What Is a Leadership Development Plan?

Looking back at my military career, I realize I spent significant time developing leaders, especially when I joined the Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit. I would get excited whenever I spotted leadership potential in my team and would immediately set about drafting development plans with them. Today, in my entrepreneurial journey, leadership development is still one of my most valued business management aspects and strong suits. 

A leadership development plan is a scheme designed to create a pool of the best leaders in your business. It should bring out the best in your current leaders by further enhancing their skills and experiences. Use it also to tap promising individuals keen on taking on leadership roles. 

In this article, we’ll talk about what a leadership development plan is all about and what benefits you can enjoy if you have it up your sleeve. I’ll also let you in on the biggest mistakes most companies make when developing their leadership development plans so you can avoid making these same blunders. Then, I’ll guide you through the simple steps in designing your own leadership plan. 

Leadership Development Plan Defined

A leadership development plan is a detailed scheme designed to help aspiring leaders develop their skills, as well as aid current leaders advance in their careers so they can be better equipped to handle higher leadership roles. It’s a tool you can utilize as you progress in your career and enjoy professional growth. 

Biggest Mistakes with Leadership Development Plans

Leadership development doesn’t happen spontaneously — it’s a work in progress that requires businesses to adopt a more proactive approach to identifying leadership potential and developing leadership skills. 

In 2015, about $160 billion was spent by US companies alone and roughly $356 billion globally on workforce training and education. However, returns on investments weren’t favorable because there were no significant improvements in work efficiency, leadership techniques, and organizational performance.

Below are some of the identified culprits that render leadership development plans ineffective:

• Vague goals and unclear direction. This often leads to conflicting priorities and allows leaders and employees to concoct their own assumptions and objectives. It’s like giving unclear directions to your guests for your birthday party venue. Most of them will arrive late if they’re forced to waste time getting lost and asking for directions. Some may even be no-shows. 
• Lack of support from higher management. The know-how and experiences of seasoned leaders are crucial in developing upcoming leaders. Mentorship and coaching are among the most effective leadership development strategies, along with experiential training and immersion. Hearing something straight from the horse’s mouth is bound to be accurate and valuable information. 
• Lack of collaboration across business teams and functions. Developing leaders in, say, your sales department requires coordination with your marketing team. Leadership development necessitates excellent communication between relevant entities. Think about the last time you had an executive medical checkup. All bases had to be covered to ensure your health is in top form. 

What Makes a Good Leadership Development Plan

A good leadership development plan typically includes these elements:

• Clear, well-defined goals (short-term and long-term)
• Career analysis
• Training assessment
• Key performance indicators (KPIs)
• Specific action plans
• Established metrics
• Timelines
• Feedback tools

Here are some aspects you may want to focus on when creating your leadership development plan:

• Leadership styles
• Communication styles
• Motivation strategies
• Decision-making techniques 
• Key leadership competencies: conflict resolution, strategic thinking, etc. 

Benefits of Having a Good Leadership Development Plan

Creating the best leadership development plan for your business requires time, money, careful planning, and effort. If you arm yourself with the right strategies and adequate tools and support, you can establish a culture of excellence, empowerment, and teamwork where your workforce will feel valued, inspired, and inspired to reach their full potential.

A good leadership development plan will expose you to these gains:

• Enhanced job satisfaction
• Heightened sense of fulfillment 
• Increased self-confidence and credibility
• Evolution of a more impactful career
• Efficient sharing of organizational know-how
• Enhanced innovation and creativity
• A robust team of leaders
• Motivated and inspired workforce
• Enhanced productivity
• Success in building a solid reputation for yourself as an excellent leader

How To Create a Leadership Development Plan 

Leadership development programs are essential in forging the leaders of the future. It’s a way to ensure that your business will always be in good hands.

Here are the basic steps in creating your own leadership development plan:

1. Assess Your Current Situation

The first step is to assess your current situation and circumstances. 

Are you happy where you are? 

Are you content with what you’ve accomplished? 

Do you feel like you could do more? 

You might want to ask these questions at this stage to determine whether engaging in a leadership development program is indeed for you.

Make a list of your strengths and weaknesses. Identify areas of improvement and your usual shortcomings either as an employee or a leader. Armed with all this information, you become more self-aware, realistic, and sensible about how you would handle your professional growth. This is also how you can start determining the leadership styles you want to adopt in your career. 

It‘s also a  good idea to clearly recognize your company’s culture — how people interact, communicate, and get things done. One company’s culture may differ greatly from another’s. As a leader, respecting your organization’s culture to promote collaboration, synergy, and seamlessness in achieving common goals is essential.  

2. Set Your Goals

Goal-setting is the core of leadership development plans. Without them, you would have no clear idea of where you’re going and how to get there. At this stage, it’s essential to identify the critical leadership competencies that will be the foundation of your leadership development plan. 

Here are some of the key leadership competencies every leader must work on enhancing:

Competencies for Leading a Team

• Decision-making
• Conflict resolution
• Managing change
• Communication skills
• Integrity, trust, and honesty
• Cultural intelligence
• Digital intelligence

Competencies for Leading Oneself

• Agility and willingness to adapt to change
• Self-management
• Discipline
• Time management
• Accountability

Make sure you set SMARTER (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound; Evaluate and Readjust) goals in your leadership development plan.

3. Develop an Action Plan

Now, it’s time to design your leadership development plan. There are many ways to do it, and there really is no right and wrong way. What’s crucial is that you develop an action plan best suited to the participants’ unique needs. 

Consider any of these leadership development strategies:

Self-Assessment

Recruiting new talents into your leadership development program can improve employee motivation and retention. By encouraging them to undergo self-assessment, you can help them become more hands-on in their own development as a leader and enhance their sense of responsibility and accountability for their actions and the corresponding consequences and results. 

Mentoring

A good mentorship program effectively facilitates the transfer of organizational know-how, strategies, and culture between seasoned managers and upcoming leaders. 

Mentors benefit by enjoying the opportunity to further sharpen their leadership competencies, while mentees benefit by experiencing the support and guidance of those they can look up to and emulate in their careers. The organization benefits, too, since mentorship promotes loyalty and boosts engagement and productivity.

Outdoor Training

Who would’ve thought spending time in the great outdoors would be incredibly beneficial to your leadership career? Activities like camping, mountain climbing, biking, and whitewater rafting are fun and effective ways to bring out the best in your workforce. Nature provides excellent training grounds for enhancing skills such as:

• Critical-thinking
• Problem-solving
• Self-awareness
• Decision-making
• Empathy
• Resilience

We at Sancus Leadership are eager to help you level up your leadership game. We’ll take you to the most beautiful and stimulating outdoor locations so you can learn more about your strengths, limitations, and untapped potential. When you’re ready to take that first step toward becoming a better leader, book a free leadership call with us right away so we can start planning your leadership journey.

Final Thoughts

A good leadership development plan is a roadmap containing an overview of what you want to achieve, where you want to be within a specific period, and clear instructions on how to get there. It’s never too late to further develop your leadership competencies or, if you’re still on the fence about taking a stab at that promotion, to take that first step in embracing a leadership role. 

The sooner you start, the better, and a well-crafted leadership development plan will be your key to success.