How do leaders develop? This is a question I’ve asked hundreds of students, most of whom were working on their MBAs. Some mention on-the-job experience, others suggest business school. Still others talk about specific leader development training programs.
So what’s the truth?
The research on this question suggests that the answer is a mixture of all of these elements. Experience is very important. Assessments and feedback can help if done correctly. Leader development programs can also help, and they’re appealing because they’re something specific that executives can do.
Yet the question then becomes: what makes a leader development program worthwhile? This is where we’ve done quite a bit of work. (By “we,” I’m referring to my Indigo Anchor business partner Chris Everett and me.)
Our point of view on this issue is that leader development training can work to the extent that it boosts participants’ knowledge and skills regarding what approaches or behaviors leaders should do. We also define leadership effectiveness—the goal of any leader development effort—as one that includes helping a team achieve its objectives while also building the capabilities of the team members and winning the right way.
Regarding that last part—winning the right way—it’s our perspective that some things are right and some things are wrong. Leaders need to develop a sense of character, one based upon strong values, if they’re to deal adequately with the uncertainty and ambiguity that inherently comes with the job.
Announcing Good Leaders Do This
Years ago, I taught a university course on managerial skills in which I tried to boil down the concepts for each class session with a set of “management keys.” These were “things that good managers do.” This way of distilling and communicating the information resonated strongly with my students; they found it helpful and, in some cases, even transformative.
Years later, Chris and I took that idea and made it something better, a set of quick podcast episodes called “Good Leaders Do This.” We actually cranked out one episode a day for almost 100 days. It was wild.
People liked Good Leaders Do This as a standalone podcast, but for learning purposes, it was too much, too fast. We needed an actual course.
That idea took us on a long journey. We refined the topics, found a fantastic learning management platform, and refined or developed all of the content. That’s what’s now Good Leaders Do This, our flagship leader development course.
We’re now in our second year of running Good Leaders Do This with a fantastic company. It’s been tremendously rewarding just from a personal standpoint working with this company’s leaders and seeing them develop during our time with them. We deliberately limited our first year of Good Leaders Do This to one organization as we wanted to use that as an opportunity to refine the course as necessary. Now, however, we’re open to taking on additional clients.
Good Leaders Do This focuses on what leaders actually should do.
Let’s talk about how we developed the course—and also the basics of what leaders actually should do, at least at the level of various topic areas. Based upon leadership research and our more than 40 years of combined leadership experience, Chris and I distilled “what good leaders do” into three big categories of behaviors. Namely, good leaders:
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Lead themselves,
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Lead others, and
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Drive results.
It’s simple yet comprehensive. But rest assured, there’s significant meat on those bones! Within each one of those three categories are eight subcategories, which in terms of the course, we call “modules.” For example, the Lead Yourself category includes modules on character development, adaptability, and openness, among others. Below you can see how we’ve organized what leaders should do in terms of Lead Yourself topics at the module level.
The category of Lead Others also has eight subcategories or modules. These include building connections, initiating structure, and exerting influence, among others. Below you can see how we’ve organized what leaders should do in terms of Lead Others topics at the module level.
And the final category, Drive Results, follows the same format with eight modules. These include time management, prioritizing and organizing work, and group facilitation, among others. Below you can see how we’ve organized what leaders should do in terms of Drive Results topics at the module level.
So what’s inside each of these modules? Each one has five specific approaches or behaviors that good leaders do. For example, the module on Character Development includes the following five lessons, focusing on how good leaders:
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Seek purpose and meaning,
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Understand and pursue virtue,
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Adhere to a core set of values and principles,
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Serve others with sincerity, and
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Seek balance in their lives.
We then took all of the modules and strategically balanced them across two levels of the course. Good Leaders Do This Level 1 has 12 modules, with a bit more emphasis on Lead Yourself while still including a few modules on Lead Others and Drive Results. Good Leaders Do This Level 2 also has 12 modules, but the emphasis is a bit more on Lead Other and Drive Results while covering a few remaining topics from Lead Yourself.
Practically speaking, the delivery method of Good Leaders Do this includes five “microlearning” sessions per module, with each session focused on a single lesson (think 10 to 15 minutes delivered virtually via our learning management platform), plus periodic live synchronous check-in sessions with the cohort of learners to consolidate the learning. Good Leaders Do This Level 1 and Good Leaders Do This Level 2 are each designed for learners to complete in 12 weeks each (one module per week).
For a more robust overview of the program, download the overview below. And if you’re interested in learning more about Good Leaders Do This, please contact us!
Regardless of how you choose to develop your leadership acumen or the leadership skills within your organization, I suggest that you use an approach that’s evidence-based. Furthermore, the three big categories of Lead Yourself, Lead Others, and Drive Results might be helpful ways to organize your thinking.
That being said, if you’d like to have all of that organized for you, simply check out our course. We’d love to discuss it with you. We’re proud of Good Leaders Do This, and we look forward to using it to help create the next generation of effective leaders.