Imagine the following scenario:

The time has come to arrive at the corporate headquarters for a meeting, and the executive team wants some training and development — for themselves. They want it to be fast, effective and relevant. Your mind races as you think that most of the training you have delivered is to entry-level employees. In those training programs, of course, the learners are new to their roles…. Now, you need to focus on training at management level. Your mind races with questions like, “How will this be different?”; “Who will be there?”; “How long should it be?”; and “Which topics should be addressed?”

Delivering training to an executive-level audience can be scary; after all, it’s a chance to prove how learning contributes to the business! Thus, you may be feeling the pressure to deliver a top tier learning experience to your organization’s senior leaders. But take a deep breath and relax because, fortunately, there are solutions to help answer these questions.

Start With Assessments

First, you need to assess where you are as an organization at the management level. It’s important to make sure the training needs at this level aligns to company goals. Executive-level training should embody the company’s mission and values. A simple assessment or survey of the team will help narrow down topics for potential training.

Once the results of these assessments are in, it’s important to set clear objectives based on them. This will become the baseline for the training. It will help zero in on the training that your leaders need.  Typically, most companies promote high performers to a management level. However, sometimes the best performers do not always make the best manager. They may potentially lack the people-focused skills needed to be leader. This means that these leaders may have less expertise in many important soft skills needed for leadership, such as emotional intelligence (EQ) and strategic thinking. Understanding the needs of each of your leaders and how they connect to the company goals will ensure a successful rollout. After all, senior leaders and managers are the gatekeepers for business goals and, therefore, help drive these metrics.

Make It Relevant and Engaging

Now, it’s time to deliver training to your leaders. There are a few key points to remember to make sure your training efforts are successful:

• The content needs to be dynamic and engaging for this audience. This is important because your time with this group is limited, so having relative content to business goals matters.
• Making time for training is always a challenge at any level, but executives’ time is even more limited. Try to deliver short “bursts” of learning that leaders can work into their daily workflow.
• Mix in real-life examples as well as interactive activities to keep training fun and engaging.
• Using accurate data and research is important in terms of adding credibility to your content. Remember: You are the training expert — so make sure you know your material. It’s important to be confident and accurate in all presentation materials.
• High-level managers want to know how training can be used right away, on the job. Make sure to highlight how they can apply what they learn to their role.
• Flexibility of the training is also important because it shows respect for the valuable time of this team. Offer many opportunities for training and offer it in multiple delivery modalities.

Post-Training Support

Once training concludes, it’s time to focus on providing post-training support. Make sure that all resources and training materials are available for your learners. This includes any documents and notes from the session. There may be a need for post-training follow-up as well. This will help ensure that your leaders apply what they learned on the job. It also allows leaders to provide you with valuable feedback on how they were able to practically use what they learned.

Challenging your leaders to commit to continuous learning is important in keeping their skills fresh. A cross-department mentoring program can help hold each leader accountable to their learning goals.

Training high-level managers is not a one-and-done process: It’s an ongoing one that helps the leaders grow and develop while focusing on company goals. What’s more? It also gives training professionals the opportunity to show their value to the business.