This guide offers practical advice on selecting the best executive leadership development training programs to keep your career moving forward by improving and expanding your skills. While there are many options for continuous learning – including conferences, workshops, and college courses – executive leadership development training programs are often considered the best option because of their personalized, expert-level instruction.

The absolute best executive leadership development training programs are led by a certified coach who has extensive experience in not only coaching executives in one-on-one environments, but also in managing teams and leading organizations. The coach’s own personal leadership experience, coupled with the training required to achieve the Registered Corporate Coach designation as granted by the Worldwide Association of Business Coaches, is vital in delivering the best executive leadership development training programs possible.

Why Do I Need a Leadership Development Program?

The best executives will admit that leadership development training programs are vital components of an organization’s success. Without strong leaders to steer the company in the right direction, the organization is rudderless, which is why many of the best companies in America send their executives through leadership development training programs.

Leadership development training programs allow participants experiment with new behaviors, reflecting and learning from real-life experiences to become the best executives possible. Programs often incorporate leadership-building activities, roleplay scenarios, case studies, debriefs with the coach, and individual time to reflect. The result is firsthand learning experiences that enable executives to positively face similar challenges in their actual jobs.

What’s the Business Case for Leadership Development?

Organizations with the best executive leadership development training programs tend to see a boost in the bottom line. Why? There are seven principal reasons for this.

1. Enhanced strategy execution: Mastering strategic execution is a key component of the best executive leadership development training programs – and for good reason. Not only will an organization have more bright workers capable of transforming goals into action, but they’ll also develop leaders skilled in breaking down quarterly and yearly goals into actionable tasks to achieve stellar results.
2. Enhanced influence and improved negotiation: There are few – if any – soft leadership skills more important than the ability to successfully influence others and negotiate in a way that creates win-win outcomes. Both influencing and negotiation can have disastrous results for unskilled leaders and foster negative sentiments, all while opportunities for win-win situations and value creation are left on the table.
3. Increased productivity: Leaders who feel nurtured and who can see a future for themselves at the company are much more likely to be engaged in their work, thereby motivating others toward increased productivity as well.
4. Improved accountability: Displaying a keen sense of accountability as a leader instills a wider culture of accountability. This makes it easier to ensure that everyone else feels a sense of responsibility to complete their work and to speak up when something’s not right.
5. Improved communications: As leaders learn to focus on clarity, providing no room for misinterpretation, they are better able to communicate carefully to set the tone and to maintain a balance between respect and approachability.
6. Reduced turnover: When leaders know that management has invested in them – giving them opportunities to gain experience – they are more likely to stay, which reduces turnover.
7. Enhanced recruiting: Leadership development training programs are attractive features for organizations looking to recruit the absolute best future executives. Knowing that an organization will invest in its future leaders makes it a much more appealing target for candidates.

Despite this strong business case, opponents of executive leadership training programs often fear that they will invest considerable development dollars on their best employees, only to make them so marketable that they leave for other opportunities. Proponents of these programs look at it differently, asking the question, “What if we don’t develop them and they stay?”

Leadership development training programs allow not only rising executives, but also your best and most-seasoned executives a safe place to learn new skills – without the pressure of making mistakes. This reduces the business risk to the organization as experienced and inexperienced executives alike learn important leadership traits such as ethical decision making, emotional intelligence, team building, and communication – all skills that are required of effective leaders.

Participants of our executive leadership development programs tell us that because of their training, they have the best self-confidence, self-awareness, and communication skills of their careers. In short, the best leadership development training programs enable executives to identify their existing strengths and develop new skills, which serve to enhance an individual’s confidence and motivation.

It’s not just people in the C-suite who benefit, either. Managers who aspire to executive leadership positions also benefit from the best that development training programs have to offer. For instance, for managers in technical or creative roles, learning leadership skills can help them communicate better with their team, resolve conflicts, manage projects, and negotiate with internal and external stakeholders.

What Skills Do the Best Executive Leadership Development Training Programs Focus On?

While specific leadership positions in specific organizations require different skills, it is our experience that the best executive leadership development training programs universally include these five:

• Integrity: Being a person of integrity means not only knowing who you are and staying true to yourself, but also staying true to the values of your organization.
• Empathy: Empathy is the ability to sense and understand other people’s emotions, coupled with the ability to imagine what someone else might be thinking or feeling.
• Reliability: Dependable leaders can more easily build trust with their colleagues and subordinates, which helps foster employee engagement.
• Communication: Communication skills help leaders define the goals of team members clearly. Effective communication skills also help foster an open and good rapport between leaders and their teams, which increases productivity and efficiency.
• Delegation skills: As a leader, delegating is important because you can’t – and shouldn’t – do everything yourself. Delegating empowers your team, builds trust, and assists with professional development. It also helps leaders learn how to identify who is best suited to tackle tasks or projects.

About the Best Executive Leadership Development Training Program Available

Formulated and developed by our team at Shawn Doyle Training, our proprietary, proven, purposeful process is known as the Power 5 RX System. Research shows that a company’s commitment to executive leadership development has a return on investment of almost six times the cost of the program.

Our five-step proven process is the foundation of the program.

• Step 1: Diagnosis: Specific tools, tests, and targeted assessments are used to diagnose your leadership development needs. The results of these tests allow us to determine the kind of leadership development that is necessary. These results allow us to formulate an individualized prescription plan based on actual, objective, quantitative, and qualitative data.
• Step 2: Treatment: Once Step 1 is complete, we facilitate the leadership development process based on the data collected. In most cases, leadership development includes twice-monthly coaching for approximately one hour via video call. The length of our engagement can be between three and 12 months.
• Step 3: Prescription: Our participants are expected to complete action plan summaries after each leadership development coaching session that increases accountability and drives results. Exclusive access is provided to our online library of resources – including assessments, articles, and checklists – to reinforce their development as a successful leader.
• Step 4: Check-Up: Checkup begins with a review of their action plans to determine their progress and to discuss new challenges that they have developed. Midpoint check-in meetings with their leaders are also scheduled at this time.
• Step 5: Maintenance Plan: After successful completion of Steps 1-4, we offer exclusive access to our unique online library of resources to encourage continued long-term success.

Our Power 5RX System is the best executive leadership training program available and ensures maximum coaching effectiveness and results for the highest return on your investment – YOU.

Why Choose Us for Leadership Development Training?

Our clients achieve remarkable results. For instance, we collaborated with the president of one organization whose company revenue increased 10-fold in one year, all while he was able to work fewer hours and reduce his level of stress.

Our CEO, Shawn Doyle, is a Registered Corporate Coach (RCC) and a Certified Professional Speaker (CSP). He is also the author of 23 books, of which three are on leadership.

In addition, we have more than 30 years of experience in professional development and training. Finally, during Shawn’s career, he has served as the vice president of learning and development at Comcast, where he was the co-founder of Comcast University.