How to evaluate the impact of Leadership Training and Development

by Mark Evenden

At Developing People, we understand the importance of measuring the impact that a leadership training and development programme has on an organisation, as the “acid test” of any investment whether in leadership development or new product or service, is the results it produces.

The key to the evaluation of a leadership development programme is to be clear at the design stage what the organisation is expecting to achieve as a result of its investment. For example, does the organisation wish to:

* Increase profits?
* Increase productivity of staff?
* Reduced mistakes/quality problems?
* Increased sales or market share?
* Reduce staff turnover?

By setting out the outcomes expected form the leadership development programme different ‘levels’ of evaluation can subsequently be made.

1) Organisation – The highest level of evaluation can be assessed via the organisation’s own metrics (e.g. profitability, sales growth, market share etc). However, there needs to be a clear line of sight between these measures and others that link to them.
2) Team. The first link is at the team or departmental level. What impact does the programme need to have on team performance, and targets? These may be for example, improved levels of customer satisfaction (increasing sales), improved product margins through better negotiation (increasing profitability), reduced absence rates and staff turnover Reducing costs).
3) Individual. The next link in the evaluation is individual performance and behaviour. How do leaders need to behave and what skills do they need in order to increase motivation and engagement to provide better customer service (for example)? This can be measured through achievement of personal as well as observations on behaviour via 360 feedback appraisals.

By providing a clear line of sight linking individual behaviour, through team behaviour and on to organisational outcomes, an the impact a leadership development programme has had can be readily assessed and evaluated.