Developing leaders is one of the best investments for employers. Successful leadership development programs deliver a 25% increase in organizational outcomes and 20% jump in job performance. Unfortunately, only 7% of CEOs believe their companies are building effective leaders. To ensure your leadership development program succeeds, apply these top 10 components.

1. Organizational Alignment
Great leadership development programs begin with the end in mind. Identify the skills and experience participants should receive from the program. Ensure you can explain what makes leaders at your organization different from leaders in any other organization. Your executives will champion the program best when they see how it serves both participants and the company.

Questions to help you align with the organization include:

• When leaders excel from the program, what is the expected outcome?
• How do your organization’s vision, mission, and values appear in the program? 

2. Focus on the Whole Person

Don’t focus only on business. A leader who is great at the office but falls apart at home will not help the company for long. Work-life balance is antiquated thinking. Instead, include training and support for work-life alignment. Stress management and mental health awareness are critical attributes for successful modern leaders.

Questions to help you focus on the whole person include:

• How will our leaders handle high-stress moments?
• How do we enable and empower our leaders to align their work and personal lives?

3. Continuous Assessment
Many leadership development programs include point-in-time or annual assessments. Whether it is the self-assessment or 360 feedback (both are important), your program should include frequent, recurring assessments. More frequent assessments do not need to be as robust. Instead, consider including assessments in every one-on-one or provide digital forms enabling team members to provide feedback at any time.

Questions to help you deliver continuous assessment include:

• How long must participants wait for feedback on their progress?
• How will non-participants observe and rate progress by participants?

4. Goal Setting
Both the employer and participants need to set their own goals for the program. Keep these concise, clear, and measurable. Not all goals must tie directly to business outcomes. For example, the participant may seek to build their confidence or communication skills. Most goals should be unique to the individual.

Questions to help you set goals include:

• What does each individual need to develop, in order to excel as a leader in our company?
• What is the primary goal the company has for each participant?

5. Multi-Mentoring
Most companies implement some form of mentoring in their talent development programs. However, if you’re only pairing a mentor and mentee, you may be falling short. Multi-mentoring introduces participants to multiple prospective mentors and enables the best pairing. Furthermore, multi-mentoring obligates the mentee to also be a mentor to others. This could even be outside the company, such as in local youth programs.

Questions to help you develop mentoring include:

• How do we ensure the best mentor / mentee relationships?
• How will participants immediately begin giving back to the company or community? 

6. Bilateral Training
A good leadership development includes robust training that is tailored to the company’s unique industry and participant roles. Great programs include bilateral training: a component of training all participants receive and a component uniquely tailored to each participant’s circumstances. For example, some participants will need more support developing their communication skills. Other participants may need help with analytical or troubleshooting techniques. All participants should receive education on the company history, goals, mission, vision, and values.

Questions to help you develop training include:

• What training should every participant receive to achieve program objectives?
• What are the unique needs of each participant and how do we meet them?

7. Practice
Training is useless unless it is applied. When not applied quickly, training is forgotten. Therefore, great leadership development programs ensure participants have opportunities to quickly practice the lessons from training. While it is ideal to practice lessons in the “real world”, role-playing opportunities can be embedded within training. Ensure your training provider includes these opportunities.

Questions to help you embed practice include:

• What skills will participants be able to practice immediately after each training?
• What skills do we need to ensure are practiced within training courses?

8. Advising
To help ensure training is practiced, advisors help participants with follow up questions and examples. While it’s possible this role may be filled by mentors, the best leadership development programs utilize another individual, often from inside HR. Why? Because the advisor should be more tactical in approach. An advisor should have action items, following each training, to assess and guide participants through practice and application.

Questions to help you develop advisors include:

• How will the advisor ensure training is applied and measure the success of it for participants?
• How will we develop our advisors to ensure they are best prepared to serve participants?

9. Networking
As you develop leaders, you want them to be exposed to as many different connections, departments, and roles as possible. To do this, create networking opportunities such as informational interviews and social gatherings with current participants and alumni of the program. Both the mentor and the advisor also have a role to play in connecting participants.

Questions to help you develop networking opportunities include:

• Who should participants meet and who can help participants learn different functions or roles?
• How will we ensure participants gain exposure to these individuals? 

10. Succession Planning
As you deploy your leadership program, it should be easier to conduct succession planning. These should be candid and transparent conversations among participants and existing leaders. Avoid guarantees, promises, or perceptions of commitments to specific roles. Instead, focus on participant areas of interest and the skills they need to fill a leadership role in the preferred department.

Questions to help you enhance succession planning include:

• How will we align participants with prospective departments or roles?
• How can we support participant growth toward specific opportunities while developing them for long-term success in multiple roles?

It may seem like a lot of work but this is what separates great leadership development programs from good ones. This is what can move your company from a checkbox saying you offer leadership development to dramatically improved business results through stronger leaders.