Corporate Leadership Development Programs That Change Behavior | CAS

A corporate leadership development program has to survive real feedback

What makes a corporate leadership development program change behavior? Start with what happens when a capable leader receives feedback she cannot use. Lauren was a director at a marketing firm who delivered results, moved fast, and solved difficult problems. Her manager told her she was “hard to work with.” No example. No useful description of what she should change. Just a label.

She was furious when she came into our coaching session. I could see why. A corporate leadership development program could have put Lauren in a communication module, given her a worksheet, and sent her back to the same office. She still wouldn't have known how her colleagues experienced her.

When a label turns into information

We talked about the distance between her intention and her impact. Lauren wanted excellent work. Her clipped responses and little room for mistakes were making some people hesitant to speak up. She asked colleagues for direct feedback about where she helped and where she made their work harder. What they told her was more useful than the label.

She didn't become a different person. She paused before responding and asked one more question before giving her view. She paid attention to how those small changes landed. As I recount in my book, colleagues began coming to her more readily. Her experience shows why a development program needs feedback people can use, a specific behavior to try, and the time to try it again.

What a program must make possible

Start with the work a leader actually faces. Name a change another person could notice. Let the leader practice with a real situation, hear how it went, and adjust. Include the leader's manager in that follow-up. If the organization keeps rewarding the old habit, address that too.

Completion rates have their place. For leadership behavior change, ask employees what happens differently in meetings and decisions. Be willing to hear that the first attempt did not land.

The Expansion Leadership System is designed to connect development with applied work. If you're deciding what kind of support to build, read leadership training vs leadership development.

If your program ends with a certificate, what will Lauren's colleagues have to say on Monday? Build the program for that answer.