The effects of a leadership-development program on the performance of upper-level sales managers in a Fortune 1000 company

Leadership-development programs have become a common topic of discussion in the business and psychology literatures; however, a review of this literature shows that little is known about how much these programs contribute to individual and organizational performances. This study showed the effects of a typical leadership-development program on the sales productivity of five upper-level sales managers of a Fortune 1000 company. A secondary goal of the study was to assess overall employee satisfaction with the leadership-development program. The sales managers attended a four-day leadership-development program, following which they were instructed to engage in several developmental activities (e.g., writing plans for their development, meetings with their managers). Results showed that the leadership-development program led to useful, sustained increased in sales performance for three of the five managers. These three managers reported to have engaged in the recommended developmental activities following the program. For the other two managers who did not report engagement in the follow-up developmental activities, increased sales performance was transitory. These results suggest that attending the leadership-development program and engaging in the recommended development activities after leaving the program can lead to useful increases in sales performance. Whether these findings will generalize to managers from other organizations that participate in similar leadership-development programs remains an unanswered question.