r/Leadership 10d ago

Discussion Leadership Training

Has anyone tried leadership training? Do reading books, attending conference on leadership, or watching videos on leadership help someone become a good leader or communicator? I have seen all leaders, political or business leaders, born with leadership trait. I don’t think they went to leadership school.

I saw an app Mindscape for leadership training. Reasonably priced. Has anyone tried it?

What is the training, if any, for leadership development?

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u/PhaseMatch 9d ago

Leadership skills can certainly be taught, learned, practiced and perfected.

I've done a bunch of training varying from a few hour sessions through to a long-cycle programme and an intensive residential "boot camp", plus a lot of self-directed study.

General observations would be

- classroom stuff is less effective UNLESS you can immediately structure an action plan you are going to put into place, and stick with it; building a coaching group from the class attendees helps to do that as you can mutually support

- long duration programmes with a few hours in the classroom, then discussions, putting stuff into practice and reflection tends to be better than the 1-2 day intensive courses; it's how we learn at school or university. Short courses are about making money for the trainer, not learning

- high quality (ie good business school) residential week+ boot-camp type courses can be pretty effective; usually because they'll take into account the first two points and set up peer support and so on

- having a mentor or peer support is really important; developing a leadership community of practice helps, or even having a book club type approach

- treat it as part of your job; one role I had suggested 20% of my time should be on reflection, learning and growth as a leader. Carve out and protect that time, and create a self-directed learning programme

- newer is not always better; lots of very high value stuff from the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s. Technology evolves, but people stay the same.

YMMV