How Not to Develop Leaders - and How to Do It Right

"A failure to execute on strategy and change organizational behavior is rooted not in individuals' deficiencies but, rather, in the policies and practices created by top management". - Professor Michael Beer, Harvard Business School

What are the primary factors that make training ineffective? The Harvard study points to:

• Unclear direction on strategy, leading to conflicting priorities among business functions.
• Senior leaders who "don't work as a team" and create a "top-down" culture where obstacles to effectiveness go unacknowledged.

In other words, a lack of strategic clarity and support from leadership renders training useless. You might as well inject yourself with inert saline solution in hopes of preventing disease—it won't work.

How is this so? Because of this typical scenario:

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