The Problem With Leadership Training Today
Most leadership training looks good on paper. Shiny programs. Big budgets. Inspiring words like "transformational leadership."
And then reality kicks in. Monday morning, your freshly trained manager sits down with their team. A conflict flares up. Someone's performance dips. Or someone starts crying in a 1:1. Suddenly, the neat models from training don't help.
That's the problem. Too much leadership training is built for the classroom, not the workplace. And if you've been a manager, you know the difference is huge. I've been there: staring across from someone who's upset or resistant, trying to find the right words while also holding it together myself. No training manual prepared me for that.
So let's get real. Leadership training doesn't stick because it misses the very things that make leadership hard. And until we fix that, all the money and hours poured into development programs will keep going to waste. A recent TalentLMS survey found that 45% of managers say their company isn't doing enough to develop future leaders. That gap isn't about effort. It's about approach.
Why Leadership Training Doesn't Work
1. No Personalization
Leadership isn't one-size-fits-all. A first-time manager leading a team of three doesn't need the same skills as a director managing four different departments. But as it stands, most programs have the same exact format: slide decks, case studies, outdated manuals, and one-off sessions.
I remember a standard manager's training I would do once a year earlier in my career. It was the same exact thing every single time. Was it useful? Yes, in theory. But in practice…not so much. It was the same thing, year after year. I wasn't learning anything new, and even what I learned was so basic. I was learning theory, not applying any of it in practice. And because of that, nothing stuck. I still had the same team management issues that I never knew how to resolve (and of course, they never magically went away).
Personalization isn't a nice-to-have. It's the difference between theory and practice. Leadership is messy and deeply human. Each situation comes with different personalities, emotions, and pressures. Training has to reflect that, or it's irrelevant.
2. No Repetition
This is where most programs completely miss the point. They treat leadership development like a one-time vaccine: attend the seminar, complete the course, you're good to go. But leadership doesn't work that way.
Think about fitness. You don't go to the gym once, lift a few weights, and walk out fit for life. You build strength by showing up over and over again, even when it's uncomfortable. Leadership is the same. It's practice. It's habits. It's making mistakes, reflecting, and trying again.
And by not building that muscle through repetition, you can never really build the skills. And you fall into old patterns that don't really work.
It's like the confidence I felt after my first tough conversation, only to fumble in the next one. Even after a few, it's sometimes hard to get everything right. That's why practice and repetition matter.
3. No Room For The Messy Stuff
This is the part almost everyone avoids. Real leadership isn't polished or predictable. It's emotional, awkward, and sometimes flat-out uncomfortable. It's when someone pushes back on you in front of the whole team. It's when you have to deliver feedback that you know won't land well. It's when you've got five people with five different opinions, and you need to make a call knowing not everyone's going to like it.
Most training skips all of that. They want leadership to look neat. But it's not neat. And if your training avoids those moments, it's not really preparing anyone to lead.
So...as a manager, I may understand what "radical candor" is, but can I apply it in practice? That's the real challenge.
What Helps Make Leadership Training Effective
So what does work? Strip away the fluff and here's what's left:
- Personalization. Training has to feel relevant to the leader's role, team, and challenges. Otherwise, it's just theory.
- Consistency. Leaders need ongoing practice, reflection, and reinforcement. Not just once, but consistently.
- Realism. Don't dodge the messy stuff. Build training around it. Because that's what leaders actually face.
When you design with those three in mind, training becomes less about completing a program and more about building real capability. Core skills like giving feedback, handling conflict, and building trust are a good place to start, and there are numerous ready-made courses on leadership essentials that cover exactly that.
Where Online Training Fits In
Online training gets a bad rap when it's just scattered slides presentations. But when it's done properly, with the right people, using the proper training software, it can actually make leadership training useful.
- Practice without the fallout. Give managers a place to try things out before the stakes are high. Let them ask questions on demand, mess up in simulated conversations, practice at their own pace. Not fumble in front of their actual team.
- Make it specific. With AI, you can shape training around the person's role and challenges. A new manager in healthcare doesn't need the same examples as a senior leader in tech. Yet too often, they're given the same cookie-cutter content.
- Always within reach. Leaders don't need a binder of notes from last year's workshop. They need something they can quickly pull up right before a tough conversation or a performance review.
- Reinforced over time. Skills don't stick after one lesson. Managers need to consistently have the chance to practice again. Bite-sized, ongoing modules built around real scenarios do a lot more for managers than cramming everything into one week and hoping it'll last.
- Train everyone. Some people may have natural leadership instincts, but that doesn't mean the rest are out of luck. Leadership can be taught. And it should be taught widely; not just to those already labeled as "high performers." As leadership coach Neena Newberry explains, too many programs overlook the "diamonds in the rough" who could thrive if given the chance.
How To Design Leadership Training For The Workplace
If you're building leadership training for your company, here's where to start:
- Define outcomes. Don't just say "we want better leaders." Be specific. Do you want managers to give clearer feedback? To reduce turnover? To build trust? Training has to link to real goals.
- Blend methods. Use online learning for accessibility, but combine it with coaching, peer groups, and feedback. Leaders learn best when they can test things out with real people.
- Stay current. The workplace isn't static. Remote work, AI, new generations entering the workforce—these shifts change what leaders are up against. If the training doesn't keep up, it becomes irrelevant fast.
- Ask for feedback. Managers can tell when training feels outdated or useless. So ask them. Treat leadership training like a product: test it, gather feedback, tweak it. If you don't, it just becomes another "initiative" that launches with noise and then quietly disappears.
This way, training stays alive instead of becoming another "initiative" that launches with fanfare and then dies quietly.
Keep Leadership Training Real
Leadership training isn't about ticking boxes or printing certificates. It's about giving managers something they can actually use when things get hard. Because it will get hard. And if all they've got in their back pocket is a dusty slide deck from last year's seminar, then good luck.
The reality is simple: when leadership training is practical, ongoing, and tied to real-world situations, it changes everything. Teams run smoother. Managers stop second-guessing themselves. And people actually want to stick around.
That's not theory. That's the kind of leadership training that makes a real difference.
