Profile
Leadership Development Programs
Prominence Pty Ltd ABN 18 105 997 715
PO Box 66 Taigum QLD 4018 T (07) 3865 8773
enquiries@ProminenceConsulting.com.au www.ProminenceConsulting.com.au
Leadership Development
Strong leadership will support an organisation in implementing change and driving the organisation from where it is now to where it needs to be. Prominence’s leadership development philosophy centres around implementing practical solutions and ensuring interventions have action outcomes and results for clients, in a frame of relational leadership and applied action learning.
Approach to Leadership Development
In order to design and deliver a high quality tailored program to meet the needs of a client, Prominence will engage in the following process:
1. Define the leadership requirements: This typically involves reviewing strategic direction documents, corporate values, and a meeting or workshop session with the senior leadership team to define what good leadership is to the organisation and identifying the desired behaviours to be demonstrated. A tool such as a leadership behaviour checklist could be utilised.
2. Assess learning and development requirements: Identify the gap between the leadership requirements and current leadership behaviours to identify what is already done well and what needs to be addressed through further development. Sometimes this might involve a diagnostic tool (such as a 360 degree assessment or cultural survey) or simply a management team workshop to discuss strengths and weaknesses (such as a leadership SWOT).
3. Define objectives and outcomes of the leadership development program: The key objectives of the program will be discussed so the scope and desired outcomes of the program will be clearly understood.
4. Program designed and developed: Prominence will develop a tailored program based on best practice and research that will deliver the objectives and outcomes. This could include a residential component, workshops, coaching and so on. See Typical Program Structure and Design elements on page 2 for typical program structure and design elements. See Program Content on page 3 for an example of some typical content areas that are covered in a Prominence leadership development program.
5. Program delivered: Prominence uses high quality facilitation and executive coaching in the delivery of programs. See Facilitation and Coaching Approach on page 3 below for an outline of Prominence’s facilitation and coaching approach.
6. Program evaluation: In order to evaluate the value of the program and impact on the business, an evaluation methodology will be developed at the program itself is developed.
See Evaluation on page 5 for more information on the evaluation approach.
Typical Program Structure and Design elements
Prominence recommends a program structure and design that is best practice supported by research. Research and experience shows that the most powerful and effective leadership and management development programs include the following elements:
• A strong program sponsor from the most senior levels of the organisation who sets the context and driver for the program and answers the question “why are we doing this?” The sponsor should also have a role in keeping participants accountable.
• Longitudinal learning through a program of 3 – 12 months during which participants learning and skills are continually reinforced and embedded in practice through follow up sessions and coaching (research shows that more than 50% of what was learnt on a course is forgotten in 72 hours if there is no continual and deliberate reinforcement)
• A blended learning approach using a combination of group workshop sessions and coaching which incorporates peer learning (whilst training alone has been shown to produce a 22% increase in productivity, when training was combined with coaching, productivity increased by 88% -‐ International Personnel Management Association LAAABS Study 2000.)
• Effective application of adult learning and accelerated learning techniques which means applying the lessons from neuroscience (how the brain works and how it learns and retains information). This includes incorporating elements of learning design such as colour, music, peer learning, experiential learning, ‘gamification’ (teaching and learning through games), reflective journaling, storytelling, and creative thinking techniques. Learning is an active and engaging process.
• Grounding in the participants’ reality which means the practical application of any new learning (concept, model, tool, skills) must be immediately discussed, embedded and applied to the participants day to day environment. This is done through the course design, participants “on the job” projects and coaching.
• Strong engagement by the participant’s immediate supervisor to help the participants implement their learnings on the job and get real time feedback (combining on the job performance with learning environment). Linking the learning and development goals in to a performance review process is one method to ensure the supervisor support.
• Relationships and peer support to help participants try new things, feel safe when making decisions, and feel safe when taking risks and making mistakes. Peer relationships are often best formed through a residential component of the program and peer group coaching sessions.
• Linkage and integration with the strategic direction of the business, key priorities, other development programs, initiatives, and any previous courses will ensure that participants have a strong context and scaffolding for the program.
• Accountability is built in to the process with participants being required to provide a report or presentation on their actions, learnings, and leadership goal to sponsors at the conclusion of the program.
A program that contains the elements above will result in a robust program which is likely to yield the highest return on investment.
Program Content
The content, models, and theory of the program depends entirely on the required leadership behaviours and the learning needs identified. Appropriate content will be drawn from the disciplines of psychology, leadership, management, neuroscience and social science, and will be based on research and academic rigour. Some examples of the content that has been included on previous leadership programs are listed below, however Prominence has access to a wide range of resources so please consider this list neither exhaustive or exclusive:
• Understanding transformational leadership as a concept and skills set.
• Coaching as a leadership style – skills development and practice, and mindset.
• Developing a vision, engaging others, leading change.
• MBTI or similar personality style, self-‐awareness and “getting to know you” activities.
• 360 degree feedback assessments.
• Communication skills, listening, straight talking and giving and receiving feedback skills practice.
• Relationship building, stakeholder engagement, customer-‐focus skills and mindset.
• Personal responsibility and accountability as a leader, modelling and ethics.
• Strategic thinking – how to get out of the detailed operational and in to the big picture.
• Stress and personal management.
• Drive, motivation and passion, tapping in to personal leadership energy.
• Team building to achieve a sense of “Cabinet Solidarity”.
Facilitation and Coaching Approach
A highly experienced lead facilitator will run the program, sometimes with a small facilitation team to provide variety and different perspectives for workshops and group coaching sessions. In addition, at least 2 -‐3 professional coaches should be available to ensure that participants have a choice of coach for either peer group or individual coaching sessions, depending on the needs identified by the organisation. A choice of coach is particularly important for the individual coaching component which often relies on the successful relationship and rapport between the coach and the participant.
Facilitation
Typical approaches include:
• Reflective journaling used throughout the program to record and embed learnings.
• Extensive use of music and colour drawn from the accelerated learning techniques and NLP.
• Participants own experiences and wisdoms will be utilised through the facilitation techniques in line with adult learning principles.
• Conversational techniques (rather than facilitator led) will be used which aids peer learning, a key learning requirement with more senior groups.
• Participants will be expected to actively engage in experiential learning (that is, learning by doing).
Coaching
Coaching is recommended to embed learnings and can be provided to individuals or in small peer groups (maximum group size of 4).
Individual Executive Coaching Individual executive coaching is:
• goal driven based on the participants leadership development goals;
• an individually designed learning process with one-‐to-‐one development targeting the most important areas to the participant; and
• an active process that requires the participant in setting objectives and engaging in action learning (putting new skills and approaches in to practice).
Executive coaching is NOT counselling -‐ that is too focused on recovery and the past. It is NOT consulting -‐ that is too focused on providing advice and being an expert. It is NOT life coaching -‐
that is too focused on personal goals. Instead, executive coaching is a future-‐focused facilitated learning process that supports participants to find and develop their own leadership expertise to achieve professional and organisational goals.
Small Group Coaching
It may meet the organisation’s needs to utilise small group coaching. Groups of 3 or 4 meet with a coach on a monthly basis to review their ongoing leadership development how they are applying their learnings with their team. It has the following benefits:
• It provides a facilitated forum for participants to discuss their leadership learnings (successes and failings) and ideas in a safe peer learning environment.
• It supports the development of closer peer networks, thereby creating opportunities for breaking down silos and other benefits of closer working relationships (past experience shows that these groups often continue to meet after formal programs cease).
• It provides an opportunity for participants to develop and fine-‐tune their own coaching skills by practicing peer coaching (i.e. Coaching each other), thus adding momentum and embedding a coaching leadership style if that is seen as meeting the needs of the organisation.
• It provides an opportunity for collaborative leadership projects.
Evaluation
Prominence can develop an evaluation approach and a return on investment to help the organisation evaluate the value of the program and impact on the business.
The industry standard for measuring learning and development interventions is the Four Levels of Learning model (Donald Kirkpatrick, “Evaluating Training Programs”, 1975 and since revised). Each level of evaluation measures progressively deeper levels of impact and therefore each level is progressively more complex in how it can be measured and measured over a longer timeframe.
Level Description and example
One – Reaction To gauge the participants initial level of satisfaction with the program, for example, happy sheets completed at the end of a session (immediate impact)
• Feedback forms administered at the end of the program are the most efficient way to collect this data
Two -‐ Learning The extent to which the information, theory, and techniques are understood and absorbed by the participant – have they learnt the key ideas, concepts, and principles. (short term)
• A self-‐assessment questionnaire or an exam of sort which tests participants knowledge are the most common ways to assess learning
Three -‐ Behaviour The extent to which transfer of knowledge, skill and attitude occurs in the workplace – have they applied the key ideas, concepts, techniques, and skills. (short to medium term)
• A self-‐assessment questionnaire, 360 degree feedback questionnaire or interviews with the participants supervisor are common ways to assess if the participant is using new skills in the workplace. See Appendix xx for an example.
Four -‐ Results The extent of the organisational impact – have they achieved the outcomes they set – has the organisation shifted toward the statement of intent.(medium to long term)
• A Self-‐assessment questionnaire, measures of results that are relevant to the program, as well as specific examples and stories can indicate if results have been impacted by a program.
In addition to these four levels, an additional Return on Investment level has been added.
Five – Return on Investment
The financial measure of the impact of the program – the net gain from action.
ROI = Benefits – Costs x 100 Costs
• Organisational metrics such as HR and performance data are typically used in an ROI study
The evaluation can be as simple as a before and after measure, or as complex as a return on investment analysis. Prominence will work with the organisation to determine the appropriate level of evaluation and an evaluation methodology at the time of developing the leadership program.
Conclusion
A leadership development program designed and delivered by Prominence will be targeted specifically to the needs of the organisation and embed the desired leadership behaviours for cultural change. It will be a robust program that will draw on evidence based research and best practice for its content, design and delivery. It will integrate with and support other programs and initiatives that are rolled out so that a comprehensive strategy for organisational development can be implemented resulting in a lasting impact for the organisation.
