Leadership Development Culture

Nobody believes that leadership can be developed in just one day. Thus, every organization provides frequent training opportunities so that their employees can develop their leadership. However, leadership training tends to focus far more on instructors and content rather than on employees themselves and their development. Given this, approaches to leadership development should be simpler so that employees will have more time to actually look into themselves. Another perspective to consider is that just as business environments and working conditions are changing, corporate training environments are also changing after the government reduced the workweek to 52 hours. Thus, the time has come where efficiency and productivity are crucial. In this rapidly changing environment, leadership development should evolve with industry trends.

We would like to ask some questions that HR professionals in Korean corporations need to think about. First, leadership will of course retain its importance, but should leadership development methodology remain the same as well? Second, if not, what should the new methodology be? Based on our cumulative experience from countless corporate trainings and consulting projects, we think there are two critical factors to consider. First, without voluntary participation, developing one’sl eadership is almost impossible, because leadership comes from within, not from outside. Second, leadership is basically about self-reflection and self-training. Thus, when corporations provide workshops, they may think that these will suffice as leadership development for their employees; however, this couldn’t be further from the case, as leadership training is not enough unless it becomes internalized and thus part of the culture.

Leadership trainings have typically focused on the instructors’ lectures, explanations,and delivery. However, to effectively develop leadership, it is important to create an environment in which learners can demonstrate their own initiative and can frequently apply the skills and content they are learning to real,everyday situations. In this instance, the HR department's role is not just to deliver leadership training content, but to provide an environment where employees have access to voluntary, hands-on learning. That is why leadership development is more about creating a new learning culture rather than providinga one-time training. Thus, we think that the new leadership development culture should move on to what is actually more important: more self-reflection, listeningto feedback, and specific applications to the workplace.  

Of course, this does not mean that employees can develop their leadership alone while HR does not doanything. As always, HR’s role is crucial to creating a culture. HR departments should continue in their efforts to define the capabilities required by employees and then diagnose the employees. After identifying their level of competence, the HRdepartment should help them develop their leadership. What should the HR department do specifically to help employees effectively develop leadership? Methods will vary, but tutorials on YouTube can be a great source of information. OnYouTube, you can search for the information you need to use in real life, andapply it immediately. This latter part is especially helpful in developing leadership: simple and practical application is key.

In the age of smart work, training also needs to be smarter. Suppose we have a two-day course, and it's difficult for both learners and their teams for them to take time off from work. How long do you think employees will be able to fully concentrate on their course? They will be continually distracted by business calls or accumulating mobile e-mail messages. Furthermore, there’s only so much you can absorb in one sitting. In addition, the two-day course will be general information aimed at everyone, while, in reality, individuals will have different leadership levels and development needs.

Given the aforementioned problems, Micro-learning—that is, learning through 5-to-7 minute videos or readings—is a recommended way to develop leadership. When measuring the effectiveness of training, it is common to evaluate worksite application. Because it is difficult to apply what has been learned to the field, continuous and repetitive learning is preferable to a one-time training. Thus, Micro-learning can be more effective in creating behavioral changes since it is possible to view the training content repeatedly if necessary when thinking about how to apply lessons learned to the field. Let’s not forget that leadership should be less formal training and more self-reflection andself-training.

However, based on ourexperiences, the most important factor in whether a training is effective is the learners' willingness. In order to increase levels of willingness, corporations should inform employees about the available training courses for whatever leadership skills they need, and then let them choose their own courses rather than holding a course in-house and designating people to participate in the training. The effort expended and the level of satisfaction is always much higher in training courses that emphasize willingness. Supporting employees in making and participating in aCoP (Community of Practice), in which employees autonomously create a learning organization and learn from each other, is also one of the most effective ways to develop leadership. The HR department doesn’t need to make employees gather and attend classes. What it has to do is help employees learn about what they need. We mentioned YouTube and Micro-learning as possible tools, but these are of course not the only tools. What is more important than the specific tools needed is that a culture of leadership development is built.

All in all, the object of leadership development is to develop the self. The trainings should be short; the time given to reflect should be longer. Ultimately, leadership development culture is what decides how effective leadership development is iny our organization. However, since leadership development is a type of culture, it is not easy for corporations to really look at themselves, as organizational habit makes them assume that what they have been doing is what they should keep doing. Organizations are open systems, which means that no matter how hard they try to protect themselves from being influenced by the outside world, it isimpossible to remain isolated. One strategy that will guide them towards longer and more successful periods of performance is to build a stronger culture. Korean corporations, let’s create leadership development cultures in which your companies can trump world competitors.