Should I Tailor Leadership Training for Different Levels in My Organization?

I am working on a project at the moment around tailoring Leadership training to the various levels of an organization, specifically:

Operational/ Entry Level

Middle Management

Senior Management

Executive Team

Do you think the offer is different across the different tiers of the organization and how do tailor the offer to meet the needs of the different levels, skills and experiences they will have?

Donna, Melbourne, Australia

Les's answer:

Yes, they absolutely must be different - otherwise you will suffer from a credibility gap on the part of your workforce. There's no quicker way to alienate good employees than by putting them in front of inappropriate or non-actionable training. Here's how the offering should vary:

Operational/ Entry Level

- No leadership training - it's too big a disconnect. Provide training in basic management skills, and look for nascent leaders. Try them out as supervisors so they can progress from there to management.

Middle Management

- Provide mostly management training, with an 'aspirational leadership' module. Include a 'leadership potential' 360 assessment to help identify future leaders.

Senior Management

- High-level management training PLUS action-based leadership training: awareness of leadership styles, minimum expected leadership skills and tools and techniques on how to be a great leader in their specific functional area.

Executive Team

- Advanced leadership training, especially in ethics, ambiguity, peer relationships and institutional innovation. Best if either facilitated by a third party or supplied through a major leadership training body, to avoid amplification of leadership weaknesses in the organization and to supply an airline to the outside world and new ideas / thoughts / trends.

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