get to the point that a mentor is required. Not just someone who you know and is nice, but someone who is a trained mentor. Someone who you can click with, who actively listens and gives you tangible suggestions to speed your career progression along. Some times it helps to hear your thoughts out loud too and then you can see what things need to be done.

Enter Maree Harris, Ph.D. From the first 15 minutes of talking to Maree I knew I’d pursue a mentorship with her. Maree was calming, attentive, understanding, compassionate, knowledgeable… the list just goes on and on to be honest. We met in relaxed environments but talked about big ticket items about what needed to be done in order to progress my career and maybe more importantly, when they needed to be done!

I would not be in my amazing role now if it wasn’t for my time with Maree and I can’t thank her enough. I highly recommend Maree, she’s great face to face or on Zoom/Teams/the phone, so she can work with people all over the place. If you need a person to help achieve your goals, Maree is for you.

Contact me for a no obligation Zoom consultation to see if I could be the right mentor for you. Email – [email protected].

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