When it comes to establishing culture, leadership is key. Our leaders are the architects of the employee experience, and it’s critical that they have the tools to create an environment where employees want to stay and are inspired to be engaged in their work.

At California Credit Union, we established our leadership development program to accomplish two overarching strategic goals: Enhancing our workplace culture and ensuring that leaders are trained on the same core competencies, creating a consistent approach to things like employee coaching, feedback and motivation tactics.

The six-month program, offered twice per year in each local region, consists of self-paced prework, instructor led sessions (ILT), post-session reinforcement activities and additional reinforcement materials, all culminating in a final capstone project. We used the title, “Leadership Engagement and Advancement Program (LEAP),” which inspired our tagline, “We invite every manager to take the LEAP into leadership.”

Here are six best practices we follow and the results:

1. Establish alignment and gain buy-in up front.

To understand the training need, we worked with senior leadership, human resources (HR), long-time managers and other stakeholders to identify critical management competencies that align to our core credit union values. It’s essential that we had, and continue to have, input from individuals who can help us align learning solutions to our organization’s philosophy and strategic goals.

Additionally, before we began, the program was presented to senior leadership team members to obtain buy-in and verify its alignment with enhancing our company culture. We knew there would be no point in moving forward with an initiative if there wasn’t genuine buy-in from the top, which we had from all senior levels of the credit union.

2. Consider the unique needs of different levels of leadership.

Leaders have different needs at various stages of their leadership journey. Based on the participants’ level of leadership, they have different target competencies. We target emerging leaders, leaders with 1-5 years of experience, and leaders with over five years of experience uniquely.

For emerging leaders, we want to support them in their transition to a management position and equip them to excel under their new responsibilities and expectations. These competencies include areas of focus like “moving from peer to supervisor” and “developing leadership presence.”

For leaders with 1-5 years of experience, we focus on their people management skills. We want them to have that toolbox, since they’re the ones who are most entrenched in the day-to-day operations of their employees. Like emerging leaders, they are trained on establishing credibility. Additionally, they are trained on competencies like “building trust under pressure” and “realizing talent in others.”

For leaders with more than five years of experience, it’s critical they take ownership of their roles as strategic decision-makers. They receive training on the people management skills of correcting performance problems, giving needs-based feedback, conducting performance reviews, delivering value through people, building commitment to results and resolving conflicts within their team. In addition, they receive training on competencies like “shaping a motivational workforce” and “influencing outcomes through others.”

This tiered approach allows us to target the unique needs of the individual based on their current level, making the content as relevant as possible to their circumstances.

3. Involve senior leadership.

Anytime you have a new training initiative, you need to put in the legwork to get people on board. When it comes to leadership training, it’s important they see that it’s a priority endorsed by senior executives.

To drive home the importance of the program, we held a kick-off meeting with California Credit Union’s CEO, who emphasized the significance of participation in the program and completion of all work assignments. This let the participants know, “Hey, senior leadership all the way up to the CEO thinks this is important, you should too!”

4. Set clear expectations and gain commitment.

One of the biggest pieces of advice I would give to anyone undertaking a leadership development program is to obtain each participant’s commitment to the schedule and putting in the work necessary. When people publicly commit to something, they’re more likely to follow through.

New leaders coming into the credit union are introduced to the program in their onboarding, establishing the expectation that completing the training within their first 18 months is part of their role expectation in being hired.

We also send an official welcome email to participants that defines the format of the program and sets expectations of participation. We want to make sure everyone knows exactly what the program requires so they can fully commit to the process.

5. Make it hands on.

Leadership development topics and competencies can be nebulous and difficult to train on. This is why it’s so essential to include elements of experiential learning in your leadership development programs. Along with interactive activities throughout the program, the capstone activity is where we really make the “hands on” aspect happen.

During the capstone portion, participants are presented with a business case study topic and asked to submit a proposal on how to approach the business decision. They are asked to consider and determine potential outcomes resulting from the decision, plus how it may impact future decision-making. This project allows them to apply their skills and practice thinking about the implications of their decisions.

6. Make it social.

Leaders have a lot to learn from training – but they also have a lot to learn from one another. When it comes to our ILT sessions, group discussions and activities are used to share knowledge between learners. These live sessions are often praised as participants’ favorite part of the program.

Additionally, learners are assigned self-paced or social learning assignments as follow up activities after each live session. Many of the post-ILT activities and assignments involve working with partners to plan challenging conversations, reinforce topics and conduct role-play scenarios. These “homework” assignments have to be completed in a timely manner and verified by the participant’s manager, which creates a system of accountability. We also conduct group debrief sessions where learners discuss with one another how they are implementing the training tactics in real-life scenarios.

All of these opportunities that we create for peer-to-peer collaboration result in learning that we couldn’t have produced on our own.

The Results

Thanks in part to following these best practices, our program has been hugely successful. While we understand there are other contributing factors to these results, we believe that the implementation of the leadership program played a role in achieving the following: year over year there has been a decrease in employee turnover, a reduction in the number of performance improvement plans issued, and an increase in new training participants.

If you’re looking to develop or revamp your leadership development programs, these best practices should get you well on your way!