Leader vs Leadership Development

© 2019 David Denyer. All rights reserved.
PROFESSOR SPEAKER ADVISOR
Leadership
Change
Resilience
www.cranfield.ac.uk/oracl
www.daviddenyer.com
www.linkedin.com/in/daviddenyer/
Leader vs leadership
development: Do you
know the difference?
Professor David Denyer

Leader vs leadership development:
Do you know the difference?
If not, how do you know that you are investing in the right development programme?
According to TrainingIndustry.com leadership training and development is a $366 billion global
industry. In a McKinsey survey of 500 Executives, almost two-thirds of the respondents identified
leadership development as their number-one concern. Organizations continue to invest substantial
time and resources to leadership programmes, which includes a vast range of solutions from
in-house/customized executive programmes, open enrolment programmes, psychometrics, skills
training, and executive coaching. Yet, according to McKinsey, most of these leadership
programmes fail to deliver desired results.

A recent analysis of request for proposals (RFPs) revealed that many clients frame the need for a
programme as leadership development (e.g. leading change, addressing an organizational issue,
leading in the context of disruptive technological change and continued macroeconomic
uncertainty). However, when it comes to what clients want to be included in the content of these
programmes the request is predominantly for leader development (e.g. improving the knowledge,
skill and competencies of managers, nurturing talent and new leaders, helping leaders step up).
Not understanding the difference between leader and leadership development is one reason why
many programmes fail.

Leader Development
Just take a minute, close your eyes and think about leadership. What do you see in your
mind’s eye?
Chances are you will think about leaders you encountered or those that you admire. More often
than not, it will be leaders from the world of politics, sport or business. When we think leadership,
we think leader. Why?

Leader Development
The historical basis for this leader perspective has mostly been developed through the stories of
individual leaders “who grab our attention” and notions of heroism. These views are reinforced
every day through books, the television and the media, and in business school classrooms around
the globe. Just think about a Premier League Football team that has a run of poor form, the
conclusion often reached by pundits and Chairman is that we need better leadership by employing
a new manager. The leader perspective is written on flip charts in business school and corporate
university classrooms, and these almost always state that leaders provide vision or that leadership
provides a strategy that cascades through the organization, leaders are inspiring, visionary,
connected to people in transformational relationships, more emotionally intelligent, and so on.

Leader Development
If we believe that leadership is something that resides in some people (the leaders) or the
relationship between leader and followers, then it makes sense that leader development should
focus on who leaders need to be. The goal of leader development to create in (ordinary) people
something that some (extraordinary) leaders “have”. As such, leader development programmes
focus on the abilities (e.g. visionary, charismatic, compassionate), styles (e.g. transformational,
authentic), and competencies (e.g. knowledge, skills, abilities and attitudes) of the individuals who
have been formally assigned leadership roles or have potential to become leaders. Leader
development emphasizes personal growth-values, qualities, and behavioral styles that make for
“good” leaders.

Leader Development
Competency-based programmes work precisely on this basis. Competencies are derived either by
examining the abilities of leaders that have been effective in the past or a group of senior members
pre-determine what will lead to success in their organizations, with individuals being measured,
often through 360-degree feedback. The shortfall between the desired competencies and the
manager’s current knowledge, skills, abilities and attitudes are determined, usually in terms of their
suitability for promotion. The individual is then be sent away on a leader development programme
to fix their faults.

Leader Development
The challenges with leader development:
1. Too many leader development programmes offer the same group of skills or style of leadership
regardless of strategy, organizational culture, or problems facing the organization.
2. Competencies based on previous experiences and success may not be relevant and appropriate for
the future.
3. The deficit model fails to recognize individual strengths and fails to acknowledge the diversity,
originality, and distinctiveness that are inherent in leadership.
4. If people are sent away to improve their leadership, their learning occurs in isolation to others and
their work context. When the ‘improved’ leader is plugged back into the organization they often
struggle to make a difference.
5. Many leader development programmes draw on 20th Century models of leadership to develop people
who are dealing with 21st Century problems.

Leadership development
Once again, just take a minute, close your eyes and think about a well-led organization. What do
you see in your mind’s eye?
Chances are you will think about an organization with a clear sense of direction and purpose,
aligned activities, and deeply committed employees. When we think about a well-led organization,
we think leadership. Why?

Drath and colleagues, in one of my favorite papers on leadership, say that we need to focus more
on the outcomes of leadership (direction, alignment, commitment), rather than the inputs of
leadership (leaders, followers and goals). The three essential outcomes of leadership are:
• Direction - the agreement in the organization on overall purpose, goals and aims and their
perceived value.
• Alignment - the organization and coordination of knowledge and work. This may involve formal
structures, standardized processes, control and reward systems or informal collaboration,
communication and teamwork.
• Commitment - the willingness of individual members to subsume their own efforts and benefits
within the collective effort and benefit.

Direction, alignment and commitment are never static but are continuously being developed,
adjusted and negotiated, particularly when organizations face complex issues that require
collaborative and adaptive responses.
Therefore, if the work of leadership involves the accomplishment of direction, alignment and
commitment, the people doing the work of leadership may not necessarily be the formally
designated leaders. People, regardless of hierarchical position, can take up their authority and
engage in practices that are traditionally viewed as leader behaviors. The acts of leadership can
take on multiple directions, transcend formal hierarchies, and involve multiple actors.

The focus of leadership development, therefore, needs to be on how and to what extent these
practices are performed as much as by who performs them. Focusing on leadership development
is on the processes of leading rather than the characteristics of leaders. Construing leadership
development in this way requires a different approach.

How leadership development differs from leader development:
Leader development Leadership development
Starts with an assessment of the learner’s
needs
Starts with an assessment of the organization
problem or adaptive challenge
Has predetermined content and/or activities to
be delivered
Draws on relevant knowledge only if and when
it is required
May contextualize the learning using examples
and cases from the learner’s business
Is grounded in the context and the challenges
that people in the organization face collectively
Learning-focused Solution-focused
Learners apply the learning when they return to
work
Leaners develop solutions that deliver change
in the organization.

Leader development Leadership development
Focuses on who leaders need to be Focuses on leadership processes, practices,
and interactions
Examines individual characteristics and
preferences by means of psychometrics
Examines team and cultural issues and
confronts learners with the emotional and
political dynamics of leadership
Is often supplemented with individual coaching
to help people picture success, generate ideas,
make better decisions, increase confidence and
build coherence and consistency around
priorities.
Is often augmented with team coaching focused
on helping groups to think deeply about their
assumptions, beliefs, and values and the
broader system. As the group reflect together –
and support each other’s learning – they can
resolve real work issues to put new knowledge
into action.

Advice for organizations investing in leader or leadership
development programmes:
• Start with the question - what is the problem that you think leader or leadership development is
the solution to? Addressing this question will help you to determine whether you need
leadership development to build collective leadership capability to resolve organizational
challenges or a programme that focuses on individual leader competencies and styles.
• Don’t throw out the baby and the bathwater. Although many programs fail to deliver the desired
results, it isn’t time to abandon leader development for leadership development. Leader
development is still required because there will be people in your organization who need to
develop their individual leadership skills.

Advice for organizations investing in leader or leadership
development programmes:
• Ensure that everyone involved understands what you are trying to achieve and get buy-in
before you invest in any programme. You may be ready, but sponsors and other stakeholders’
may not be prepared for leadership development.
• Those that hold dear traditional notions of leader and leader development will find comfort in
investing in a more conventional programme. Convincing stakeholders that leadership
development is required to resolve organizational challenges is a crucial challenge for any HR
and learning and development professional.
• Programmme tutors, course directors and executive coaches need to understand how to
support learning from a leadership development perspective with its different assumptions and
learning outcomes. People often slip back into a leader development mindset or approach,
even when they say that they are doing leadership development.

Do the leadership programmes that you invest in deliver the desired results?
Does your organization invest in leader development, when what it really needs is
leadership development?
Please share your thoughts.

David runs the Organizational Resilience and Change
Leadership (ORaCL) Group at Cranfield University, which
works in three areas of expertise: developing leadership
capability, designing organizational change and building
organizational resilience. We are world-renowned
researchers, impactful educators, engaging speakers, and
trusted advisors to organizations across all sectors.
We are an experienced group of academics and
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who share a passion for ideas, problem-solving, and
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We act as an information hub and community builder,
connecting an extensive network of external experts,
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interest in organizational resilience, change, and
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