Leadership Development Tracking

𝗠𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 I've been asked this at least 3 times in the last two months. "How do I know that my leaders are improving?" This is where we distinguish knowing from application. 10% of capability comes from learning from formal sources. 20% comes from networks and interactions. 70% comes from application to portfolios and projects. One thing that sets this all apart are data points. Even if I apply skills to my projects, how do I know I did it well? Most large companies have a 360-degree or leadership assessment process in place. So, I'll share my thought process for this in case you are attempting to develop this for your own organization. Step 1: Determine organizational strategy and business outcomes. This is necessary to align expectations of desired behaviors. This is where a Balanced Scorecard can come in handy. Step 2: Assess expectations of leaders. You'll then assess them across leadership behaviors for new, mid and even senior managers. Granularity of differences supports focus and clarity. Often, a list of pre-existing behaviors/competencies are used to make the exercise easier. Validated psychometric tools such as the 16PF help to anchor it to scientific rigor. Organizational psychologists like me conduct surveys to gather insights. Then, focus groups are used to drill down to details information. After that, we'll create categories basedon the information and produce working behavior-based definitions. Step 3: Prioritize the list Now, the leadership team decides which behaviors are more important by way of ratings. Step 4: Build the 360 We then build a 360-degree feedback survey questions. These questions are reviewed for validity. Step 5: Allocate the survey A system specializing in the 360 (there are many) can be used. Feedback Recipient selects 6 to 12 people to rate them. In organizations, to avoid selection bias, leaders of the feedback recipient can review and veto the people doing the rating. Then, the participant does the survey too (self-rating) Step 6: Debrief of survey Usually, participants need guidance from a trained coach who understands feedback requirements. This is to provide grounding and objective input. Often, 360 surveys tend to be met with resistance unless the coach is skilled in facilitating the reflection conversation. Step 7: Action Planning The participant then produces a set of actions for improvement. This plan and the priority of focus should be made known to the feedback givers. Step 8: Pulse Surveys After a designated time (within 6 to 12 month period) a validated pulse survey is set up for the observers to rate improvement in specific behaviors. Step 9: Continued Leadership Coaching, Mentoring and Peer Support A combination of these can be used to enhance development. Step 10: Final Comparison Survey Toward the end of the year, a comparison survey is done to see how the key areas have improved or not. ---

90% of VP and C-suite leaders are measuring the wrong things. And then wonder why their impact has stalled. They track revenue, headcount, and deliverables. You cannot manage what you do not measure. And most senior leaders are measuring effort, not impact. These 18 KPIs change that: 🎭 TEAM PERFORMANCE ↳ Team Output vs. Capacity Ratio shows at what point your team will burn out ↳ Delegation Rate tracks how much you are doing the work yourself ↳ Direct Report Development Rate measures whether the people you lead are growing 🗣️ COMMUNICATION EFFECTIVENESS ↳ Message Clarity Score reveals whether how successful your communication is ↳ Meeting-to-Decision Ratio tracks how often your meetings produce clear next steps ↳ Upward Communication Frequency measures how often problems are brought your way 🤔 DECISION MAKING ↳ Decision Turnaround Time shows how quickly your team can move without a sign-off ↳ Reversals and Escalations Rate flags how often decisions made without you go wrong ↳ Strategic vs. Reactive Decision Split tracks how you spend your thinking time 💪 INFLUENCE & STAKEHOLDER IMPACT ↳ Stakeholder Alignment Score measures whether the people around you are consistently bought in ↳ Sponsorship and Advocacy Rate tracks how often senior leaders are championing your work ↳ Cross-Functional Initiative Success Rate shows how your influence spreads 🤝 TEAM CULTURE & RETENTION ↳ Voluntary Turnover Rate in your team reflects whether you have built a safe environment ↳ Psychological Safety Index shows whether your team speaks up or stays quiet ↳ Accountability Follow-Through Rate measures whether commitments are kept 🙋♀️ PERSONAL LEADERSHIP PERFORMANCE ↳ Focus-to-Noise Ratio tracks how much time you spend on high-leverage leadership  ↳ Energy and Capacity Trend reveals whether your leadership is sustainable ↳ Impact per Hour shows whether your results are growing in proportion to the hours you put in The goal is not to track everything. The goal is to track the right things consistently. Most senior leaders are measuring effort. These 18 KPIs measure what moves leadership forward. How do you measure your impact as a leader? Drop it in the comments. Save this cheat sheet and review it in your next leadership planning session. Every weekday, I publish a short leadership video inside The 5-Minute Leader newsletter, Where I coach you through real leadership situations, and challenges, using essential frameworks. Subscribe here: https://lnkd.in/ezCguzc7 ♻️ Repost this for a senior leader who is ready to lead by the right numbers. And follow me, Cicely Simpson, for leadership content built for the level you are operating at.

Most leadership programs end with feedback forms. If your CEO asked for the 💰 money slide, Would you have anything to show? Here’s the reality: attendance isn’t impact. Smiles and surveys don’t prove ROI. Here’s where ROI starts: ☑️ Start with business strategy, not just learning objectives. ↳ Programs should be designed to accelerate organizational priorities, not just learning hours. ☑️ Embed development into the work itself so growth shows up in real time. ↳ Impact should be measured in project delivery, cost savings, quality of execution, and leaders’ ability to grow and guide their teams. ☑️ Prepare leaders for responsibilities beyond their current role. ↳ Growth is proven when leaders step up successfully into bigger challenges, not when they sit in classrooms. ☑️ Measure outcomes with real metrics, not fluff. ↳ Track improvements in retention, promotion readiness, decision speed, or customer satisfaction. ↳ If you can’t measure it, you can’t prove ROI. ☑️ Reinforce learning through coaching and accountability until new habits stick. ↳ Sustained behavior change is the only way leadership investments translate into long-term ROI. This is when the impact becomes clear. You see sharper judgment, stronger execution, ready successors, and market-ready teams. That’s the money slide boards and executives are looking for. As the article pointed out, too many organizations still approach leadership development with yesterday’s playbook. In business, the “money slide” is the single slide in a presentation that proves value, the ROI that executives are really looking for. Too often, instead of proving value, organizations fall back on the old playbook: 📚 more courses, 🕒 more hours, 📊 more frameworks. But impact doesn’t come from volume. It comes from alignment, design, and outcomes. Here’s my take: the future of leadership development won’t be judged by how much training content is delivered. It will be judged by how much capability is created and how quickly that capability moves the business forward. That’s the shift executives are hungry to see. ♻️ Repost if you’re investing in people, not just tech. Follow Janet Perez for Real Talk on AI + Future of Work

We tracked 20 leaders through twelve months of data-driven coaching. The results spoke clearly:  📈 78% improved their Leadership NPS by at least 25 points 🗣️ 64% received stronger team feedback after structured reflection sessions 📊 59% built measurable trust through transparent communication metrics ⚡ 82% saw higher retention within their direct teams The insight was hard to ignore. Data didn’t replace empathy, but it revealed blind spots leaders couldn’t see. Take one example. → A senior leader began the program with a Leadership NPS of +5. → His team described him as decisive but distant, consistent but disconnected. → He assumed it was a performance issue. The data showed it was a 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 issue. Over twelve months, he tracked one simple metric every week, → “How safe does my team feel giving me feedback?” → He started hosting open office hours, shared weekly reflections, and acted visibly on input. The shift was remarkable. → By month twelve, his NPS hit +35. → His 1:1 satisfaction scores rose by 42%. → And his team’s voluntary turnover dropped to nearly zero. That’s what happens when coaching stops being abstract and starts being accountable. When you blend measurable data with human understanding, growth becomes visible. Leadership isn’t intuition alone. It’s insight in motion. And the best leaders don’t just ask, “How am I doing?” They ask, “What does the data say?” Because you can’t improve what you don’t measure. Are you tracking how your leadership actually impacts your team?

Saturday is a good day for reflection. Here's something to think about: Do you know the real return on investment of your leadership development initiatives? Measurement is not optional 🤷♀️ . If you want leadership development to be real, durable and connected to the business, you need a structured approach that helps you see the return. ⚠️ A word of caution- the return may not be evident immediately, which is why we need a longitudinal approach to measurement. 👩🎓 I am a fan of The Learning Transfer Evaluation Model (LTEM) ( by Will Thalheimer). Instead of just asking if people liked the training or learned something new, LTEM asks whether they actually apply what they’ve learned- and whether it leads to real performance improvement. The key idea is simple: It’s not enough for people to attend or 'learn'- we need to know if they’re doing things differently and getting better outcomes. .... 📹 I have uploaded of short video, with an explanation of how I measure my own coaching programmes at individual level. You will hear me talk about psychometric assessment and facilitated self-assessment. You will hear me say why the latter is far more powerful... 📏 If we want to help people to feel more confident and competent in their role, we need a benchmark of where they are now....and their progress over months and even years. 💡 Self-assessment can be repeated at intervals so we can see the person’s own view of their growth - not just what they did, but how they feel they’ve changed. ..... While I don't mention it in this video, there is more to measurement than self-assessment over time. It's important to capture changes in performance, behaviour, and impact beyond the individual. Ultimately, effective leadership shows up in business outcomes. Depending on the organisation, this might include improvements in employee engagement, team productivity, quality, retention, customer satisfaction, safety, or profitability. By linking behavioural change to these kinds of metrics, we can demonstrate that the coaching programme isn’t just creating better leaders- it’s creating better business performance. Have you any tips on measuring leadership development initiatives? Leave your comments below 🙏 PS. Subscribe here to my Youtube channel if you want to be notified of every video I post: https://lnkd.in/eC7a5uzA

𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗮 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗽. 𝗜𝘁’𝘀 𝗮 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺. We invest billions in “leadership,” yet many programs stop at inspiration and never reach behavior change. Effective training is the one that translates to results—for the leader, the team, and the business. 3 Signs Your Leadership Training Actually Works 1. Goals → Behavior → Results: Clear objectives, visible habit shifts, measurable business impact. 2. Practice + Feedback Loops: Reps, reflection, and real-time coaching—until the new way becomes the default. 3. Context Fit: Content built for your culture and strategy (not a one-size-fits-all slide deck). What High-ROI Programs Build 1. Strategic clarity: Better decisions under uncertainty, stronger alignment to the plan. 2. Presence & trust: Leaders who communicate with calm, intention, and credibility. 3. Coaching muscle: Managers who grow people (and performance) consistently. 4. Adaptability: Teams that navigate change without losing momentum. How to Measure Effectiveness? (so it’s not “soft”) 1. Level 1–4 (Kirkpatrick): Reaction → Learning → Behavior → Results. 2. Track both: 360s, engagement, retention, cycle times, customer/financial KPIs. 3. Baseline → Follow-ups: Measure before, during, and after—then reinforce. Why Many Programs Miss? 1. One-off events, no reinforcement. 2. Generic content, weak exec sponsorship. 3. No metrics, no accountability, no transfer to the job. Make It Stick (Playbook) 1. Diagnose leadership gaps aligned to strategy. 2. Tailor by level (frontline, mid, exec). 3. Blend formats (live, digital, simulations, peer labs). 4. Build application sprints with manager check-ins. 5. Coach, mentor, and measure quarterly. Leadership training becomes “effective” the moment it changes how leaders lead on Monday—and you can see it in the numbers by Friday. 𝗝𝗼𝘀𝗲𝗽𝗵@𝗥𝗜𝗦𝗘𝗨𝗣 ـــــــــــــــــــہ٨ـ Championing Human-Centred Leadership. ↳ Better Human. Better Leader. Better Business #RISEUP #Leadership #HumanSHIP #HumanCenteredLeadership #LeadershipDevelopment #L&D #PeopleStrategy #ManagerTraining #OrgDevelopment #BusinessGrowth #Innovation

Growth You Can Measure Many public speakers talk about growth. You’ve probably heard the familiar lines: 📢 “Growth happens outside your comfort zone.” 📢 “If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you.” 📢 “No pressure, no diamonds.” They’re great soundbites and true in their own way. But here’s the truth: growth isn’t just about being uncomfortable. You can sit in discomfort and not grow. Growth happens when that discomfort drives awareness, change, and action. When you can see and track your progress. In business, we track progress using leading and lagging indicators, and that same mindset applies to personal and professional development. 🔹 Leading indicators are proactive. They’re the signals that show up before results appear. The habits, inputs, and micro-actions that point toward future success. - Hours spent learning something new each week - Number of times you ask for feedback (and actually act on it) - How often you connect with mentors or peers for perspective - The consistency of your follow-through on commitments - Stretch assignments you volunteer for - The frequency of self-reflection, journaling, or recalibrating goals 🔹 Lagging indicators are reactive. They’re the outcomes that follow: promotions, results, certification, recognition, confidence, impact. They’re proof that growth happened… but they show up after the work is done. The challenge? We often measure ourselves only by those lagging indicators, the outcomes we can post, publish, or quantify. But growth is a lot quieter than that. It lives in the consistency, the commitments, and the conversations that no one sees. When you start tracking the leading indicators (your effort, your curiosity, your willingness to evolve), you shift your focus from validation to momentum. So the next time you reflect on your progress, ask yourself: “What am I doing today that my future self will thank me for?” Growth isn’t a one-time achievement. It’s a data trail of small, intentional steps that eventually become transformation. #Leadership #GrowthMindset Becky S. BrownDavid J.P. Fisher Carrie Kretz, M.B.AAideen MurphyBritt GillisArmand Jeffris, MBA