10 strategies to elevate your leadership development programmes

Before we dive in, let’s acknowledge one big assumption I’m making: you’ve already chosen a fantastic partner (or partners) to co-create your leadership development and talent programmes. A partner who understands the challenges facing today’s leaders, excels at driving behavioural change, and has a delivery team with the expertise, credibility, and talent you need.

Right, now that’s covered, let’s talk about what else will make your programme a roaring success.

1. Be crystal clear on the why
   Everyone involved – you, your partners, stakeholders, and delegates – needs to have absolute clarity on why the programme exists. What specific change are you aiming for? How will it support your strategic priorities? What difference will it make to the business and to the delegates personally? And how does it align with their individual and team goals?
2. Engage your senior sponsors
   Let’s be realistic – you won’t get all your senior leaders actively supporting a leadership or talent programme, but you do need a core group. They should be visible, engaged, and actively champion the change you’re working towards. Start by finding creative ways to involve them in the content, giving them structured opportunities to connect with delegates, and equipping them with programme stories they can share. Change often starts with shifting the narrative.
3. Having a forum for ideas to be heard, developed, and actioned
   One common reason organisations miss out on the full impact of development programmes is a lack of follow-through on new ideas. Great learning, done well, sparks innovation. It massively boosts problem-solving capacity. To harness this, set up regular forums where new ideas can be explored, developed, and implemented.
4. Create a platform for unwelcome truths to be discussed
   Beyond fresh ideas, outstanding development programmes create space for people to surface the uncomfortable truths – the elephants in the room. They find the courage to highlight business challenges that have been brushed aside for too long. Regular, open forums for discussing these truths, with empowered leaders committed to positive change, can be transformative.
5. Develop a courageous learning culture
   For meaningful change, organisations need to embrace agility and a willingness to learn. This starts with recognising and building on strengths, while also being comfortable addressing what’s gone wrong – at personal, team, and organisational levels. It’s about valuing learning over being right and fostering a culture of psychological safety and continuous improvement.
6. Champion a culture of feedback and coaching
   One of the most common frustrations of high-potential talent is a lack of valuable feedback and coaching from their leaders. Providing high-quality feedback and coaching requires both a mindset and skillset – and most senior leaders lack both. Support your programme by developing your engaged leaders, equipping them to play a meaningful role in nurturing the next generation of leaders.
7. Implement an aspirational recruitment process for your programme
   To ensure your investment delivers maximum impact, make your programme something people aspire to join. Move away from programmes that employees are passively ‘sent on’ based on their job level. Instead, create a recruitment process where candidates must demonstrate why they deserve the opportunity. This approach encourages them to fully commit to the learning, creating a much more impactful experience.
8. Align processes and rewards with your behavioural goals
   Your organisational processes and incentives need to reinforce the behaviours you’re trying to embed. For instance, collaboration won’t increase if you’re only rewarding individual performance. Align your goals and processes with the desired changes and recognise leaders who model the right behaviours – this makes the whole programme more cohesive.
9. Embed ongoing reinforcement
   Change doesn’t happen in a single moment. How often have you attended a programme, left with big ambitions, and then forgotten everything within weeks? Budget for regular follow-up interventions – events that revisit and build on the core learning while expanding participants’ growth.
10. Take time to reflect, think and breathe
    In our task-driven culture, ticking off to-do lists can feel great – but constant busyness doesn’t make for great leadership or effective learning. If you’re investing in development, also invest in giving people time. Time to read, reflect on feedback, connect with peers, and experiment with new approaches. This space is where real change takes root. And if you’re feeling resistance to this idea – thinking, “that’ll never work here” – it’s a sign that it’s all the more crucial.

Here’s the truth: when leadership development is done well, it’s transformational for both individuals and organisations. But it can’t happen in isolation. Success requires collaboration between senior leaders, L&D and talent teams, delivery partners, and delegates. Staying focused on your mission and determined to create something extraordinary will leave a lasting legacy – changing lives and transforming organisations.