The Leadership Workout

Leadership as a practice

The Author

Though companies around the world are spending close to $50 billion annually on leadership development programs, I know I am not alone when I say that I strongly believe that most of that spend is a complete waste of money as most of these initiatives fail in their efforts to create effective leaders.

In fact, research by McKinsey suggests that circa 90% of companies doubt the effectiveness of their own leadership development initiatives. However, absent good measurement and a solution, they continue to spend on the very same workshops and programs as they simply cannot risk hurting the future of their company by not investing in the development of their succession pipeline.

There are various reasons that undermine the effectiveness of these leadership development initiatives, but in my opinion the main culprit is that most programs do not have the tools and infrastructure to enable and support their participants in the process of successfully implementing the new and desired behaviors and then developing them into new habits. As a result these programs fail to create lasting personal change, which should be the ultimate goal of any leadership development initiative.

Fostering and maintaining those desired new behaviors to become a better leader amidst the pressures of everyday leadership requires conscious, ongoing practice. Without that practice, most people slip back into their default behaviors even if they possess the skills necessary to effectively do things differently.

And that is why I wrote The Leadership Workout : I wanted to provide a framework for a daily practice which enables and support aspiring and existing leaders to make the necessary, lasting behavioral changes to become more effective leaders. To move from leadership development theory to action.

To illustrate this, I like to compare the purpose and intended impact of this book to that of a personal trainer:

Many people hire a personal trainer to both help maintain their commitment to regular physical exercise as well as to benefit from a more personalized approach to address their specific training needs. Similarly, The Leadership Workout provides you with a practical framework which first of all encourages you to regularly make the time to work on your leadership development. In addition, it seeks to do so in a way that connects the theory with the reality of YOUR leadership to help you understand where you may be undermining your leadership effectiveness and how to implement new desired behaviors to improve it.

Obviously, just as you have to show up and do the exercises to see the benefits of your physical workouts, you will have to actually work through the exercises in the book to reap the benefits of The Leadership Workout. However, if you do then I’m fairly certain that your leadership effectiveness will improve.