Everyone knows behavioral change is hard, but that’s often forgotten in leadership development programs.

Long-term behavioral change requires leaders to have both the motivation and the ability to change. Unrealistic goals, limited resources (including time and energy), and a lack of feedback can inhibit a leader’s ability to succeed in a development program. This can be demotivating, which is especially problematic if a leader is ambivalent to development or struggles with self-awareness in the first place.

By adapting leadership development programs based on the psychology of behavioral change, talent professionals can make actual improvement easier for leaders.

This might look like educating leaders about the risk of self-deception, confronting ambivalence, offering guidance on reputation management, and addressing resource constraints. It might also look like using precise assessments to offer leaders direct feedback, then setting simple, attainable goals to encourage change over time. Sounds straightforward enough, right?