Future-Proof Your Organization by Scaling Leadership Development (2024)

Drive Performance & Inclusivity With Scalable Solutions

We’re living through complex times. Change moves fast, and organizations can struggle to keep up. Mergers and acquisitions lead to new, flatter managerial charts and the expectation to do more with less. Post-pandemic economic concerns require organizations to be able to quickly pivot to meet new challenges. Hybrid work environments require new ways of working together, and equity and diversity are becoming increasingly important in the workplace.

At the same time, talent retention has become increasingly difficult, as employees are leaving jobs in record numbers for positions that are better paid, more aligned with their values, or more flexible. Furthermore, providing personal and professional development opportunities at work is no longer optional — employees now expect ample training and growth opportunities.

Today’s chaotic work environment calls for collaboration, connection, and coordination, each rooted in a common leadership language and behaviors. There has never been a greater need for people to come together, work cohesively, pivot when colleagues leave, and work collaboratively with other teams to achieve business goals in a short period of time.

The optimal way to achieve this level of widespread alignment across the enterprise is by scaling leadership development to ensure access to learning is equitable and opportunities for skill-building are accessible to all. In fact, there has never been a greater need for high-impact leadership development that’s both expandable and equitable.

How to Scale Leadership Development Successfully

3 Keys to Remember

But how can you focus on scaling leadership development when staff levels are constantly shifting, resources are limited, and leaders are struggling just to keep up with the day-to-day challenges of their work and personal lives? HR and L&D professionals need tools and solutions for scaling leadership development opportunities that enable them to access and deliver research-based content and transformational development experiences across the enterprise.

As our white paper outlines, when organizations are looking at scaling leadership development as effectively as possible, it’s essential to focus on these 3 steps:

1. Plan Your Leadership Strategy.

Organizations don’t go to market without a sales or operations strategy. Likewise, there should be hesitance about going to market without a leadership strategy.

The key to scaling leadership development is devising a leadership approach at the outset. Think through how different levels of your organization are affected by culture shifts that require new goals and strategies, and view leadership as a lever to execute the business strategy and drive organizational performance. Organizations that are most effective at creating new leadership capabilities focus on linking talent development to business results.

2. Provide Access to Relevant Content.

Simply providing access to hours of content that isn’t necessarily aligned with your organizational priorities or your employees’ day-to-day realities won’t be very beneficial. Scaling leadership development requires a significant commitment across the organization. It’s not a program, but rather a sweeping initiative that requires a whole systems view.

Large-scale change requires that you create the right architecture to support your learning and development objectives for leaders at every level. To maximize success, focus on the skills, behaviors, and practices needed by individual leaders and on the organizational leadership capabilities needed to support the business strategy.

3. Leverage Internal and External Talent.

The role of HR and talent development professionals has become increasingly important, as they partner with the C-suite on strategy and advocate for ever-growing employee needs. Partnering with an external provider allows them to focus on providing high-value enterprise support.

Additionally, internal resources may not be fully prepared for the challenge of championing an initiative and developing dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of leaders in a short timeframe. HR teams may not have access to the tools or infrastructure required to provide meaningful leadership development in a way that’s scalable (to ensure equitable access to all talent) and customizable (to align with organizational KPIs).

When internal capability doesn’t align with delivery need, strategically mix insourcing with outsourcing. Integrate business leaders and facilitators to increase alignment and buy-in, while leaning on trusted external providers for proven content and solutions.

Scaling Leadership Development to Unlock the Collective Potential of Your People

Imagine the impact that will result in your organization if there is shared leadership vision, language, and behaviors — all linked directly to critical business needs.

Scaling leadership development is the optimal way to create new capabilities across the enterprise, and to communicate to every member of your organization that they are valued and supported.

Flexible development options can help you broaden access to learning for every member of your organization, across leader levels, and through every stage of their career journeys. And with the right partner and solution, you can meet the increased demand for training and development, regardless of the bandwidth of your L&D or HR team.

The 3 steps for scaling leadership development that are outlined in this paper will help you to more quickly achieve concrete business results, improve retention and engagement, and drive a more inclusive organizational culture of learning and growth.

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