Scaling Up L&D: Leadership Training Done Right — An Ultimate Guide.
How much is your company spending on leadership training? According to the Harvard Business Review (HBR), the United States alone allocates an annual average of $160 billion exclusively for leadership training, with a worldwide expenditure of $356 billion. But here lies the $356 billion question, “Do these massive investments actually produce great leaders?”.
Leadership training is designed to enhance and strengthen employees’ leadership skills and organizational performance. Throughout the training, employees are exposed to structured and formal lectures, assessments, case studies, simulations, and exercises that will help them to improve their teamwork, problem-solving, decision-making, and communication skills. Furthermore, leadership training today emphasizes the significance of DE&I (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) and its application in the workplace, cultivating a respectful and inclusive company culture.
However, the effectiveness of leadership training is not guaranteed if it is not implemented successfully. Research from HBR indicates that only 25% of senior managers believe that leadership training actually yields significant business outcomes. Then, what’s wrong with our leadership training?
The issue lies in a lack of communication.
Effective communication is a crucial component of successful leadership. Communication plays a vital role in establishing trust between leaders and employees, while also aligning shared visions through clear communication about a company’s mission, goals, and values.
But how are we doing in terms of communication?
Research from HBR and the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) reveals that:
69% of employees in the U.S. feel uncomfortable when communicating with their colleagues.
37% of employees in the U.S. withhold honest feedback from their colleagues to avoid negative reactions.
Due to these issues of inadequate communication among employees, companies experience an average annual loss of $62.4 million.
$62.4 million.
That is a significant loss caused by a relatively small issue of employees simply not speaking up.
How can this impact your leadership training?
Ultimately, what matters most in cultivating a great leader is great communication skills. If employees cannot communicate during the training sessions, it is obvious that they lack the skills to convey their objectives to the entire company. Communication is necessary for key elements of leadership, including learning, skill development, conflict resolution, collaboration, and coaching. If your leadership training does not facilitate communication, leaders will struggle to communicate their ideas effectively.
Then, how can you make your employees speak up?
Acknowledge the psychological barriers that exist in communication and don’t ignore them — address them.
Build an environment where everyone feels safe and comfortable to speak up and express their opinions and thoughts.
Make individuals reflect, share, and develop as a whole person.
How does CLASSUM address these issues?
CLASSUM fosters an engaging community through a user-friendly interface that resembles social media, effectively eliminating psychological barriers to communication.
CLASSUM encourages a culture of collaborative achievement through gamification, empowering individuals to proactively engage in their personal learning and development through challenging initiatives.
CLASSUM inspires continuous learning through instant knowledge and insight sharing.
DB Group, South Korea’s largest insurance company with over 4,000 employees, faced challenges in driving employee communication and interaction during their leadership training. However, by implementing CLASSUM to address these challenges, DB Group’s recent leadership cohort observed a substantial increase in their interactions during and after the program. In fact, participants reported enhanced confidence levels resulting from increased engagement. They rated CLASSUM at 4.6 out of 5, with communication scoring the highest. An employee from the DB Group expressed their satisfaction saying, “The interactions between our trainees continued through and after the program, and we gained confidence that effective education is possible no matter the situation.”
Summary
Fostering communication and maintaining employee engagement within a community is crucial for effective leadership training. Today, many companies confront challenges in motivating employees to voice their opinions and communicate with their teams. However, these issues can be resolved by simply addressing psychological barriers, creating a comfortable learning environment, and promoting habits of reflection and sharing within the community. To achieve these steps, CLASSUM can provide valuable assistance in enhancing communication and engagement within your company.
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Beer, M., Finnström, M., & Schrader, D. (2016, October). Why Leadership Training Fails — and What to Do About It. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2016/10/why-leadership-training-fails-and-what-to-do-about-it?registration=success
Corporate Leadership Training. Center for Management & Organization Effectiveness. (2022, July 5). https://cmoe.com/corporate-leadership-training/
Solomon, L. (2016, March 9). Two-Thirds of Managers Are Uncomfortable Communicating with Employees. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2016/03/two-thirds-of-managers-are-uncomfortable-communicating-with-employees
Worden, J. D., & Buhler, P. M. (2013). Up, Down, and Sideways: High-Impact Verbal Communication for HR Professionals . Society for Human Resource Management.
Yemiscigil, A., Born, D., & Ling, H. (2023, February 28). What Makes Leadership Development Programs Succeed?. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2023/02/what-makes-leadership-development-programs-succeed
