Measuring Success:
Reporting Leadership Development ROI With Ease

You can report leadership development ROI (return on investment)for your corporate leadership development training programs, and at the same time provide each leader with a customized leadership development plan.

In fact, the process for collecting and reporting ROI and development plans (We call it the Train-To-Ingrain process.) is so simple and do-able I'm amazed that more companies don't use it. I'll share with you how I measure ROI, step-by-step, so that you can do it too.

Here's some of the leadership development ROI-gathering benefits
of the Train-to-Ingrain process:

• Participants are motivated to actively participate. The process creates greater individual accountability.
• Participants are more focused because they get specific insight into their own key strengths and development opportunities.
• Your development program will actually impact on the job performance, helping change leadership behaviors so that team commitment and productivity improve.
• You'll be able to report ROI on the program.
• Your credibility with your CFO and other executives will improve, helping you gain faster budget buy-in for future development programs.

So, you can see, not only can you measure ROI, but you find all sorts of other key development benefits.

Think about a training program you attended recently. Now, recall, how much of the material you actually took back to work and used on the job? Did you know that the average percentage of skills that actually transfer from training class to the job is <20 percent?

Click here to read an article about improving retention and the transfer of training. Throw Them In the River?!

To watch a 3 minute video about leadership development ROI, click here. (Opens a new window.)

Here's a step-by-step how-to gather Leadership Development ROI,
using the Train-to-Ingrain process:

1. First, we use an online 360 feedback tool to get input from the leader's employees, peers and managers. The 360 feedback results provides specific information about this leader's strengths and development oppounities.
2. Next, we review the results with each participant leader either before class or during the first day. (I have a team debrief process that I use that works well. If you'd like to talk through what I do, just contact me.)
3. Each participant creates a development plan by selecting two areas of strength to leverage and two development opportunities to focus on and attack during the program and afterwards, on-the-job. The trainer and the leader's manager should get a copy of this development plan.
4. Participants are informed that the 360 feedback survey will be sent out again in 9 to 12 months, and results and progress will be compared and reviewed.
5. The leadership training programs now begins. Your participants start the program with a better understanding of how their behaviors are impacting others. They're more motivated, involved and focused due to the feedback from the 360 and because of the additional accountability involved with re-surveying.
6. During the training class make sure you provide time to role-play and practice the skills. Interactive programs create the best results.
7. On the last day of training pair each participant with an Accountability Partner, someone they will check-in with on a monthly basis to review their development plans, progress and any bumps in the road.
8. In 9-12 months re-run the 360 Feedback survey and compare the progress, measure ROI.

In a nutshell, you're adding a survey before class and after class so that you have a benchmark of where they are at the start of the program and how well they implemented the information, after the program.

It's a powerful process.

Because it's a different from the standard 'just attend a class' approach - it might seem like alot of steps at first. But, once you experience the impact it makes, you won't ever want to offer training the old way again.

With this process you no longer have the people who need the skills most, sitting in the back of the room playing around. You no longer get questions about the value of your development programs from executives.

You won't spend money on training and not be able to see, measure and report ROI. You'll actually see changes in your leaders. Yea! THAT's what you were after all along, right?

Click here to listen to a 10 minute overview from two of myPriceless Partners Meredith and Denny. They share specific information on the ROI formula you can use in Step 8, above (A new window will open.)

Check out this detailed written overview on the process of measuring leadership development ROI created by my partner Denny for the American Society of Training and Development(ASTD). This is a leadership development ROI PDF and it takes a few minutes to load. (A new window will open.)

Check out these 360 Feedback Errors

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