Section
Leadership Development
What leadership programmes cost, what they change, and how the effect is measured.
The number
is what EU employers spent per person trained in 2020, a quarter less in real terms than in 2005
Eurostat · Read the piece- Leadership Development
Feedback works best when it is about the task
Across 607 effects, feedback improved performance by 0.41 on average. It worked best when it pointed at the task, and less well when it turned to the person.
- Leadership Development
What companies really spend on leadership development
The 356 billion dollars quoted for leadership development is an estimate of all corporate training in 2015. Its source put leadership training at 3.4 billion.
- Leadership Development
Managers train less often than professionals
In 2025, 19.4 percent of EU managers had trained in the past four weeks, against 24.1 percent of professionals. German managers sat just below the employee average.
- Leadership Development
Simple feedback does as much as a 360 review
The largest meta-analysis of leadership training found no advantage for 360-degree feedback over feedback from a single source, on any outcome it could test.
- Leadership Development
Europe spends less on each trainee than it did in 2005
Across the EU, employers spent 1,433 euro per training participant in 2020, against 1,488 in 2005. Adjusted for inflation that is a fall of 24 percent.
- Leadership Development
Leadership training changes what managers do at work
A meta-analysis of 335 samples found leadership training improves on-the-job behaviour with a corrected effect of 0.82, the largest of the four outcomes it measured.
- Leadership Development
How do you measure whether a leadership programme worked?
The four-level model behind most evaluation dates from 1959 and the levels do not predict each other. A programme can score well on three of them and change nothing.
- Leadership Development
Small firms train fewer people, not cheaper ones
Large European employers spend 859 euro per head of workforce on training. Firms with 10 to 49 staff spend 342. The participation gap is wider than the money gap.
