---
title: "Leadership Development: Investing in Your Team"
description: Investing in effective leadership development will not only help with retention, it can also positively impact succession planning.
---

[Knowledge Base Articles Archive | LeaderStat ](https://www.leaderstat.com/knowledge-base)

# [Leadership Development: Investing in Your Team](https://www.leaderstat.com/knowledge-base/leadership-development-investing-in-your-team)

 Written by [LS Admin](https://www.leaderstat.com/knowledge-base/author/ls-admin) | Dec 16, 2021

The list of potential ways a healthcare organization can invest in their company is long and grows every day. From upgrading office and medical equipment to expanding marketing campaigns and employee benefits to upgraded facilities, each proposed product, service, or improvement does indeed have value and merit. The executive leadership team faces the continual task of prioritizing and choosing those opportunities with the best ROI for the organization. A tall task to be sure.

But if the organization is not investing in its own leadership team’s development and in team-building within the existing workforce, they are choosing to handicap the company’s future long-term growth and prosperity.

When executed via an effective method, one of the best investments any company can make is to invest in the men and women within their organization. And therein lies the reason many cite for not actively pursuing leadership development. Too many questions begging for answers. How do we know which programs to choose? How can results be measured? How can we gauge the actual ROI if there is one?

Gauging results can be challenging, and not every approach works, especially those that are wrapped in the guise of “training.” Why? Because training offers an indoctrinated, one-size-fits-all approach that is both one-dimensional and authoritative. It teaches the *right way* to do something with a focus on best practices of the past rather than looking forward to future needs.

Leadership development, on the other hand, takes an entirely different approach, building skills over time in hands-on moments rather than in a classroom setting via a boring lecture.

The [CEO Institute](https://www.ceoinstitute.com/leadership-training/leadership-training-vs-leadership-development) suggests that leaders be coached and mentored rather than trained. In fact, they go so far as to insist that traditional leadership “training” be disposed of in favor of leadership development. They share these 15 differences between leadership training and leadership development:

**1. Training **keeps to the status quo, while **development **aims for something further.

**2. Development **is more people-focused.

**3. Development **focuses on the future, while **training **is fixed on the past.

**4. Development **is always more interested in developing potential.

**5. Training **depends on transactions whereas **development **focuses on transformations.

**6. Development **is growth-based.

**7. Development **is more interested in the person than the role.

**8. Development **tries to educate whereas **training **tries to indoctrinate.

**9. Development **leads culture; it does not try to stifle it.

**10. Development **encourages performance over compliance.

**11. Training **is more focused on efficiency than effectiveness. 

**12. Training **is problem-based while **development **is solution-based.

**13. Development **relies more on intellect than does **training**.

**14. Development **explores the unknown while **training **relies on what is known.

**15. Development **is ongoing while **training **is finite.

An added bonus of investing in effective leadership development is found in how it impacts succession planning. The type of mentoring and coaching that leadership development utilizes in its ongoing processes will mesh perfectly with effective succession planning strategies. Development and succession can happily co-exist, benefiting the organization’s present and future at the same time.

LeaderStat’s Executive Search Consultant Sara Acocks challenges those in leadership to take a proactive stance. “We must take a critical look inward and ask ourselves what our responsibility is in the current alarming retention rates we are seeing. Have we put in the work to really understand, honor, and develop the unique talents and passions among our teams?”

Taking the time to invest in your team will not only help your organization retain top performers but can also create a talent pipeline in succession planning.

 

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