How Will Leaders Learn?

Jim Bolt, the Chairman and founder of Executive Development Associates Inc. (EDA), recently wrote that last year EDA conducted a survey of trends in executive development. They asked 100 chief learning officers and heads of leadership-development departments from top companies around the world what learning methods they would use to train leaders over the next two to three years. 75 percent answered that that they would use their own senior executives as faculty.

This is the first time that using senior leaders as faculty was the most popular answer. 43 percent said that using senior leaders as faculty has increased in importance. This sounds like a great plan. Is it?

In a follow-up article, Jim Bolt describes that programs becoming more strategic are what accounts for this change. Companies are specifically defining their training needs and taking into account their unique vision, mission, and culture. Since the programs are internally designed it is logical to have an internal leader deliver it. The extent of the leader’s involvement varies with the need. The leader may only appear to kick off the program, tell personal stories or disseminate best practices. On the other end of the spectrum, the leader may fully co-teach with an outside facilitator.

Unfortunately, many senior executives are not natural teachers or story tellers. In addition, their hectic schedules may prevent them from their teaching duties.

As with any facilitation assignment, good facilitation skills are a must. It’s not just a matter of selecting a leader to do the training, but making sure that leader has the right personality and training to do it.