Leadership training is expensive. The outcomes desired should be consistent with the type of training provided. If it is not practical, it is probably not productive. This line of thought bears true in Christopher Pollitt’s research summarized succinctly in the Guardian.

Mr. Pollitt writes, “Increasingly, however, universities and consultancies are offering their own courses, sometimes attracting a wide international spread of would-be mandarins. Harvard’s John F Kennedy School of Government and the Hertie School of Governance, Berlin, are examples…Yet there are reasons to question this trend. First, do we really know how to teach these skills – are there proven ways of producing better leaders, innovators and collaborators?…Second, are the strengths that are being taught even appropriate for civil servants?”

Clearly, leadership training needs to be tailored for the public sector.