The Real Reason Leadership Development Works (or Doesn’t): A Systems Approach to Sustainable Behaviour Change

Leadership training is only as effective as the behaviour it changes. And yet, so often, even the best-intentioned programs fall short. Why do some development experiences leave a lasting imprint while others quickly fade?

That’s the question explored in a recent research collaboration with the London School of Economics (LSE)*. Across a number of in-depth interviews with LIW facilitators, program participants, and L&D leaders, the study asked: 

“What truly enables long-term behavioural change after training?”

The findings were complex but clear: lasting behaviour change is not just about learning. It’s about systems—the environment, the expectations, and the leadership behaviours that surround the learning experience. It’s about designing for impact, not just for insight.

That’s where LIW’s Leadership Impact Chain comes in.

From Insight to Impact: Introducing the Leadership Impact Chain

At LIW, we’ve always challenged the idea that leadership behaviour on its own drives results. In practice, the leap from development to business impact is wide—and too often, undefined.

The Leadership Impact Chain closes that gap. It lays out the four essential components that must align for leadership development to deliver real, measurable change:

1. Business Impact – The strategic results the organisation is aiming to achieve

2. Performance – The specific behaviours others must demonstrate, enabled by the environment they experience

3. The Optimum Environment – The conditions required for that performance, built through the 3Cs

4. Leadership Behaviour – The daily actions leaders take to shape those conditions

The research confirmed this model. Every lasting behaviour change story mapped back to clear alignment across these four links.

1. Business Impact: Anchor Development to Strategy

Too many programs start with good content but no strategic context. The strongest initiatives in the research began by asking: What change are we trying to create in the business?

Whether it was improving customer retention, enabling a merger, or increasing speed to market, defining the business impact up front gave the development purpose. Leaders weren’t just attending sessions—they were equipping themselves to deliver something real.

Without this clarity, development becomes disconnected. With it, the entire experience becomes focused, motivating, and measurable.

Creating a clear context for leadership development, moves learning from insightful to impactful.

2. Performance: Create the Conditions for Others to Perform

In the Leadership Impact Chain, performance refers to the ability of others—teams, peers, and individual contributors—to deliver what’s required to achieve business goals. Critically, it’s not about the leader’s personal output. It’s about the performance they enable through the environment they create.

The research showed that long-term behavioural change is sustained when leaders are supported to create the right conditions for others to thrive. This means helping people understand expectations, making space for reflection and experimentation, and setting up systems and cultural signals that reinforce high performance.

The research found that performance in this context depends on:

• Organisational culture that values learning and accountability

• Managerial support that encourages application and reinforcement of skills

• Peer networks that promote ongoing connection and shared learning

Leaders don’t drive performance by doing more themselves. They do it by fostering environments where others feel equipped, empowered, and motivated to step up. As one participant noted, “You get the most when the organisation shows they are invested… and the culture around learning really pays off.”

This reinforces the Leadership Impact Chain’s principle: performance is a relational and systemic outcome. Leadership behaviours matter most when they create the conditions for others to succeed.  

3. The Optimum Environment: Build with the 3Cs

This is where the human and systemic insights from the research came to life. Behavioural change was only sustained when the environment supported it—and that environment had three essential components, defined by LIW’s 3Cs framework:

• Clarity: Clear goals, roles, priorities, and feedback loops

• Climate: A combination of emotional tone (psychological safety, trust, respect) and functional systems (processes, infrastructure, and support mechanisms)

• Competence: Confidence, skill, and belief in one’s ability to act effectively

Participants described how even motivated leaders faltered without clear expectations or when systems worked against the behaviours being taught. Conversely, in environments rich in the 3Cs, small behavioural shifts quickly multiplied into systemic change.

James Clear (Atomic Habits) argues that rather than rising to our goals, we fall to our systems, this belief was clearly held during the interviews.

This reinforces LIW’s core belief: leadership doesn’t happen in a vacuum. The conditions matter.

4. Leadership Behaviour: Make Actions Count

Finally, the behaviour change itself.

Too often, leadership programs stop at high-level traits—“be authentic,” “be curious.” In reality, the research found that specific, context-driven behaviours made the difference: setting direction with clarity, being present with teams, giving timely feedback, coaching rather than always instructing.

And critically, these behaviours only mattered when they were clearly linked to building the optimal environment for others to succeed. That’s what made them impactful—not just admirable.

When behaviours are connected to the conditions they’re meant to shape, and those conditions to the performance and business goals they enable, everything becomes measurable—and fixable.

What Else Drives Long-Term Change?

Beyond the core chain, the research surfaced deeper insights into how learning becomes transformation:

• Motivation matters. Change begins with a compelling “why”—both intrinsic (“I want to grow”) and extrinsic (“I want to lead more effectively”). Participants who connected their development program to their personal leadership story were most likely to change.

• Context is everything. Facilitators who understood the organisation’s culture and language had more impact. Generic training missed the mark; grounded, relevant experiences resonated.

• Peer learning amplifies change. Informal support systems—alumni cohorts, coaching circles, reflective groups—help embed behaviours. Change sticks when it’s social.

• Readiness is essential. Leaders thrown into development at the wrong time—whether personally or organisationally—struggled. Great design means getting the when right, not just the what.

Six Design Implications for Sustainable Behavioural Change

So how do we apply these insights to leadership development design? Here are six principles to shape more effective, more human programs:

1. Start with strategic intent. Anchor development to a real business need and ensure this is articulated in a way that participants understand

2. Clarify performance expectations. Define what success looks like for teams and individuals—and enable it.

3. Build the environment. Don’t just develop people—develop the system around them.

4. Focus behaviours on creating conditions. Make leadership actions context-specific and purposeful.

5. Support the social system. Leverage peer networks, manager engagement, and informal learning loops.

6. Measure across the chain. Evaluate impact at all four levels—and fix broken links when they appear.

Final Thought: Make the Chain Visible

The biggest insight from the research? When people can see the system, they act more systemically.

The Leadership Impact Chain is more than a model. It’s a mindset—a way to design, deliver, and measure leadership development that actually works. It takes the guesswork out of behaviour change and gives leaders and organisations a clearer path to impact.

Let’s stop hoping for change—and start engineering it.

If you would like to know more or receive a copy of the research, please reach out.

*LIW working in partnership with the LSE Department of Management HRO Links Business Project