Partnering with your leadership development provider: seven worst practices

Purpose – This paper aims to present seven things human resource (HR) leaders are wise to avoid when partnering with their executive education leadership development program providers who have been engaged to design and deliver a custom leadership development program. Design/methodology/approach – This paper is based on numerous years of working with corporations in the design and delivery of custom executive education leadership development programs. More precisely, it is based on experiencing the negative, unintended consequences of mistakes HR leaders sometimes make when sponsoring significant leadership development program endeavors. Findings – The seven worst practices are identified. These include the corporate sponsors' failure to sufficiently contextualize how the programs fit into larger corporate and personal agenda and a failure to embrace the best practices. Practical implications – The field‐based lessons presented here can serve as a cautionary checklist of things to avoid. The seven highlighted items are often not anticipated by corporate HR managers when working with a university‐based leadership development program provider; they are easily avoided; and they are insidious in their detrimental effects if not avoided. Originality/value – Through bitter experience, seven worst corporate practices associated with the design and delivery of customized professional development programs are highlighted with the intention of alerting HR readers to them so that they can be avoided.