Leadership development providers often use similar language. You will hear about transformation, bespoke programmes and sustainable change, and it can be difficult to work out what those words mean for the people in your organisation.
A useful conversation should give you enough detail to examine the proposal and explain why it fits. You should leave understanding more about the work itself, rather than simply feeling reassured by an impressive presentation.
Notice the questions they ask you
A provider needs to understand who is involved, what you are seeing and what has already been tried. It should be interested in the conditions around the leaders too, including what the organisation may be doing to reinforce the difficulty.
If you describe a manager who avoids performance conversations, there are several possibilities to explore. They may lack the skill, struggle with disagreement or be unclear about what they can reasonably expect from an overstretched team. A provider recommending a course before understanding that situation may be offering something useful in general while missing your particular need.
You should be able to see how the recommendation follows from the discussion.
Understand who will be in the room
The person selling the programme may have a different role from the people delivering it. Find out who would work with your leaders and how their experience relates to the brief.
Qualifications are part of that assessment, alongside experience, supervision and the ability to apply the approach. Be clear about whether an accreditation belongs to a training programme, an individual practitioner or something else being described in the proposal.
Senior leadership experience can bring a useful understanding of organisational life, but it does not by itself show that someone can coach or facilitate well. You need to examine the combination relevant to your work.
Read evidence for what it actually tells you
A testimonial can be powerful without answering the question you are asking. Someone describing a personal breakthrough through coaching offers different evidence from a sponsor describing changes in how a leadership team worked together.
Look for the service involved, the context and the change described. Where possible, speak to someone who has bought relevant work and ask about the delivery, the difficult moments and what carried through afterwards.
A provider may not have an exact match for your brief. It should be clear about that and help you assess the evidence available, including earlier work undertaken by the people involved. Claims that everyone will change or that one programme can resolve every difficulty should invite further examination.
Ask how the work will reach everyday leadership
The proposal should explain what participants will do with the learning and how the organisation can support that application. There may be practice between sessions, reflection on actual situations, individual coaching or observation of the team working together.
You also need to understand confidentiality, sponsor reporting and what happens if an issue falls outside the agreed work. A provider should be able to explain those boundaries comfortably, including situations where a different form of support is needed.
Assess the working relationship
At PasedaLeader, we expect organisations to question our approach, the experience behind the Paseda360 methodology and the people proposed for delivery. We want to discuss those things in enough detail for you to decide whether the work fits.
Pay attention to how a provider responds when you disagree or ask something awkward. You are choosing people who may need to hold challenging conversations with your leaders, and the quality of that first relationship gives you something useful to consider alongside the formal proposal.
