3 Important elements of a successful leadership development program:

According to Sir Antony Jay, a famous English writer, broadcaster and director:

The only real training for leadership is leadership.

While that is true, I however believed that a good, well-planned and well-executed Leadership
Development Program is necessary in order to produce good, if not great leaders within any
organization.

Many people assume that if someone is successful it is because they have good leadership skills.
Some people assume that if a business is successful it is because it has good leaders. Leadership
isn't something that is particularly easy to pass on to other people. Sometimes a company is
successful because a past leader was very skilled as a leader and the current leader simply has
kept things running the same as before.

Great leadership is a rare skill. For most people it doesn't come naturally. It is amazing how
many organizations are successful even though they have only marginally competent people
leading them. These people may be aptly called, “accidental leaders.” Many times this is because
the structure of the organization helps make up for a leaders short comings. Sometimes it is
because a particularly talented staff that makes up for the leaders deficiencies.

Any leadership development training should take into account some of the basic leadership
issues, which ought to be made available to the individual concerned for developing his
leadership skills.
Here are three important elements to make your leadership training program successful:
1. The leadership training program must adequately deal with the most important
issues on effective leadership, and not limit the understanding of the term to its
restrictive sense. Any reference to conventional typecast leadership should be shunned.
The training should also incorporate a comprehensive understanding of leadership virtues
as applicable to individual requirements, and highlight the subtle differences between
leadership and management.
2. The leadership program should also take into account the attitude of people towards
the qualities of a good leader. It is imperative that leadership development training
should be ideally structured in relation to the advancement of the individuals concerned,
instead of looking for strengths in personal qualities.

While great leadership skills can make someone successful, the inverse is not true. Being
successful doesn't make you a good leader. If you are looking for leaders to learn from
make sure you are looking for people who actually have good leadership skills and not
just someone who is successful. You can't assume that someone is a good leader just
because they have had success. Many times people try to emulate people who have had
success and try to follow their leadership styles. While this might be a good thing people
often end up mimicking the bad habits of individuals.
3. The leadership development training should also make it clear that collective
requirement are of greater importance than individual necessities. Leadership
development training tries to develop the quality of an individual to see a vision and look
into the future, and develop his ambitions and aspirations.

One crucial virtue that such training emphasizes is that potential leaders should have the
capability to see how details fit into the big picture. Such training also stresses the need to
have the attitude that helps one to view things from the point of view of other individuals,
and also able to comprehend in the proper manner the most suitable approach towards
them.