𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐭𝐲𝐩𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐬
In my limited exposure to the world of leadership development, I see primarily four types of leadership development training programs in the market.
Type 1️⃣ programs
Primary focus on improving leadership skills. Mainly cognitive in nature with frameworks and concepts. The emphasis is on skills and knowledge. This is probably the category with the widest range of products. Examples of such programs include strategic thinking, stakeholder management or performance management. This is often the territory of Corporate Trainers.
Type 2️⃣ Programs
Primary focus on improving self awareness for leadership effectiveness. There is also quite a range of products in this area. Some are designed from people development, coaching or behavioral science frameworks. Some are designed based on profiling assessments such as Lego Serious Play, CliftonStrengths or Hogan. Others might be designed on mindfulness, somatics etc. This is the space where practitioners are often both trainers and facilitators and have hybrid skill sets.
Type 3️⃣ Programs
Primary focus on integrating type 1️⃣ and 2️⃣ programs for personal leadership effectiveness. Many of these type 3️⃣ programs are experiential in design. Such programs employ the use of simulations, competitions, environmental constructs or leadership labs to trigger real time behaviors for participants to gain self-awareness. These programs are usually delivered by skillful facilitators who are comfortable working with emerging data and responding to unpredictable situations.
Type 4️⃣ Programs
Primary focus on integrating type 3️⃣ programs with organizational values, leadership standards and expectations. The distinction is the intense focus on aligning with Corporate Value. These are highly customized programs and least common in the market. The expectation is on facilitators learning, internalizing and modeling the organizational values and leadership behaviors on top of facilitating the content and context.
P.s All four types can be designed with “post” workshop follow ups that include project work, community of practice, coaching sessions, micro learnings etc. Many believe the follow ups are just as critical to the success of the leadership programs. That is a separate topic.
📸: This was a type 4️⃣ program I got to facilitate. It was one of the toughest in terms of my onboarding and learning as a facilitator due to the complexity and expectations.
What others might you have experienced that are not within the four types? I’m curious!
#leadershipdevelopment #peopledevelopment #learninganddevelopment
Victor Seet • World & Singapore's 1st Gold Awarded Gallup CliftonStrengths Coach • Newfield Certified Ontological Coach • ICF Coach (ACTC, PCC)