A strong Leadership Academy requires three strategic choices before the academy is designed \u2013 and avoiding three barriers when it is delivered. Here we walk through them, along with the six questions we use with our clients.<\/p>\n
A Leadership Academy is a company\u2019s own leadership development programme. It brings leaders together around shared principles, language and capabilities, and it is built around the results the company needs to achieve.<\/p>\n
Where a leadership course develops the individual leader, a Leadership Academy develops the whole leadership team in line with the strategy. But an academy is not automatically a good investment. Many academies start with the question “what should the curriculum be?” and end up with a broad, generic programme that is hard to link to the business.<\/p>\n
We recommend starting at the other end: with the strategy. Work backwards \u2013 from the change the strategy requires to what leaders need to learn:<\/p>\n
We call this connection a “line of sight” between the strategy and the investment in leadership development. It requires making difficult choices and trade-offs \u2013 and making them early.<\/p>\n
This is the “why” question. Should the academy help you sustain and strengthen your core business \u2013 or develop new business? Often it is a combination. The more precisely you understand the intent behind your strategy, the more precisely you can identify the capabilities you need.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Start with employees, not leaders. What do employees need to start, stop or continue doing? Identify the critical encounters between leaders and employees where the strategy is actually executed \u2013 and describe what leaders need to master in exactly those situations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Which leaders, at which level, sit in the parts of the organisation where development matters most for the strategy? Focus beats flexibility. And everyone who is developed must have the opportunity to apply what they have learned in their day-to-day role.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
We use these six questions when we help organisations make the three choices. Ask them in order \u2013 the answers to the first shape the next.<\/p>\n
Even a well-designed academy can lose its impact when it is delivered. Many leaders do not apply what they have learned \u2013 no matter how capable and motivated they are. In our experience, there are three main barriers.<\/p>\n
The programme is disconnected from leaders\u2019 daily reality. Avoid this by talking systematically to both senior management and employees at several levels before you design the programme. We typically speak to 30 people or more \u2013 and the insights often bring surprises.<\/p>\n
The academy becomes an HR project rather than a business imperative. Involve key leaders in the question “why are we investing?” and let them sign off the objectives and design. Make sure participants\u2019 line managers both pave the way and show the way when the learning is put into practice.<\/p>\n
Leaders do not apply what they have learned in their daily work. Design the programme as close to leaders\u2019 real situations as possible, and use a mix of “push” (such as 360-degree feedback before and after) and “pull” (tools that fit leaders\u2019 own challenges). AI sparring with CLAI<\/a> can also help leaders prepare for and reflect on critical situations as they arise.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Together with Unifeeder, People & Performance developed Unifeeder Academy \u2013 a tailored programme for key employees in operations management and business development. The academy created a shared understanding of the company\u2019s values and operating principles and gave practical tools to lead and develop the business and its people. Read the Unifeeder case (in Danish) \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n Free e-book<\/p>\n In the e-book Three Strategic Choices for Leadership Academies<\/em>, we walk through the three choices and the six questions with real-life examples. You will receive part 2 on the barriers afterwards.<\/p>\nWhat it looks like in practice<\/h2>\n
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