Successful leadership seminars: Checklist for leadership training programmes

To ensure the success of a management seminar, there are a few steps that the client and participants should take into account.

In preparation: management development with a goal and a system

Before booking a leadership training course, it is important to set clear objectives and determine the area of application for the training content. A specific project in which the training content will be applied can be helpful here.

For example, perhaps a transformation project requires agile leadership in addition to traditional project management methods. Or it may be a matter of providing orientation for new employees in a rapidly growing company. In companies undergoing a merger, it may be necessary to accompany the process of cultural and organisational fusion with a planned leadership culture.

A client should discuss these and other requirements – e.g. whether an in-house seminar for their own management team or an external open seminar with the opportunity to exchange ideas with like-minded people from other organisations – with responsible managers before the search for the right training provider begins. The market for management development is large and the promises of added value are often dazzling. The spectrum ranges from personality development through group or individual coaching to the promise of developing charisma and the claim that anyone can learn leadership. Companies should be clear about what they expect from a leadership seminar. Organisers of leadership seminars must set themselves apart from the competition with clear offers and credible references.

Leadership development is also personality development

Ideally, HR development has a clear idea of which leadership competency models and leadership styles should serve as the basis for a suitable training selection. Seminar participants do not come without prerequisites either. Invitations to take part in a seminar should be formulated in dialogue and by mutual agreement.

Participation is an important keyword here. Even if every seminar is a bit like a "grab bag", the basic motto should be: Motivation through participation.

Participation is a consistent principle in good leadership seminars. If you want to lead, you should have or be able to develop your own attitude and this essentially means taking responsibility for what happens in the seminar. To summarise, this means that participants in leadership seminars must be actively involved in important decisions before, during and after the seminar and proactively think and act.

Read the complete article on nc360°, the noventum info-platform:

• The training begins: golden rules for the course of the seminar
• Critical participants: Training evaluation increases learning success