Conger’s final category is skill building. According to Conger, this is the most common method utilized in leadership development training and has grown increasingly difficult to teach as our thinking about leadership has progressed. However, to truly develop skills, it takes a great deal of time and must be reinforced back on the job; Conger (1992) asserts that “a four or five-day program can introduce the basics of a skills set to participants, but cannot truly develop it for most of them” (p. 179).

4. What sources of learning will you use?

Sources of learning (also called development tools) are the primary vehicles for delivering leadership development learning activities before, during and after the leadership development program. In essence, once you have determined the skills/competencies for development sources of learning are the activities that foster learning (we hope!). Organizations often use one or two sources of learning for leadership development, when in fact, a combination will likely yields better results. There are more than 30, however some common sources of learning include:

• Outdoor Management/Leadership Development—a set of carefully sequenced and integrated physical activities conducted (primarily) in the outdoors and designed to facilitate participant behavior change.
• Simulations—management games are used to create experiential environments within which learning and behavioral changes can occur and in which managerial behavior can be observed. Simulations require trainees to analyze complex problems and make decisions.
• Individual or Group Reflection—a formalized opportunity for individuals and/or groups to reflect on events, activities and experiences.
• Just-in-Time Training (JIT)—JIT is designed to provide the learner with information at the time of “need.”
• Individual Development Plans—a personal development plan is a process through which the individual prepares a training and development plan, and for which the individual takes responsibility.
• Developmental Assignments/Job Assignments—these are on the job placements that have two attributes (1) challenge and (2) an opportunity to learn.
• Job Rotation—managers are assigned work in a variety of different functional subunits of the organization for periods of time varying from six months to three years.
• Developmental Relationships/Mentoring—occurs through an interpersonal relationship where a more experienced manager helps a less experienced protégé; the mentor is usually at a higher managerial level and is not the protégé’s immediate boss.
• Networking with Senior Executives—marked by exposure to, and relationship building with, senior executives in an organization.
• Action Learning—action learning, in brief, is learning from concrete experience and critical reflection on that experience – through group discussion, trial and error, discovery, and learning from and with each other.
• Classroom-Based Training—learning that is bound to the confines of a formal classroom. Often led by an instructor or facilitator.
• E-Learning—the use of computer network technology, primarily over an intranet or though the Internet, to deliver information and instruction to individuals.
• Executive Coaching—a relationship formed between a client who has managerial authority and responsibility in an organization and a consultant who uses a wide variety of behavioral techniques and methods to help the client achieve a mutually identified set of goals to improve his or her professional performance and personal satisfaction.
• 360s or Multi-Rater Instruments—managers receive information about their skills and behaviors from standardized questionnaires filled out by other people such as subordinates, peers, superiors and sometimes, outsiders such as clients.