Innovating Leadership:
Co-Creating Our Future

Hosted by Maureen Metcalf

Conversations with global thought leaders on leadership, culture, and innovation—designed for executives navigating complexity and building resilient organizations.

Evidence-Based Best Practices for Leadership Development

Episode Description

This episode confronts an uncomfortable business question: U.S. companies invest more than $170 billion a year in leadership training, yet many doubt they see real returns. The guests, all seasoned leadership educators, unpack what the evidence actually says, citing McKinsey research that there is no silver bullet, and that more than 40 key actions must align to push the odds of success toward 80 percent. Their focus throughout is on evidence-based strategies that measurably improve leadership development outcomes rather than fashionable but unproven approaches.

Key Takeaways

U.S. businesses invest over $170 billion annually in leadership development, often with unclear returns.
McKinsey research finds no silver bullet; success depends on more than 40 aligned actions.
Evidence-based strategies, not fashionable trends, are what measurably improve outcomes.
Maximizing leadership development ROI requires deliberate, research-informed design.
Bridging academic theory and real-world practice is central to effective development.

Why This Episode Matters

Executives come away with an evidence-based lens for evaluating leadership development spending, and a sober reminder that real results require many aligned actions, not a single program.

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Featuring

Gama Perruci, Sadhana Warty Hall & Karen Ford

Episode Topics

Leadership Capability & Maturity • Measurement & Evidence • Strategy Execution

Podcast Air Date

January 29, 2019

Episode Duration

43min

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Season 5

Episode Number 3

Episode Content:

Are you spending a hefty budget on leadership training, and wondering if it’s worth it?

You’re far from alone. According to the American Society of Training and Development, U.S. businesses spend more than $170 billion on leadership-based curriculum…and many wonder about the results. McKinsey reports “There is no silver bullet for successfully developing leaders—more than 40 key actions must be taken to increase chances of success to 80 percent.”

So how do you boost your chances, and make the most of your investment? Our guests in this episode have done the research, and share the results with host Maureen Metcalf!

Produced in partnership with the International Leadership Association: https://ilaglobalnetwork.org.

Other episodes you’ll enjoy:

Finding Peace in Conflict: Northern Ireland & Beyond with John, Lord Alderdice
Reflections on Women in Leadership with the Right Honourable Kim Campbell
Adaptive Leadership & Culture Change with Ron Heifetz

For daily wisdom from our guests, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn. We’re on Instagram, Threads, and Twitter, too!

Resources:

Sadhanna & Gama’s book is Teaching Leadership: Bridging Theory & Practice. It’s available on Amazon at https://amzn.to/469UtMk. You can learn more about Sadhana on her website: https://sadhanahall.com/home.

Our host, Maureen Metcalf, posts a newsletter every week on LinkedIn. You can subscribe here.

Maureen’s latest book is Innovative Leadership & Followership in the Age of AI. You’ll find details about it at https://bit.ly/LeaderInAI. Her other 10 books are available on Amazon here.

Books we’re reading for fun or personal development right now include:

Becoming Superman: My Journey from Poverty to Hollywood by J. Michael Straczynski
Own the AI Revolution by Neil Sahota
Time and Chance by Kim Campbell
Three Rocks: The Story of Ernie Bushmiller, the Man Who Created Nancy by Bill Griffith

NOTE: As an Amazon partner, we may make a small commission from books you buy through these links.

Other episodes you’ll enjoy

Self-Awareness: The #1 Predictor of Leadership Success with Belinda Gore
Bridging Research & Practice: The Medical Model You Can Use with William Smoyer
The Science of Dream Teams with Mike Zani

Guest(s):

Gama Perruci, Sadhana Warty Hall & Karen Ford

Guest(s) Bio:

Sadhana Warty Hall is the former Deputy Director of the Rockefeller Center. Hall designed, implemented, and oversaw programs for undergraduate students focusing on leadership, public policy, and civic engagement.

Prior to her appointment at the Rockefeller Center, she worked for more than 20 years with communities around the world. In Tuvalu, Bhutan, and the Caucasus, she helped implement programs in health, agriculture, economic development, and water supply. In the US, Hall’s experience includes managing primary healthcare programs and extending health services to disadvantaged communities in the state of New Hampshire. She served as director of international relations with the Global Health Council, where she also directed three annual global health conferences with 1,500 participants representing 80 countries.

She holds a B.S. from the University of Delhi, India, a M.A. from the University of Rajasthan, India, and an M.P.H. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Public Health.

The late Dr. Gama Perruci was Dean of the McDonough Center at Marietta College in Ohio and served as a leadership education consultant for The New York Times, a facilitator for the Young African Leaders Initiative, and a facilitator and the leadership programs at Dartmouth College’s Rockefeller Center. Gama was a frequent guest on the BBC and the Paris-based Radio France International broadcast to Brazil, his country of birth. He served as a member of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library’s Academic Advisory Council and as the Board Chair of the International Leadership Association. Notably, he also served as a consultant for the review of the Department of Leadership, Ethics and Law at the United States Naval Academy and as an evaluator of Zayed University’s leadership program in Dubai, UAE. He is the author of several books including Global Leadership: A Transnational Perspective; Teaching Leadership: Bridging Theory and Practice with Sadhana Warty Hall; and Understanding Leadership: An Arts and Humanities Approach with Robert M. McManus.

Dr. Karen Ford is a Professor Emeritus and former Director of Strategic Leadership Studies at James Madison University. Her educational background includes a D.S.W. from Howard University, an M.S.W. from Virginia Commonwealth University, and a B.A. from Emory & Henry College. Her professional interests focus on accountability and policy in higher education. Dr. Ford has held various positions, including Professor in the Social Work Department at JMU, Director of Lynchburg Youth Services, Regional Youth Prevention Specialist for the Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice, Director of Camp New Hope, and a Middle School Social Studies Teacher. Additionally, she has contributed to organizations such as the Baccalaureate Social Work Program Directors Association, Council on Social Work Education, American Association of University Professors, Virginia Network of Nonprofit Organizations, Nonprofit Academic Centers Council, and the NAACP.

Transcript