Why Leadership Development (And Self-Development) Programs Sound Better Than They Are

Written by a human, for humans, always.

If you have ever looked at any sort of leadership development program...

(Or any self-development program, for that matter)...

You will discover the same thing...

They always sound incredible.

They will say something to the effect of...

Participants got X incredible results in just Y weeks...

Over A% of people (the majority) reported a B% increase in results...

Here are the testimonials where these individuals tell you how this program changed their lives!

Now...

Here's the thing...

People are not lying about what is happening...

At least not directly.

People in the programs really are saying what they believe is right to say is correct.

The statistics are not made up.

Those teaching the programs actually believe they are truly helping people.

No one is purposefully being deceitful.

And...

When push comes to shove...

A year down the line...

People will still be failing at whatever the program was designed to accomplish.

There are reasons why leadership statistics still continue to drop...

There are reasons why people are not flourishing...

There are reasons why these programs appear to be extremely successful...

But people themselves do not become more successful in the long term.

When I began to develop my ideas of Sageship...

It really bothered me how you could see how "amazing" programs were...

How people were not lying about how they felt about these programs...

But still see an 80% "complete" failure rate of leadership development programs...

Despite, at its height, $350 billion being spent on the industry in a year.

The numbers did not make sense...

At least...

Not from a high-level perspective.

Which is why I investigated what was happening more intensely...

To discover the truth.

What is actually happening that can cause people to "believe", honestly and without any intention of deceit, that programs were working...

But then discover a year or two down the line that the money was wasted?

There are a couple of factors at play.

For instance...

What is being measured?

When you look at the statistics that are being obtained in different programs...

What you have to understand is that they are actually designed to get increased results over short periods of time.

(No, most of the people who use these types of surveys do not understand or do this intentionally, so it is not intentional deceit.)

What you have to understand...

Is that survey design has been highly influenced by psychological research.

Over years...

Survey makers have studied how people think...

How they answer questions...

How to use wording to generate specific types of responses...

All in the effort to get better results.

Now...

When people "mimic" these surveys over time...

There is just a specific expectation that surveys "look" and "sound" a certain way...

And most people have no idea that they are exploiting human psychology simply in the design of the surveys.

So...

When people take a "pre" and "post" survey...

Almost always...

The results are better in the "post" than they were in the "pre"...

Because they have a subconscious effect on how we score.

On top of this...

Many people have become excellent at using statistics to tell great stories.

(This one "can" be used intentionally to make things "sound" better than they truly are, so it "can" be seen as deceitful. It is also so common that most people do not "realize" they are being deceitful in the process, and so could be classified as unintentional.)

For instance...

Let's say that you hear that 80% of participants had an increase in X measure.

That statistic sounds really good!

But what if the increase occurred on a 100-point scale...

There were only 5 participants measured in total...

And the increase was from 20 to 25 for 4 of the participants, and the 5th participant went from 20 to 10?

Well, "technically" that is 80% of the participants having increases...

Yet, simultaneously, looking closely at the numbers reveals that the increases were not really that great.

Now, I used a bit of an extreme example here, but this is just one way that statistics are used to tell a story that may sound better than was experienced in reality.

However...

It is not just the surveys that are problematic.

We also have to consider physiologically-induced altered states.

What many people who teach or provide these programs do well...

Is created different physiologically-induced altered states through the program.

They can elicit things like excitement, joy, bliss, empowerment, and sometimes even flow states.

Here's the problem with that...

These physiologically-induced altered states change the perception of the participants...

Making them believe that "they" are significantly better, happier, calmer, and sometimes even healthier...

But the truth is that what they are experiencing is not real change...

Just a different physiological state than they are used to experiencing in life.

Here is the problem...

When they get to the "post" of the programs...

They deeply believe "they" have changed for the better...

Which is why they rate higher on the "post"...

And it is why they are more than happy to leave glowing reviews.

They are not lying...

They truly believe what they are saying...

And...

It will not last...

Because the program (intentionally or unintentionally) created a false environment where the physiological state was experienced...

But when participants get back into the real world...

They discover that the state "disappears"...

And so do the results.

Which lands us on the next problem...

Participants in these programs generally have not had the opportunity to use what they learn in the programs...

Consistently.

Not naturally in the real world...

In situations that are unplanned and unpredictable.

What this means...

Is that usually...

When people do unexpectedly have the opportunity to use what they learn...

They fail to actually use it.

It comes down to two factors that lead to this result...

Habits...

And...

Psychophysiological blocks.

See...

Most of these programs are designed to go through a flurry of skills over a relatively short period of time...

Less than the time required to develop a new habit.

Based on legitimate scientific research (not on the self-development back-of-hand napkin math conducted by non-experts in change psychology)...

It takes, on average, 66 days for new habits to actually be developed.

Few leadership programs go for over 2 months...

And even within those programs, it is rare for anyone to stay committed to a specific habit change for 66 days or more straight.

Usually, new skills are worked on weekly, as the programs develop.

What this means...

Is that none of the skills that are worked through ever become habits.

This becomes a problem...

Because when we are struck in an unexpected moment...

Our bodies go into default mode and regress back to what we use most often...

Which is never the new information or skills that we learned.

So...

Even "when" we begin to have opportunities to utilize the skills...

We do not, because we have not turned any of the skills into habits...

So we reflexively backtrack.

Then...

We also have a problem with psychophysiological blocks...

Which actively prevent us from being able to change.

What are some of the blocks?

Lacking energy (Mg-ATP).

High anxiety.

Burnout.

Depression.

Fear.

Aggitation.

Anger.

Does this list sound familiar?

Does it sound like nearly "everyone's" life constantly these days?

That is because it is nearly everyone's life...

And that is why it is so difficult for change to actually happen.

When we are in these psychophysiological states constantly...

Our brains "physically" become unable to enact change.

So...

You can take all the courses you want...

But if you are not in the right psychophysiological state of being...

The courses will not help with anything.

This is why when I began to develop Sageship, I made the active decision to focus on psychophysiology first.

If you do not fix the psychophysiology...

Change is not possible.

But what I learned over time is that really no one in the world of Leadership Development (or Self-Development) has a strong grasp of psychophysiology.

Many of them have a "pop psychology" understanding (that they may or may not teach in their programs)...

But few of them can tell you anything about things like...

How oxidative stress buildup becomes a problem in the body...

How to resolve memory capsules from unknown stimuli that send people into sympathetic activation...

What ceruloplasmin is, how it can be beneficial, and how to increase it in the body...

Why mitochondria are becoming less effective at producing energy around the world...

Or how neurocardiology plays a role in creating and maintaining group burnout in the workplace.

Those are just a few of the factors that commonly get in people's way of enacting change in their lives...

But your "Leadership Development" programs are vastly unaware of these problems.

That is a large part of the reason I made the decision to step away from doing leadership development, despite being a Hall of Fame Leadership Coach.

I wanted to create something that actually was successful at changing people's lives...

Which led to the creation of Sageship.

If you cannot discover the psychophysiological blocks that are occurring...

You will struggle to get long-term results from any leadership development program.

And...

We have one more reason that so many leadership development programs "seem" great, but fail to produce long-term results...

The sunk cost fallacy.

Most of these programs are expensive...

Some are purposefully designed luxury experiences to crank the costs up even higher...

And...

That creates a challenge for participants mentally.

The higher the pricing...

The more they inherently "need" the program to work...

To justify the costs.

What this does...

Is that we begin to "look" for reasons why these programs did really help us...

While simultaneously...

Deny or subconsciously ignore any reasons that these programs do not work.

The higher the costs...

The more we invest...

The more we deny and subconsciously ignore.

At the same time...

Subconsciously...

We know the truth.

Our brains are not stupid.

The brain detects when things are not working the way they are supposed to.

This is how people pay for a leadership program...

Then another...

And another...

Suddenly having a barrage of programs they have done...

But none of them seems to move the needle toward better leadership or results.

Worse...

Their teams always know it...

And frequently this creates what I call a "Reactional Shadow" subconscious identity...

Which actually drives these leaders further into the sunk cost fallacy...

But often creating vicious cycles...

Which end up horribly for them.

When you combine all of these factors...

You begin to understand the picture more clearly.

You can see how those teaching and creating these programs usually do intend to do good in the world...

Their participants appear to be getting better results...

The statistics are pointing toward that being true...

And everyone is being honest about how they are experiencing everything in the moment...

While simultaneously...

The final long-term result is that the programs do not work at all.

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