Why I Stopped Believing in Leadership Training

I have attended more leadership training than I care to admit.

I have sat in rooms with glossy slides explaining emotional intelligence, psychological safety, and difficult conversations. I have role-played feedback scenarios with strangers. I have nodded along as facilitators described the behaviours of “great leaders”. I have also sent my own team on similar courses, believing it was the responsible thing to do.

I no longer believe in leadership training as it currently exists.

Not because the ideas are wrong, but because they are incomplete. Leadership training assumes the problem is skill. It assumes managers fail because they lack empathy, communication techniques, or self-awareness. This is comforting, because skills are easier to address than structures.

In reality, most managers know what the right thing to do is. They struggle because doing it carries risk.

We ask managers to be honest while punishing them for raising uncomfortable truths. We ask them to be decisive while undermining their authority. We tell them to prioritise wellbeing while rewarding output at all costs. Training does not fix this contradiction. It decorates it.

Leadership courses become theatre. A way for organisations to signal investment without changing incentives. A way to say, “We’ve equipped our managers,” while quietly ignoring the conditions that make good leadership impossible.

I have watched excellent managers burn out trying to reconcile values taught in workshops with realities enforced by hierarchy. Eventually, they learn the real lesson: survival matters more than integrity.

Real leadership development would be uncomfortable. It would involve examining power, accountability, and who is protected when things go wrong. It would involve senior leaders modelling restraint, not just demanding it. Until then, training remains a distraction — well-intentioned, expensive, and largely ineffective.