Real skills application means making potential leaders gain crucial skills within a working organization and facing relevant and real-time issues. Along with proper performance support (coaching, mentoring, training, action learning, etc.) candidates are immersed with real issues, not lectures. This is in line with the ultimate goal of leadership development which necessitates action rather than just knowledge. Leadership Development: What It Means For You Being an efficient leader takes more than natural talent. Some people think that being a leader is all about giving orders. That is a very incorrect assumption. Being a leader is about taking command and being an inspiration. Issuing orders alone is not going to cut it the orders have to be correct and logical and they have to be given in a manner that it encourages the work to be done. The problem is that like all types of educational programs, leadership development isn't an automatic solution. There need to be several factors in play for it to work the way it's supposed to. It is important to note that participation in a leadership development program means you're earmarked for a promotion this is why some people want to be able to get the most out of such programs. Developing yourself is mostly about asking questions and coming up with answers to them. While you're doing all of this, write it down this is important for the next stage. 3) Getting It Done You've got the plan in hand, now you've got to make it happen. Implementing your plan may be a bit difficult change is never easy, after all. Most programs give bang for their buck by providing additional services but, at its core, a leadership development program is all about self-improvement. All you need for self-improvement is a willingness to change and a guide to get you started and what you need when you're developing your leadership skills is a plan. - keep track of their progress. Monitoring how well or bad they are doing will help them maneuver things and find ways that would best work for them. For new leaders, it would be best to advise them to keep track of how they are doing while you are conducting leadership development. If you do this, they will know what the areas that they should improve on are and what are the things that they should continue doing.