When I first saw the number, I laughed it off as someone on our Operations team making a simple mistake. There is no way that only 58% of all the enrolled participants are actually showing up for
But upon further review, the number wasn't a mistake. Over the last three years, we have seen a steady decline in attendance from 67%, to 61%, to 58%.
Ten years ago, very few people would dare not show up for a leadership training program. Being selected was considered a privilege and a visible sign that the company was willing to invest in your career. Today, too many employees view training as something closer to a punishment.
Another meeting. Another day away from the work. Another eight hours of emails piling up while someone teaches you a leadership model you may or may not ever use.
What happened?
It would be easy to blame today's employee. We could say people don't want to put in the work anymore, attention spans have disappeared, or the desire for better work-life balance has somehow diminished the desire to learn.
I don't buy it.
In speaking with clients, participants, and industry experts, I keep hearing something much more interesting.
Employees aren't rejecting development. They are rejecting the disconnect between the development they are being given and the world in which they are being asked to lead.
That world has changed dramatically.
Leaders today are managing hybrid teams, navigating matrixed organizations, dealing with relentless cost pressure, responding to increasingly demanding customers, and figuring out how artificial intelligence changes almost every aspect of their jobs.
Then they go to leadership training and sometimes feel like they have stepped into a different decade.
Based on what we are seeing and learning about the talent development industry, I believe there are five things companies need to rethink.
1. Stop Teaching Leadership as If It Happens in a Vacuum
Leadership doesn't happen separately from the business.
You don't coach someone just to be a better coach. You coach them because something needs to improve. You don't give feedback because a leadership model says feedback is important. You give feedback because a deadline is being missed, a customer is unhappy, or someone's performance is affecting the team.
Yet leadership training frequently separates the "people stuff" from the "business stuff."
Instead, put leaders into realistic situations where they have to balance people, customers, operations, financial performance, and strategy at the same time.
Because that's the job.
2. Teach Leaders How to Navigate Trade-Offs, Not Just Old Models
Leaders rarely have the luxury of making decisions where everything works out perfectly.
Do I protect margin or invest in the customer relationship? Do I escalate the problem now or give my team another day to solve it? Do I push an exhausted employee because the customer needs the deliverable, or protect the employee and risk missing the commitment?
There isn't always a neat answer at the bottom of the PowerPoint slide.
This is where simulations, scenarios, and decision-based exercises can be incredibly powerful. Give leaders a realistic problem, force them to make a choice, and let them experience the consequences.
That's much closer to how leadership actually works.
3. Make the Learning Look and Feel Like the Work
If someone's actual job involves making decisions, influencing colleagues, responding to customers, coaching employees, and solving problems, why should their leadership development primarily involve sitting and listening?
The technology now exists to create realistic business simulations, AI-enabled role-plays, interactive cases, and short scenarios that replicate the actual challenges leaders face.
Let them make the decision. Let them have the difficult conversation. Let them get it wrong. Then let them see what happens and try again.
The closer learning gets to the actual work, the less it feels like training.
4. Design for Tuesday Morning, Not Just the Workshop
I think this is where a lot of great leadership programs unintentionally fall apart.
The workshop can be outstanding. The facilitator can be terrific. Participants can give it a 4.9 out of 5.
Then Tuesday morning comes.
There are 73 unread emails, three customer problems, a budget issue, an employee who wants to talk, and six meetings already on the calendar.
That beautiful 47-page leadership workbook suddenly doesn't stand much of a chance.
The real measure of leadership development isn't what participants thought about the program when it ended. It's whether something changes when they get back to work.
Give leaders simple tools they can actually use. Create short reinforcement experiences. Let them practice again through a micro-simulation or AI coaching exercise.
Most importantly, design the program backward from Tuesday morning.
5. Respect People's Time
This one may be uncomfortable for those of us in the training business.
If you are going to take someone away from their job for four hours, eight hours, or two days, you better make those hours worth it. People aren't necessarily less interested in learning. They are much more protective of their time.
And they should be. We need to stop confusing the amount of content delivered with the amount of learning created.
Sometimes a 20-minute simulation followed by a great discussion is more valuable than two hours of content. Sometimes practicing a difficult conversation three times is more useful than listening to a lecture about communication.
The question shouldn't be, "How much content can we cover?"
It should be, "What is the minimum amount of learning we need to create the maximum amount of behavior change?"
Maybe 58% Is Telling Us Something
I keep coming back to that 58%.
When nearly half the people invited to development programs decide that something else is a better use of their time, we shouldn't immediately question their commitment to development.
Maybe we should question the experience we are asking them to attend.
The employees changed. The workplace changed. The technology changed. The challenges of leadership changed.
It is very clear that the leadership training needs to change with them.