Starting in the Middle

What I see as a big road block to growth in quality leadership is the fact that so many large corporations have put into place leadership training for middle management as a path to improvement. High quality leaders cannot easily implement change in an organization where their upper management is still managing through old methods. A simple example would be to put high efficiency windows in an older home that has poor insulation. It may make things around the windows seem better, but ultimately the investment will not yield any real improvement. For an organization to create and retain quality leaders, the changes have to go to the top. Ask any recently trained middle management leader how many changes they have been able to make with no training of the managers they report to. My experiences many years ago made me feel like I wasted my time because I could not implement effective change and growth. Only after leaving the particular organization that gave me leadership training have I been able to utilize my improved skills. Are you training your leaders to move up or move on?