Get the Most Out of Your Next Leadership Investment: Part 2

Leadership development is an investment. And our goal at FlashPoint is to help our clients maximize their return. In Part 1 of this Leadership Challenge reinforcement series, I introduced four no-cost options—all part of The Leadership Challenge library of books and tools—that help make sure leaders have the resources needed to stay energized and motivated to follow through on their leadership commitments once they’ve completed The Leadership Challenge® Workshop. In addition to ensuring access to external resources, however, we also know that leadership initiatives have a greater chance of success when they are supported internally through executive involvement, communication, and peer advocacy. And in this second article of our series of reinforcement tips and tools, we include seven more no-cost options—this time focused on internal practices you can use immediately to reinforce The Leadership Challenge.

More No-Cost Options to Sustain Learning and Create Lasting Organizational Impact with The Leadership Challenge

• Leverage Peer Coaching and Accountability Partners

Encourage workshop participants to find an accountability partner and schedule regular conversations to keep their leadership Practices alive. Ask them to commit to connect with their partners two to three times following the workshop to share issues and help each other work through challenges.

Why use these resources? These engagements help create a culture of accountability, build strong cross-functional relationships, and increase knowledge sharing.

• Incorporate The Leadership Challenge Language into Communications

Highlight quotes or other leadership messages from The Leadership Challenge in your regular internal communications.

Why use these resources? Creating a common leadership language throughout your organization can reinforce shared values across teams and help foster a culture of learning and improvement.

• Schedule Lunch & Learns

Leverage internal champions as group facilitators for hour-long Lunch-and-Learns. These sessions can be focused on connecting the LPI® behaviors to workplace goals and challenges.

Why use these resources? Lunch-and-Learns provide an easy opportunity for continued learning. They help encourage leaders to set aside time to foster learning and growth, while building community.

• Celebrate and Recognize Program Graduates  

Look for opportunities to celebrate program graduates by listing those who successfully completed The Leadership Challenge Workshop on the organization’s intranet, employee newsletters, or in other communication vehicles. Highlight an individual leader by telling his or her story about how they are applying what they learned back on the job.

Why use these resources? Celebrating leaders’ successes helps reinforce their behavior. It provides an opportunity to recognize that they are making strides with their action plans and encourages them to keep moving forward.

• Create Action Learning Projects to Discuss Business Challenges

Ask participants to work in small groups to identify a current challenge/opportunity for change at your organization, and identify small wins for each of the issues.

Why use these resources? This exercise in leadership provides insight into how participants are modeling the key messages identified in The Leadership Challenge Workshop. This activity also allows leaders to apply The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership® to a current business issue affecting the organization.

• Utilize Program Graduates as Mentors or Presenters

Ask program graduates to come back and share their leadership vision or values with a future group of leaders. This can bring to life the content of the workshop and make the activities relevant within the context of the organization.

Why use this resource? What better way to reinforce concepts than by having program graduates mentor and advise current participants? It provides an opportunity for graduates to re-engage with the material, and also apply it within a real-world context as they mentor current learners.

• Create Ongoing Development Plans

Provide an action planning template to help leaders document their progress. This can be converted into a survey link as well, where you can collect areas of focus for all program participants.

Why use this resource? A development plan not only helps leaders stay accountable to the goals they committed to during the workshop, but it also can be helpful in determining other development needs your leaders may have.

This article originally appeared in FlashPoint Leadership Consulting’s blog, Leadership Insights


Krista Skidmore, Esq. is Partner and Co-founder of FlashPoint, a Global Training Partner of The Leadership Challenge committed to ensuring that leaders truly learn practical skills and improve leadership effectiveness—and that the organizations they serve sees a strong return on investment. Passionate about all things leadership, Krista leads the FlashPoint consulting team to ensure they deliver results to clients with intelligence and integrity. She can be reached at kskidmore@flashpointleadership.com