In practice, the various programs for developing leaders often overlap. For ease of comprehension, we divide these programs into six categories: feedback-intensive programs, those based on skills, conceptual knowledge and awareness, socialization, action learning, and coaching. A feedback-intensive development program helps leaders develop by seeing more clearly their patterns of behaviors, the reasons for such behaviors, and the impact of these behaviors and attitudes on their effectiveness.

Skill training in leadership development involves acquiring abilities and techniques that can be converted into action. Acquiring knowledge precedes acquiring skills, but in skill-based training the emphasis is on applying knowledge. Five different methods are often used in skill-based leadership training: lecture, case study, role play, behavioral role modeling, and simulations. Because the first three methods are quite familiar, only the last two are described here.

Behavioral role modeling is an extension of role playing and is based on social learning theory. You first observe a model of appropriate behavior, and then you role-play the behavior and gather feedback. Simulations give participants the opportunity to work on a problem that simulates a real organization. In a typical simulation, participants receive a digital packet of information about a fictitious company.

Participants then play the roles of company leaders and devise solutions to the problems. During the debriefing, participants receive feedback on the content of their solutions to problems and the methods they used. A standard university approach to leadership development is to equip people with a conceptual understanding of leadership. The concepts are typically supplemented by experiential activities such as role playing and cases.