If you want better leaders, start with their managers

After interviewing over 30 Chief People Officers and Heads of L&D across New Zealand over the last three months, and diving deep into the latest global research on leadership development, I can tell you one thing:

Leadership development doesn’t fail in the classroom. It fails on Monday morning.

It doesn’t fail to be effective because the content is bad, the facilitator wasn’t inspiring or whatever model you were using wasn’t clever enough. It fails because of what leaders walk back into. The environment and the ecosystem that leaders return to matters – and this is shaped far more by their direct manager than anything else.

Across almost every interview I’ve conducted, the same pattern emerges: the biggest predictor of whether leadership development sticks is the behaviour of the participant’s manager - way more than the programme, the modality or even the budget.

So, if you want better leaders, start with their managers. The uncomfortable truth is that direct managers are the real multipliers (or killers) of leadership development.

Managers control the three things that matter most: attention, opportunity and psychological permission.

Attention: If a direct manager doesn’t ask their leader about the programme, the message is clear: “This isn’t important or worthy of special attention.” If a manager doesn’t check in on what the person is learning, how they’re embedding the learning, or (bonus points) share their own leadership development journey (including what they themselves are still learning) it sends a strong message that this work is something extra - a bolt-on to their job, not an integral part of it.

Opportunity: If a direct manager doesn’t create space for the person to practice new behaviours, nothing embeds. I get it, project deadlines are real, demands on time and attention are strident. But if the manager doesn’t work with the leader to safeguard space for them to learn and to practice, it’s a complete waste of time and money – and, more importantly, can add extra stress to that person.

Psychological permission: If a manager doesn’t role‑model the same behaviours that the programme is teaching, the leader won’t risk trying them. Managers are the bridge between learning and doing and too many organisations forget to build the bridge.

Here’s what the best managers do when their team member embarks on any form of leadership development:

• They set goals with the person doing the leadership development before the programme
• They have conversations about why the person is going (including why they are being given the opportunity, what success would look like etc.)
• They coach and check in during the programme
• They create opportunities for the person to practice new behaviours (and provide support and feedback when they do)
• They reinforce expectations after the programme
• They integrate learning into performance rhythms
• They role‑model the same behaviours themselves!

When managers do this, leadership development becomes a force multiplier. When they don’t, it becomes a very expensive offsite.

It might sound simple when explained like that, but I’m also learning: that this isn’t just a manager problem, it’s also a system design problem.

CPOs and L&D leaders have a critical role to play in:

• Designing leadership development as a system, not an event
• Embedding it into talent, succession, performance, and culture
• Equipping managers with tools to support knowledge and skill transfer
• Making expectations explicit
• Measuring what matters (succession depth, time to competence, behaviour change)
• Keeping things simple (NZ leaders are drowning in over‑complex models)

One CPO said it perfectly during our interview:

“We don’t need more models. We need consistency and simplicity.”

If you lead people who are participating in leadership development, remember that you’re the single most important factor in whether they grow and in how much they can gain from the experience. Your conversations and expectations, your belief in them, and your willingness to champion, coach and challenge them can be the difference in whether that programme makes a jot of difference or not. Leadership development is not something that your P&C team “delivers.” It’s something that you, as a manager, enable.

So, what can you do tomorrow? Here’s a simple move you can make if one of your direct reports is about to embark on a leadership development initiative:

Have a 20‑minute conversation with your leader before they start the programme.

Ask:

• What do you want to get out of this?
• What’s one behaviour you want to strengthen?
• How will we know this has made a difference?
• How can I support you during and after the programme?

Then follow up and follow through. Have some coaching conversations and ask them what they’re learning. Push them for, more importantly, how they are trying out what they are learning in their everyday role.

You can believe in leadership development in theory all you like. It’s up to you to proactively become a champion of it if you want it to be truly successful.