How much is enough to spend?
Budgets are always an issue. Anyone who has ever had to support themselves or run a household, been employed by a business or owned one, understands that financial juggling and management is part of everyday life.
As individuals and leaders, we prioritise what is important and urgent, allocating resources to the areas of greatest need.
Prior to the pandemic, exceptional leadership has always been understood to be a critical part of business success. Leadership gurus such as Simon Sinek, Amy Cuddy, Jim Collins and Brené Brown have built reputations, careers and businesses – their own and others’ – through researching, discussing and teaching leadership.
Since the pandemic, it is increasingly recognised that strong leadership and leadership development are not only important but are now urgent. No longer can CEOs, boards and human resources teams merely give lip service to leadership – it is time to put organisational money where the organisation’s mouth is.
Strong leaders at the top of the pyramid, in executive board rooms and executive teams, are critical. But this, in isolation, is not enough. Strong leaders are required throughout organisations, especially at middle management level, to ensure that the decisions and strategies made at the top are effectively implemented by those in the middle who inspire and lead the rest of the organisation.
How much are you spending on your leadership development? And is it enough? Every year Training magazine and Wilson Learning Worldwide conduct research to track training and development trends. Globally, USD $366 billion is spent across all forms of training and development from compliance, OH&S and regulatory training through to leadership development and executive coaching.
Of course, since the pandemic the way we teach and learn has changed. As noted in a Training post-pandemic survey, ‘Moving to virtual learning was the choice of the vast majority of respondents, with 78 percent choosing that method over self-directed e-learning (18 percent) or trying to continue with classroom learning (4 percent)’.
Just as we are now in the era of hybrid working, we are also in the era of hybrid learning. Learning is best when it is self-directed, matched to an individual’s learning style – for example, visual, verbal, auditory or kinesthetic – bite-sized, practical, discussed, embedded and repeated over time.
At Peeplcoach we conducted a short survey and our results reflect the feedback we get from employees and human resources professionals alike. The survey found that 11% of respondents feel that their organisation does not believe in developing people, 33% report that their organisation invests in problem leaders only (remedial) and 34% of organisations might believe in investing in people and leadership but have very limited budgets. The survey also found that 20% of organisations understand the importance of this sort of investment and are starting to invest more, which is encouraging. We would like to continue to gather data so if you could take the time to complete this 5-minute survey, that would be great.
Book a time here if you would like to discuss whether your leadership development plans are sufficient and able to deliver the results you need for your business and teams.
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