Despite billions spent on leadership development, many companies still struggle to realise the full potential of their leaders. The missing link in leadership development is the lack of transition support from learning to doing. Traditional leadership development focuses on classroom training, which only accounts for 10% of actual learning. The rest is learned through hands-on experience (70%) and from others (20%).
To bridge this gap, companies should adopt a ‘more is better’ approach to leadership development. This means providing more types of developmental assignments, more job-related feedback, more coaching from line managers and mentors, and more frequent and intense transitions to stretch their leaders.
Moreover, companies should also focus on ‘connective tissue’ – the mechanisms that encourage leaders to integrate learning from different places. This includes providing leaders with diverse experiences, reinforcing learning through organisational processes, and fostering an environment that values continuous learning and development.
Finally, it is crucial to measure the success of leadership development not just by the number of people trained, but by the improvements in leadership quality and the impact on the organisation.
To sum up, transforming leadership potential into success requires a shift from traditional leadership development towards a more comprehensive, experiential, and integrated approach.