Modularity Vs. Cultivation In Leadership

A number of years ago I discovered that "Leadership Development" doesn't work.

It has an 80% Failure Rate.

The rest only has "varied success".

Based on my "generous" calculations, that means $315 Billion is wasted by organizations every year - In reality, it is likely closer to $347 Billion wasted if we are being more accurate.

It isn't for a lack of good people in the industry, trust me, I know many extremely dedicated and wonderful people who I deeply respect within the industry.

So if it isn't the people that are the problem, then what is?

I've discovered that it is actually the "approach" that is the problem.

The Modularity Problem

See, most of the Leadership Development industry looks like Modular Houses.

There are factories that design pieces of "Leadership".

Businesses say, "Hey, our Leadership Team needs this piece!"

Then, someone delivers that "Module" to the business.

After delivery, that business tries to figure out how to fit that module into what they have.

However, this ends up being the problem!

Each module that they purchase wasn't designed to fit into the other modules they have previously built before.

In fact, some modules aren't even designed for the environment that business is in.

It would be like taking a house module that was designed for the Desert and placing it in a Polar region.

Or taking a module designed for flat land and placing it on a mountainside.

Plus, some Leaders literally can't function within many of the modules that have been obtained.

It simply doesn't work.

You end up getting a building that you would "think" has all the right modules, but doesn't actually accomplish what is needed.

The Cultivation Solution

Instead of looking at Leadership Modularly, I have found that it works better to approach it through Cultivation.

We need to assess the environments that we are in and want to flourish.

We need to understand what types of Leaders will function well within this environment.

We need to make sure that the Leaders all are getting the essentials (just as plants need water and sunlight).

Two of the critical components here that are missing from most organizations are Stress Resilience/Repair and Group Flow Development.

Both of these require understanding the Psychophysiology and what I call the Core of Leadership.

Neither of these are Skills that can be taught.

We then need to work with the Leaders and help them grow as is appropriate to where they are within the environment, where they want to get to, and what works best within the organization overall.

We need to make sure we put the right types of people in the right types of teams.

At times we will need to trim and prune Leaders and teams to make sure things grow in an appropriate manner that allows everything to thrive.

Final Note

If you want your organization to succeed at the highest levels, you can't rely on "cookie-cutter" modular designs to build your Leaders.

The decades of results show it simply doesn't work.

Modular designs simply don't have the capacity to take into account the various types of Leaders and environments that exist.

To Thrive, you need to understand what the environment is that you have, the Leaders that exist, how they can best grow, and understand the Leadership Team that you want to grow.

You need to Cultivate your Leaders.

To do this most effectively, you need to have an understanding of how to build Stress Resilience, Repair Stress Damage, and create Group Flow.

All of these things can be tracked, measured, and improved when you understand how to cultivate them well.

Start Cultivating your Leaders so that they can become Legendary.