Growing leaders

Abstract

PurposeTo show the focus of leadership development training practices in recent times.Design/methodology/approachA range of published (1992‐2004) works, which aim to provide a practical look rather than theoretical advice on leadership development training practices, is reviewed. Sources are used to provide real‐life examples of how leadership development training is currently being conducted.FindingsThe article identifies from the literature six primary areas key to leadership development. For each section, a review of the current literature and justification of why organizations need to start training based on these new methods are presented. Additionally, real‐world examples are provided which show the “how to” or applied benefit of the new training method. The six primary areas are: connecting leadership to business goals, providing realistic training, gaining top management support, making trainees accountable for their training, training based on specific organizational goals, and leaders developing other leaders.Originality/valueThis article fulfils the need of many training practitioners who seek to identify new ways of conducting leadership development training by offering practical advice and real‐world examples of successful techniques.