Why Leadership Programmes Are Failing and How to Fix Them

They’re packed with clever content, led by accomplished facilitators, and grounded in good intentions. And yet, too often, they miss the mark where it matters most - changing behaviours, shaping mindsets, and preparing leaders to navigate a complex world.

Despite the investment of time, energy, and budget, far too many programmes produce leaders who may be informed, but not transformed.

The faulty assumptions undermining leadership development

Assumption 1: Leadership is a skill you can learn in a workshop

The truth? Leadership is not a checklist. It’s a lived experience. It’s emergent, messy, and deeply human. You can’t “teach” it in the abstract. You learn it through tension and ambiguity. Through hard decisions and uncomfortable truths. Through failure, reflection, and resilience.

Assumption 2: Leadership is about knowledge

Yes, knowledge matters. But today’s most effective leaders are not walking encyclopaedias. They’re systems thinkers, boundary-spanners, ethical decision-makers, and agile learners. Leadership is less about having the right answers, and more about holding space for uncertainty and co-creating new solutions.

Assumption 3: Safe spaces build strong leaders

There’s value in safety, but transformation happens at the edge of comfort. The most powerful leadership development doesn’t protect people from discomfort; it invites them into it, with support. Growth comes from encountering difference, facing tension, and grappling with the unfamiliar.

When programmes sanitise leadership - when they remove its emotional complexity, its moral weight, its political context - they produce leaders who may be polished but not prepared.

So what does work?

At Common Purpose, we’ve spent decades designing leadership experiences that make a real difference because they reflect the real world.

We don’t wrap leadership in bubble wrap. We: 

• Drop leaders into unfamiliar environments - geographies, sectors, cultures, conversations they don’t control.
• Expose them to people who think, live, and lead differently - to challenge assumptions and broaden empathy.
• Put purpose at the centre - because people don’t follow titles, they follow values.
• Foster networks across boundaries - because no leader succeeds alone.

We treat leadership not as an identity, but as a practice.

Not as a linear path, but as a lifelong experience.

Not as an individual pursuit, but a shared responsibility.

The future of leadership development

The world is changing, fast. Climate disruption, social fragmentation, AI, economic uncertainty. These aren’t abstract challenges. They are here, now, and they demand a new kind of leadership.

Leadership development must evolve accordingly.

It must be:

• Experiential because you can’t think your way into courage.
• Cross-boundary because new thinking happens at the edges.
• Rooted in purpose because people crave meaning, not just metrics.
• Inclusive by design because leadership must reflect the world it serves.
• Adaptive and unfinished because the experience never ends.

It’s time to stop designing programmes that prepare people for a world that no longer exists.

And start creating experiences that prepare them to lead in the world that’s emerging - complex, fast-moving, plural, and fragile.

The future doesn’t need more competent leaders. It needs more conscious ones.

Let’s build leadership programmes that rise to that challenge.

David O'Connor

David O’Connor is Director of Strategy & Innovation at Common Purpose. In his role, he leads the development of new approaches, and learning experiences that push the boundaries of leadership development. David is passionate about redefining how we prepare leaders to navigate complexity, and is driven by the belief that disruptive thinking can unlock powerful, inclusive impact in communities and organizations.