Why leadership training fails is one of the most expensive questions a growing company never asks. Your managers come back from a leadership workshop energized. Two weeks later, the inbox has won, nobody has asked what they learned, and the old habits are back.
If you’ve watched that happen, you’re not imagining it. LMI UK calls it the “Workshop Hangover”: two days of slides and big ideas, then Monday arrives, the binder goes on a shelf, and within a few months the models are barely remembered. It’s the forgetting curve at work, first described by psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus, and leadership skills are no exception.
Jim Crisafulli often tells a story about how people end up as managers. Picture a warehouse distribution center with 15 forklift drivers. One day the foreman retires, so the company looks over the remaining drivers and picks one, let’s call him Harry, because he’s the best forklift driver they have.
In that moment the company makes two mistakes. First, it sets Harry up for failure, because being great at driving a forklift has nothing to do with leading the people who drive them. Second, it loses its best forklift driver.
If Harry is lucky, he gets sent to a workshop. He comes back with good ideas, and within a few weeks the daily pressure pulls him right back to the old way of doing things.
The good news: the problem usually isn’t the training content. It’s what happens before and after it.
The short answer: Leadership training fails when it’s a one-time event with no follow-up, no accountability, no support from the leader’s environment, and no measurable goals. It sticks when learning is spaced over time, applied on real work between sessions, reinforced by a coach or peer group, and tied to business results.
Why leadership training fails
The first reason why leadership training fails is simple: most companies treat it as an event. They book a workshop, send their managers, and check the box. But a single day can only create awareness, and awareness isn’t behavior change. Habits form through repetition over months, and when development lives on one date in the calendar, it fades as fast as it arrived.
The bigger problem is what happens afterward. Nobody checks in on what the manager is applying, so the new behavior becomes optional. Their boss still rewards firefighting. Their team still expects the old way. Under pressure, the path of least resistance wins every time.
Many programs also teach skills without touching mindset. LMI India draws a useful line here: learning is about acquiring knowledge, while development is about changing attitudes, habits, and behaviors. A leader can learn every delegation technique there is and still not use it, because without a shift in how they think, old habits come right back.
The last problem is generic content. Jonah Erbe, President of Leadership Management International, argues that training which doesn’t focus on each participant’s own goals will never be worth it, because every person brings different motivations to the table. When success is measured by attendance and a feedback score instead of personal goals, nobody has a reason to keep going once the session ends.
How to make leadership training stick
The leaders who grow the most don’t attend more workshops. They go through a better process.
That process is spread over months, not a single day. LMI’s approach relies on spaced repetition, reviewing ideas several times over a long period so they move from short-term to long-term memory. Between sessions, leaders apply what they learn on their real work, not in a role-play, then come back and talk through what happened. LMI UK describes this as moving from knowing, to doing, to being a leader.
Someone holds them accountable, too. LMI UK points to the lack of support after the trainer leaves the room as one of the biggest reasons training fails, which is why coaching and facilitation run through the whole program. A coach’s job isn’t to add more information. It’s to challenge thinking and keep the leader on track with their goals.
It starts with self-leadership, because a leader who can’t manage their own time and priorities won’t manage others well. That’s why LMI’s Total Leader® framework begins with personal productivity and personal leadership before moving to motivational and strategic leadership. Their own manager knows what they’re working on and backs it. And every participant sets meaningful personal and organizational goals at the start, so progress can be tracked and the program connects directly to measurable results.
If your last program had none of that, now you know why leadership training fails in so many organizations, and why yours didn’t last. This is the approach behind the programs we deliver at Crisafulli Leadership Group, including [Effective Personal Productivity / Total Leader / LMI program].
Why now is the time to plan 2027 leadership development
Q4 is when budgets get set and next year’s priorities get locked in. If leadership development isn’t in the plan by December, it usually waits until spring, and by then the first quarter is gone.
Before the year ends, sit down with your leadership team and get honest. Who is stepping into a bigger role in 2027? What would change in your results if your managers led differently? And what happened to the last training you paid for? If the answer to that last question is “not much,” the fix isn’t skipping training. It’s choosing development that’s built to last.
Make 2027 the year it sticks
If you want your leaders operating differently next year, let’s talk about what that would take.
Book a 20-minute 2027 planning call with Jim Crisafulli →
Frequently asked questions
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Why does leadership training fail?
The main reason why leadership training fails is that it’s treated as a one-time event without follow-up, accountability, or measurable goals. Without reinforcement, new skills fade and old habits return.
How long does it take for leadership training to stick?
Lasting behavior change takes months of repeated practice, not a single workshop. Programs spread over several months, with application between sessions, give new habits time to form.
How do you measure the ROI of leadership training?
Set specific goals for each leader before the program starts, linked to business outcomes such as productivity, retention, or team performance. Then review progress against those goals at the end.
What is self-leadership, and why does it matter?
Self-leadership is how a leader manages their own attitudes, priorities, and time. It matters because leaders who can’t manage themselves rarely apply new skills when leading others.
When should companies plan next year’s training?
Ideally in Q4, while budgets and priorities are being set, so programs can start in January instead of spring.
References
Include this list at the end of the published article, or keep the inline links only.
- LMI UK. Why Your Next Leadership Development Programme Should Be Two Years Instead of Two Days.
- LMI India. Learning vs. Development: Why Leadership Growth Demands a Mindset Shift.
- CanvasRebel Magazine. Meet Jonah Erbe, interview with the President of Leadership Management International, August 3, 2023.
- LMI UK. About: Our Unique Process.
- LMI UK. Traditional Leadership Training Doesn’t Work, but the LMI Approach Does.
Written By
Jim Crisafulli