India is on the cusp of an incredible growth spurt, with startup culture taking over, businesses expanding beyond boundaries, and a continued influx of qualified people into the job market. The business world is recognizing the need for stable, aware, and dynamic leadership. Given this, leadership training has become imperative, and there are many courses and programs to help talented individuals transform into effective leaders.
However, a growing concern about leadership training has come to light. All across the corporate world, managers are sent to attend leadership-related courses; they come back energized with new ideas and an empowering approach but soon revert to their old behavior due to work pressure. Leadership capability is no longer just an HR priority; it has become a business imperative. Great Place To Work® India’s latest research, based on the experiences of 5.7 million+ employees across 20+ industries, shows that workplace culture begins with leadership. In fact, India’s Best Workplaces™ have demonstrated that when leaders consistently build trust, organizations create stronger cultures, and the business yields 14X higher market returns.
This is a common theme and Great Place to Work recognizes the need for Leadership Capability Building. That is why we offer solutions that help leaders become better versions of themselves. This blog will explore the nuances of leadership training, why it is often ineffective, and tips for fixing it.
Why Should Indian Organizations Focus On Leadership Training?
The new landscape of Indian businesses is vastly different from the traditional, family-run, hierarchical, and conservative businesses that were the norm a few years back. Here are some factors that have changed over time. Today’s employees expect much more than technical guidance from their leaders. They expect leaders who listen, communicate transparently, build trust, recognize contributions, and help employees grow. Great Place To Work research identifies leadership behaviours such as Listening, Caring, Inspiring, Developing, and Sharing as the foundation for creating high-trust workplace cultures that consistently outperform on business outcomes.
Factor #1: Intermingling of Multiple Generations in the Workforce
In the current scenario, we have employees from various generations. Multiple generations, including Generation X, Millennials, and Gen Z, are working together. Each generation has different expectations of leadership and work styles. It is important to train leadership to become aware of these factors and offer guidance and support accordingly.
Factor #2: Businesses Spanning Various Countries
Indian businesses are expanding beyond borders to sell their products and services, which requires leadership to be prepared to meet the associated challenges. Different countries require nuanced approaches according to their customs.
Factor #3: Changing Styles of Working
In recent times, the corporate world has seen many changes in working styles. Work from home, hybrid work, and working completely on-site require leadership to adapt and meet these changing work styles. Leaders have to guide, inspire, and support people working remotely and onsite. As organizations embrace hybrid work and AI-enabled ways of working, leadership has become even more important. Great Place To Work India observes that technology can improve efficiency, but employees still rely on leaders for clarity, connection, recognition, and purpose. Leadership, therefore, becomes the bridge between flexibility and sustained performance.
Factor #4: Workforce from across Different Geographies
The world has become a smaller place, thanks to technology, and it has become the norm for an Indian company to have people from across countries working for it, either onsite or remotely. This means leadership has to become sensitive and adapt to people from different cultures.
Factor #5: Continuous Technological Advancements
Technologies like AI and machine learning have changed how people work. In some instances, they have made work easier; in others, they have created a sense of insecurity. Leaders must be trained to manage people with different approaches to technological advances. AI is rapidly transforming workplaces, but organizational readiness remains uneven. Great Place To Work India’s research found that 2 in 5 CHROs identify uneven AI adoption across teams, functions, and geographies as their biggest challenge. At the same time, only 26% of organizations currently measure AI’s impact through business outcomes, highlighting the growing need for leaders who can successfully guide people through technological change.
The above factors highlight why relevant and effective leadership is essential to ensure that the workforce continues to get the guidance they need. Leaders must have the leadership skills that drive results to perform well sustainably.
What Are the Reasons behind the Failure of Leadership Training?
In the Indian context, companies of all sizes and across diverse industries recognize the need to train their leadership in response to the changing requirements of the workforce. However, leadership training often fails, and here are some reasons why.
Reason #1: Training Is Not a Constant Process
While companies recognize the need to train leaders, they often treat it as a one-time exercise. The result of this approach is that leaders do not receive the updated support they need to manage an ever-evolving workforce and changing work styles. Moreover, leaders may not be able to fully absorb all the information they receive in a short course and implement these changes only on the surface, resulting in few meaningful changes.
How to fix this?
- Here are some steps that can make leadership programs more effective:
- Conduct regular coaching sessions after identifying areas the leader needs support on
- Undertake regular checks with the team to understand the improvements in leadership style
- Encourage regular peer-level discussions between leaders to understand what is working
Reason #2: Ineffective Process for Appointing Leaders
Indian companies often approach the appointment of leaders based on technical skills rather than the soft skills leaders require. For instance, the best salesperson will be appointed as the head of sales. While this is a good way to recognize excellent performance and help the team respect the leader, it may not always work, as good leaders need more than technical skills.
Great Place To Work research consistently demonstrates that leadership behaviours, not technical expertise alone, shape workplace performance. Organizations with the strongest Caring and Inspiring leadership experiences outperform by 14% across key business outcomes, including retention, recruitment, customer service, agility, and discretionary effort. This highlights why leadership potential should be assessed alongside functional expertise when selecting future leaders.
How to fix this?
In such cases, the focus of leadership training should be on developing soft skills that leaders require instead of focusing only on the technical aspects:
- Start by assessing leadership skills, identify improvement areas, and create training programs
- Create training programs based on two-way communication, active listening, and problem-solving
- Train the leader on strategic thinking, analytical approach, and effective conflict resolution
- Emphasize the need for effective delegation and help them with ways to measure performance
Reason #3: Leadership Training Is Theoretical
Training in Indian companies often tends to be more theoretical rather than practical. This means the training program is full of motivational theories and presentations that leave the leader feeling motivated but unclear on practical implementations. Often, the training session is based on a template that may not work for the leader being trained. The result is scattered implementation, confused team members, and reverting to old ways of working.
How to fix this?
The starting point could be to look at reports from the industry that showcase practical examples and create the training program, including the following:
- Study the specific needs of the industry, leadership, and working styles to create the training program
- Train using workshops, business simulations, and gamification of various practical aspects
- Make the training session more participative and allow guided discussions to make training more practical
- Offer real-life examples, case studies, and create business simulations to help leaders understand better and take on a practical approach.
Reason #4: Incomplete Executive Support and Buy-in
India is a country of such vast diversity that we have a mix of traditional family-run businesses, modern corporations, and startups with different approaches to leadership training. In many cases, it could be the HR department advocating for leadership training, and the executive agreeing as a matter of lip service. In such cases, leaders who have been trained in better ways of functioning may lack the freedom to implement what they have learned, resulting in a loss of credibility.
How to fix this?
Start the process from the top with open discussions, showcase the benefits to the company, and get started with the following steps:
- Get complete executive buy-in and encourage participation to achieve a full download, rather than only the HR team leading the move.
- Encourage the leadership team to model the behaviors and cultural norms they want others to emulate.
- Link training outcomes to business results so that leadership sees the value in leadership training and participates wholeheartedly.
Reason #5: Lack of Training on Emotional Aspects
Many leadership training programs focus on business, financial, and technical aspects while overlooking softer areas such as Emotional Intelligence. This can result in leaders not being able to understand what motivates their team beyond remuneration, team dynamics, and effective conflict management. The result can be a decline in employee morale, increased burnout, and reduced employee engagement.
How to fix this?
Including emotional aspects in the training program must start by collecting inputs from the team, assessing the leaders, and understanding improvement areas with the steps given below:
- Ask the teams working under the leaders to candidly provide anonymous feedback on their leaders with examples if possible
- Have the leaders assess themselves in soft skills such as listening, empathy, and conflict management.
- Help them actively seek feedback from their team leaders, peers, and reportees, and act on it.
Reason #6: Not Measuring Outcomes of Effective Leadership
Another factor contributing to the failure of leadership training is that most companies do not measure outcomes or assess the impact on the team. The only factors that are evaluated are the number of people attending and what they thought of the trainee.
How to fix this?
Leadership training will become more effective when leaders know what is at stake and help track metrics related to this:
- The impact on employee engagement, productivity, attrition, and talent retention
- Conduct surveys and collect information from teams about the effectiveness of the leadership
- Studying the interaction between departments and see if there is increased collaboration
Reason #7: Training Agenda Not Linked to Business Goals
Tying the training’s outcome to business goals will improve effectiveness and help secure buy-in from top management. This ensures that training addresses the unique challenges faced by the company’s leadership, rather than offering generic training that lacks long-term impact. For instance, the needs of a manufacturing company’s leadership training will differ from that of a service-based company’s leadership.
How to fix this?
The solution would be to talk to employees, leadership, and the board to understand the needs and work on the following:
- Ensure the training is woven around the company’s needs and incorporates aspects of the operation, mission, culture, and other factors.
- Look at competitors and study what they are doing right and where they are going wrong, to work on the training material.
- Build on existing leadership requirements while incorporating the factors outlined above to make it more effective.
How to Build an Impactful Leadership Training Strategy?
Building impactful leadership training requires input from across the organization and reflects the company’s core values and goals.
Here’s how to do it:
- Map current leadership competencies and identify areas for improvement
- Use tools like surveys, townhalls, and 360-degree feedback to collect relevant data
- Access reports and other information sources to understand what works best for the industry
- Create personalized and targeted training programs that are engaging and insightful
- Use technology to make the training material interactive and practical (e.g., gamification, case studies).
- Combine various learning methods, such as self-learning, trainer-led training, coaching, and mentoring, to get the right mix.
- Regularly look at the training material and update it to meet the organization’s evolving needs.
The most effective leadership development strategies begin with data, not assumptions. Understanding how employees currently experience leadership helps organizations identify capability gaps, prioritize development areas, and design interventions that address real business challenges rather than perceived ones.
What Does the Future of Indian Leadership Training Look Like?
Leadership training should never be viewed as a standalone learning initiative. It is a strategic investment in organizational culture and business performance. Our research consistently shows that organizations with caring, inspiring, and trust-building leaders create workplaces where employees are more engaged, more agile, more likely to stay, and more willing to contribute beyond what is expected.
As AI becomes embedded in everyday work, leadership will become increasingly human. Great Place To Work research suggests that the future belongs to leaders who can make work meaningful, strengthen trust, encourage learning, and help employees adapt confidently to change. Technology may accelerate work, but leadership determines whether people remain motivated to contribute their best.
With these factors in mind, leadership training will need to ensure that leaders are equipped with more than technical and supervisory qualities. They will need to be adaptable to newer technologies, have the emotional wherewithal to deal with a workforce of a diverse demographic profile, ensure inclusivity, and encourage a growth mindset.
Companies must focus on offering the right support to leadership. Want help on getting started? This is where our team at Great Place To Work can help. Whether it is conducting impartial employee surveys or providing leadership building capabilities, we offer tailored solutions.
The business impact of great leadership is measurable. India’s Best Workplaces generate nearly twice the revenue per employee compared to the average Nifty 500 company, demonstrating that investing in leadership and workplace culture is not simply good for employees, it is good for business.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Why should Indian organizations focus on leadership training?
Indian organizations are going beyond geographical boundaries, dealing with international entities, becoming more technologically evolved, and facing more challenges due to this. Leadership training equips leaders to be prepared to deal with the changing business environment.
What makes leadership training more effective?
Leadership training becomes more effective when the training program is dynamic, includes practical applications, offers training to deal with increasing complexities of the business, prepares leadership to be better at communication, and is a continuous process.
How to measure the success of leadership training?
Depending on the industry and type of business, the success of leadership can be measured by factors like increased employee engagement, better talent retention, reduced absenteeism, increased productivity, and team adaptability.
For leadership training to be effective, which teams should be involved in the process?
Leadership training becomes more effective when it starts with complete executive buy-in, followed by the HR department who will work on preparing the training content, reporting teams to provide their inputs and opinions on the leadership, and the leadership team themselves.
