Leadership Development
Leader development and retention is a critical competence for most organisations – and one of the most difficult to maintain. Although traditionally, managers may have considered that personal development was aimed at helping them become a leader, in a 21st century environment, intensive, continuous learning is a now a key characteristic of high performing leaders and leadership teams.
GP’s approach to leadership development recognises that generic leader competencies are only valid and useful when linked to the specific demands of a leadership role; and that these demands are constantly changing. So effective leadership development is less about competency frameworks than about continuous evolution of leaders’ skills and their understanding of both themselves and the world around them. It is a dynamic process made even more complex by the fact that what counts in most cases is the collective capability and performance of a leadership team, rather than their individual competences.
Effective leadership development:
- Works upon both the leader and their team (it is systemic in perspective)
- Is delivered within the context of both a personal development plan and a broader team or organisational development plan
- Is frequent and challenging
- Happens within the leader’s time frame (when they identify a learning need, in chunks that are small enough to be applied on issues of immediate concern)
- Is personalised as much as possible
- Involves frequent, useful, specific feedback, which is valued by the leader
- Takes a clear leadership perspective (i.e. is not repackaged from a programme designed for employees in general)
- Offers a variety of different learning methods – e.g. classroom, online, one-to-one – from which the leader can select
Identifying leaders’ developmental needs
Some of the most common situations, that trigger developmental needs, include:
- A major transition in role
- Performance appraisals
- Feedback from 360-degree assessments, assessment centres or other means of helping the leader become more aware of their impact on others
- Major shifts in corporate or departmental culture
- Life changing events
- Career planning
- Recognition by the leader that specific managerial skills, which have been “good enough” need to be sharpened (“developmental backfilling”)
Additionally, many leaders reach their positions
How GP helps
GP provides a highly flexible portfolio of leader development resources, ranging from short courses aimed at building core skills of leadership & management, to leader development strategy and one-to-one development. We also offer delivery through a wide range of media, including classroom and webinars; and both open and customised courses.
Given that many senior leaders don’t have time to attend traditional training events, we offer individualised, “stripped down” tuition or coaching in a wide variety of areas of leadership.
What we offer
Leadership Specific Courses
Top team development planning
Assessing leadership team effectiveness
Leader as coach and mentor
Cross cultural leadership
Leader as communicator
The effective director
Managing corporate reputation
Top Team Developmental Support
team coaching
clearer vision
coaching, mentoring and customised one-to-one development.
coaching
mentoring
one-to-one development
Leader Backfill Courses
These are intended to assist leaders in either bringing up to date skills and knowledge, which have become rusty, or in acquiring managerial or professional skills that have been missed in their career so far. The content of these courses is designed specifically with leaders in mind.
