How to Evaluate a Leadership Development Program

If you want amazing leaders, then you want to get clear on the goals. Your best way forward starts with a thoughtful evaluation of your existing leadership development program. Then clearly identify the goals you expect the engagement to achieve. Finally, you want a way to measure. Remember Pearsons Law - what gets tracked and reported, improves exponentially.

Leadership pipelines and succession planning are a fundamental part of your company's sustainability model. Developing the next generation of leaders is the top challenge for 55% of CEOs according to a 2022 survey. This makes sense because 63% of millennials believe they aren’t being fully developed as leaders by their employers for leadership positions. The majority of businesses acknowledge this relatively important fact. Yet many do not invest in developing their next generation of leaders as often as they should.

Measuring Learning Impact Drives Business Adoption

Imagine having only evaluations claiming people enjoyed the learning! Good for you, yet not great for credibility with the business. Measuring the impact of your leader development program affects 3 key areas. First, business units won't want to fund their leaders development or release them from work. Second, the CEO and CFO see return on investment from every other investment in the business. In fact, less than 4% of CEOs see ROI from training investments. This means if the economy or gas prices or inflation or a war starts up, your learning program gets paused. Often indefinitely or forever.

Third, and most importantly, you want participants to apply what they've learned. Failure to apply is by far the largest waste of human potential. Without application, participants never experience the benefits of changing their behavior. Impact projects are the most effective way to ensure this happens. Impact coaching gets key information on how well your program prepares team members for leadership positions. Also supporting the leader's development priorities. And, of course, solving the hugely important first 2 key areas - winning over BUs and proving ROI.

Define a List of Leadership Qualities and Skills for Your Organization

Your business is unlike any other. Even when you produce similar products or offer similar services, your organization a particular set of values. These values translate into skill sets that dictate how your business operates. Deliberate practice of these specific qualities ensures your leaders are ready to lead. Plus supports the organization maintaining its key differentiating factors. Essential for longevity, scaling smoothly and growth. 

Your Learn2 professional development team supports you. Ensuring you understand and articulate exactly what these desired attributes. An important best practice in developing your most effective leadership development program. 

Understand and Identify Your Leadership Talent

At Learn2, we've seen some natural born leaders. Yet leadership capacity is something you develop. It is developed through engaging programs and application of learning insights. As a team leader, it’s your responsibility – and privilege – to identify development priorities for your leaders. Potential and passion fuel application and impact. Impact coaching provides the support to cultivate both. 

Our Learn2 professional development specialists help you more readily recognize talent. Specifically, who engages with your leadership development programming. And who is practicing deliberately, who creates impact and thus who is ready for challenging assignments. 

What Are Important Metrics in Leadership Development?

Knowing how to measure the effectiveness of your leadership development program is as important as knowing you need to do it in the first place. Our Learn2 team helps you establish which metrics are most helpful to the business unit leaders and executives. Others often focus one only whats relevant to help make changes to the learning program. Our approach to evaluation empowers you to serve the key stakeholders. Of course, customized to current and future organizational goals. So you have results ready to prove you achieve business goals. 

Determine Your Leadership Evaluation Methods

At Learn2, we are all about collaboration. So naturally, your leaders choose our way forward. Here are some of ways we approach the how behind our surveys and feedback:

Qualitative Evaluation of Learning Impact and Needs

• We meet with your leadership team to define the goals and values that matter most. Gaining specific insights into the adoption rate of key qualities. Making sure the timelines prepare the next generation of company leaders.
• We also survey and interview developing leaders you are eager to nurture. All content is configurable so we understand which tools get most applied for success.

Quantitative Evaluation of Learning Impact

• Choosing KPIs, including retention rates, engagement markers and tangible impact of Impact Projects. Allows us to establish what's working and what support is needed. With data, comes insights into which incentives may fuel more effectiveness. And how best to implement support practice to encourage growth.

Implement Development Programs

Evaluation is not an end point. Data lights the way for what to do next. After we gather the data, our Learn2 team members analyze the results. In the Results Calls, you gain insights and ammunition. Then together we create an action plan.

Your ability to hone your learning strategy becomes easy. Because you better understand how your participants engage, practice and apply. This allows you to thoughtly improve your leadership development programs. With our recommendations, you become better equipped to overcome challenges. Plus you begin to seize opportunities to rapidly improve the development of empowered leaders.

Consult a Team of Leadership Development Professionals

Develop the leaders of tomorrow today by evaluating your leadership development programs. Bring them more in line with your organizational goals. Prove the impact of your programs to your business units to gain support and funding. Reach out to our evaluation specialists at Learn2 and open the door to higher productivity, more impactful collaboration and increased sustainability.

Take Action Now!

Calculate your ROI with the Learn2 ROI Calculator here. For more information about Learn2’s leadership development programs with guaranteed ROI, contact us today and embark on a journey toward impactful leadership, measurable results, and sustainable organizational growth.

Only 4% of CEOs report ROI from their leadership programs. Learn2 is built for the other 96%. We measure business impact with the ROI Institute (Phillips) method, tied to a real High Impact Project each leader owns. One RBC leader returned 2100% ROI on a first project. Want the evaluation done by the people behind numbers like that? Start with the ROI Field Guide — a free worksheet that walks you through setting the baseline, choosing the metrics, and putting a dollar figure on every leader's project before you spend another budget cycle.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you evaluate a leadership development program?

Start with the goal, then the competencies, the methods, and the metrics. Set a baseline before the program begins, then measure change at 30, 60, and 90 days against that baseline. The strongest evaluations tie the program to a real business result — a High Impact Project each leader owns — so you can put a dollar figure on the outcome, and not just a smile sheet.

What metrics show a leadership program is working?

Look past whether people enjoyed it. Track behavior change, promotion rates, retention, and hard business results. At Bell, leaders who ran real projects delivered 2.6x to 21x ROI per role, earned 42% more promotions (6% vs 4%), and left 3x less often (2% vs 6%). Those are the numbers a CFO reads.

How do you know if leadership development is effective?

Effective programs move a number the business cares about. Only 4% of CEOs report ROI from typical programs, so the bar is proof, not attendance. Tie each leader to a High Impact Project, measure the portion of value their new way of leading caused, and compare it to the cost. One RBC leader returned 2100% ROI on a first project.

What is the Kirkpatrick vs Phillips model?

Kirkpatrick has four levels — reaction, learning, behavior, and results. Phillips adds a fifth level, ROI, which converts results into a dollar figure and weighs it against program cost. Kirkpatrick tells you the program changed behavior, and Phillips tells you what that change was worth. Learn2 evaluates with the Phillips (ROI Institute) method because it survives a finance review.

How often should you evaluate a leadership program?

Set a baseline before the program starts, then measure at 30, 60, and 90 days. That cadence catches whether the new behavior sticks and whether the business result actually shows up. Review the full program once a year to keep the goals and metrics matched to where the company is going.