Why leadership development programmes don't work (and what to fix first)

September planning season brings the same conversation to leadership teams across the UK: "We need fewer bad managers and more good ones." The response is predictable, book the same generic leadership training that didn't deliver results last time. Companies spend billions annually on leadership development, yet management quality remains a persistent challenge.

The Chartered Management Institute's 2024 research shows that 82% of people are promoted into management roles without any management training, but even when training is provided, the impact is often minimal.

The problem isn't just the training content, it's everything else. The environment, systems, and organisational culture that managers return to after their two-day course often completely undermines any skills they've learned. Until we address these fundamental issues, leadership development will remain an expensive exercise in hope over strategy.

The training industry problem

The sales season push

October marks the peak season for leadership development providers. Marketing messages flood LinkedIn and email in-boxes with "essential leadership skills" and "must-have competencies" that promise transformation. The training industry has commoditised leadership development, offering generic content packaged in slightly different ways. This one-size-fits-all approach completely disregards the reality that effective leadership looks different in every organisation, team, and context.

Role-play scenarios that dominate leadership courses (and that everyone hates with a passion) are nothing like the complex, nuanced situations managers face in their actual roles. A 2023 study by the Corporate Leadership Council found that traditional classroom-style leadership training shows a 70% failure rate in terms of sustained behavior change. It begs the question; why are organisations continuing to purchase the same solutions, expecting different results?

What actually develops managers

Research consistently shows that effective leadership development happens through:

Real practice, not simulated scenarios. The most impactful learning occurs when managers practice difficult conversations with their actual team members;  Real life situations, managing real people, genuine responses and emotions. Not role-playing with colleagues in a training room. The stakes, relationships, and context make a significant difference to the depth of understanding and development of the individual.  

Learning from accessible role models. While hearing from famous CEOs can be inspiring, managers develop faster by observing and learning from respected leaders within their own organisation or industry, people whose challenges and contexts they can relate to. People they might actually meet and interact with one day. Famous CEO’s are often too far removed to provide a genuinely relatable example. 

Embracing uncertainty. Great managers become comfortable with not knowing everything. They develop the confidence to say "I don't know, but I'll find out" and the judgment to know when to escalate versus when to decide. This needs to be supported by a culture of psychological safety. If people are operating in a culture of blame and punishment they won’t admit what they don’t know. 

Individual focus. Effective management is fundamentally about understanding and developing individuals and not managing everyone the same way. This requires deep observation and personalised approaches that can't be taught through standardised programmes. Culturally, managers need to be supported with the right resources to deliver this - time being the most important resource here. 

Continuous feedback loops. Regular, informal feedback conversations are far more developmental than annual review processes. Managers need to practice giving and receiving feedback in low-stakes situations before high-stakes ones. Continuous feedback gives people the opportunity to develop faster and from an emotional point of view. Making someone wait twelve months to hear bad news when they thought everything was okay is the fastest way to destroy a person's confidence and their trust in management. 

Why good training still fails

Before booking another leadership development programme, organisations need to honestly assess whether their environment supports the behaviors they're trying to develop. Before you book more training, ask these four questions. The answers will reveal whether your training investment will succeed or fail:

1. Do your managers have time to manage?

The most common complaint from middle managers is that they have no time for actual management. Back-to-back meetings, administrative overload, and constant firefighting that leaves no real time for the conversations, coaching, and relationship-building that define good management.

A manager can attend the best communication skills course available, but if their calendar is packed with meetings from 9 AM to 6 PM, when will they have those crucial one-on-one conversations with team members? The training becomes theoretical knowledge that never gets practiced.

Administrative burden is particularly problematic. Many managers spend more time on reporting, compliance activities, and system updates than they do developing their people. Training them in leadership skills while maintaining these time pressures is setting them up to fail.

2. Can they make decisions?

One of the most frustrating contradictions in organisational development is training managers to be decisive while requiring approval for most decisions. Complex approval chains and bureaucratic processes undermine leadership development by removing the opportunity to practice decision-making.

Decision-making skills develop through experience – making choices, seeing consequences, and learning from outcomes. When organisational systems require multiple approvals for routine decisions, managers never develop the confidence and judgment that comes from autonomous decision-making.

Psychological safety is another huge factor. Do your teams operate in a culture where it’s safe to fail and learn from their mistakes? If they’re afraid to admit knowledge gaps, make mistakes or take risks they’ll hesitate, defer and be reluctant to take ownership of decisions. 

Combined, these factors create a situation where organisations are investing in decision-making courses while their approval processes prevent managers from making decisions. The disconnect between training content and organisational reality means the development is ineffective, not to mention a waste of both time and money. 

3. Do they get support when things get difficult?

Skills training is meaningless if managers are abandoned during crises. It’s common for there to be a significant gap between where managers actually need help and where organisations provide training. Training focuses on ideal-state scenarios, but managers need support when dealing with non- ideal situations like performance issues, team conflicts, difficult conversations, and unexpected challenges.

Real-time support during difficult situations is far more valuable than classroom theory. A manager dealing with a performance issue needs immediate guidance and coaching, not a memory of a workshop they attended six months ago. You’ll see a much better return on your leadership development investment if your organisation provides ongoing mentoring and support. 

The most effective leadership development includes ways for managers to get help when they need it, not just when it's convenient to schedule training.

4. Are your systems designed for development?

Organisational systems often work against leadership development goals. What I mean by that is, performance management systems focus on documentation rather than development, sending mixed messages about priorities. HR processes tend to emphasise compliance over capability building and undermine training investments.

When systems reward different behaviours than those taught in training, managers learn to ignore the training. If the performance review process places priority on ranking and rating rather than development conversations, managers will focus on documentation rather than coaching, regardless of what leadership training emphasised.  The disconnect between systems and training creates cognitive dissonance that ultimately favours systems. Managers adapt to the environment they work in, not the environment they were trained for.

What to fix first

The environment problem. Training budgets fail when they conflict with organisational culture and systems. Creating conditions where good management can actually happen requires investment in the environment and systems, not just courses. This means:

Time and space. Managers need protected time for management activities. This might require restructuring and reducing meetings, encouraging managers to decline meetings where appropriate, reducing administrative burden, or changing expectations about availability.

Decision-making authority. Clear delegation of decision-making authority allows managers to practice and develop judgment. This requires reviewing approval processes and trusting managers with appropriate autonomy.

Ongoing support systems. Mentoring, coaching, and peer support networks provide the real-time help managers need when challenges arise.

Aligned systems. Performance management, recognition, and organisational processes should reinforce the behaviors training is trying to develop.

Making training actually work

The most successful leadership development follows a specific sequence:

Fix the environment first. Address systemic barriers before investing in skills training. This creates conditions where new behaviours can actually be practiced and reinforced.

Focus on application. Design training around real challenges managers face, not theoretical scenarios. Use actual situations as learning opportunities.

Support ongoing development. Recognise that leadership development is a continuous process, not an event. Provide ongoing coaching, mentoring, and feedback mechanisms.

Measure system changes. Track environmental changes alongside skill development. Monitor whether managers have time to manage, authority to make decisions, and support when needed.

Organisations that follow this approach see dramatically better returns on leadership development investments because they're developing leaders within systems designed to support leadership, rather than fighting against them.

How and where to start

Before booking your next leadership development programme, ask yourself “What's stopping your managers from using skills they already have?” Many managers already know they should have regular one-on-ones, give feedback, and coach their teams. The question isn't whether they know this, it's whether your organisation makes it possible.

Start by having the honest conversation your leadership team needs. Are we creating conditions where good management can happen, or are we expecting training to overcome organisational and systemic barriers?

Think you haven’t got the appetite, time or energy for this approach? The most expensive leadership development programme is the one that doesn't work because the environment prevents managers from applying what they've learned.

Fix the foundation first, then build the skills. Your managers and your training budget will thank you.