What is a leadership trainer?

A leadership trainer is a business consultant or corporate training professional who supports organizations in designing and delivering training programs that develop leadership competencies. Some leadership trainers tailor-fit their programs to the business needs of organizations.

Most leadership trainers run canned programs based on books, evidence-based research, or proprietary programs.

The advantage of getting a canned program is that you’ll get what your competitors give to their leaders.

For example, having leadership training programs based on the teachings of John Maxwell or Ram Charan will help you get what American companies are learning.

You won’t be left behind, but you won’t be ahead either.

What is leadership training?

Leadership training refers to instructional and experiential activities provided to leaders in an organization to increase knowledge, build skills, and develop the standards of leading people and growing the business. Effective leadership training will help leaders do their jobs correctly and purposefully.

Canned vs Customized Training

If you are going to train supervisors, a canned program can be based on POLC Framework. Many training providers in the Philippines offer basic supervisory leadership skills training based on POLC Framework. You give this program to provide an introduction to management. However, keep in mind that many POLC-based supervisory training programs are lectures oriented.

Tailor-fit programs are usually more expensive. To be cost-efficient, Your training team can develop these programs with the help of a leadership trainer or consultant. A consultant can be a subject-matter expert, someone who has leadership experiences and a “formula” for leading people.

So, instead of providing 3-months of training on planning, organizing, leading, and controlling, you will address specific challenges of your supervisors.

Those with challenges in delegating tasks will master the principles, practices, and processes of delegating tasks.

You can even zoom in on specific skills in the delegation of tasks.

Tailor-fit training will allow you to provide just-in-time training, and the return on investment is immediate and repeatable.

Content vs Competencies

It is easy to be unique and different. It is challenging to be relevant.

It is easy to think of new acronyms for the leadership training program. That’s what they usually do in government. They use the initials of the local government executives. Or find ways to make L-E-A-D sound something serious.

Most training programs are contentful. I once participated in a Good to Great Workshop. It was a lectured version of the book of Jim Collins.

Someone converted Ram Charan’s Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done into three-day training.[mfn] Unfortunately, the participants did not appreciate much of the training since Charan‘s tools and examples are very different from what they do as school leaders. [/mfn] She filled her presentation slides with quotations from the book.

Training is not so much about content.

Training is an intervention. You are helping leaders solve their challenges. You want them to learn principles so they can solve their leadership problems.

If you want people to become familiar with the ideas of a guru, gift each one a book. You do not have to send them to a seminar.

A seminar is not about the Good to Great book. It should be about helping leaders create a system, process, or develop skills to solve their leadership challenges.

Focus more on the competencies, the enabler of performance. The mission of a leadership trainer is to facilitate the discovery of solutions.

How to Find A Leadership Trainer

Get a leadership trainer who can help you achieve your objectives.

In the Philippines, those who canvas for training providers typically ask for videos and testimonials. These are credibility builders. [mfn] Most of my clients are private companies. We don’t record our training programs on camera. And when we do, I am not allowed to publish them.[/mfn]

But you don’t need videos and testimonials. You don’t need a famous consultant.

You only need a leadership trainer who can help you zap the gap between where you are and where you want to be.

How will you find a consultant who can help you?

It is easy. But this will require you not to do what most people do. It is typically for them to collect proposals from prospective training providers.

Meet with your prospective leadership trainer. During this meeting, you don’t have to waste your time asking him about what he has done. If you really want to know, ask him for his credentials before this meeting.

What he has done for other clients is often not relevant to your situation.

In this meeting, you only need to do three things:

First, you need to tell the prospective consultant where your leaders are today. Tell about the challenges they are facing. If you can give specific examples, do so.

Second, tell your prospective consultant where you want to be. Be more specific about the outcome and impact you are expecting. You can even go beyond your measurable objectives. Paint a picture of the transformation you desire to see.

Third, ask the consultant for his initial thoughts. Allow him to ask questions.

After this, ask for a proposal where the leadership trainer will show you the specific steps to transformation.

Many trainers who are used to selling canned training programs sell without asking you about your goals and present situation.

Some will attempt to tweak their programs or change the name of their modules to fit your requirements. But you can easily find out what’s good for you if you have done the first three steps above.

About Jef Menguin

Jef Menguin helps leaders get proven and effective ways to become better leaders and develop leaders. He is a workplace learning strategist and keynote speaker.

He believes that leadership learning does not have to be expensive, long, and difficult. Jef Menguin is known for providing leaders with focused, intentional, relevant, and engaging learning experiences that contribute to greater business results.

Jef helps organizations use virtual platforms effectively. He leads virtual workshops, webinars, and online conferences to help companies bounce forward and thrive amidst the challenges of the Covid-19 craziness.