Committing to an Executive programme for a substantial period is undeniably a challenging move for both the person making the choice and his/her company.

An Executive MBA- or AMP-type continuing-education programme should be viewed as a way of developing new skills, but also as a way of significantly transforming your employees. These programmes – intended for senior and even top-level managers – allocate significant time to the participants' personal development, with an emphasis on leadership potential and how it is realised in interactions with co-workers and peers.

Upline of this training pathway, it is necessary to specify the expected development to both participant and employer. Expectations are assessed relative to the participant's characteristics and to the professional pathway planned for him/her within the organisation.

This phase, based on assessing skills and measuring the gap between current skillset and development needs, is a first essential step. It is a form of contract between participant and employer, and between participant and programme.

Although this training-needs inventory is vital in ensuring a win-win relationship, providing a support structure throughout the programme is equally key.
This makes it easier to measure progress, and to highlight issues that arise from participant or company. The training organisation's role is to put in place value-creation schemes (called Value Workshops by EML Executive Development) which promote tracking of these metrics/issues throughout the programme. In addition, these schemes must allow the stakeholders to step back at various points and review their expectations, whether these have evolved, and the best way to achieve the win-win relationship.

The Value Workshops run by EML Executive Development are especially rewarding because they allow participants and their in-company sponsors to compare approaches, questions and expectations with regard to training pathways. Further, by comparing their experiences, stakeholders can build relevant projects in which the project envisioned at the start of the programme is sometimes reworked. As a result, the company can best capitalise on participants' takeaways in both expertise and behaviour.

When designing and executing programmes for senior and top managers, EML focuses on several key challenges: building a truly win-win relationship for all stakeholders; ensuring that the training pathway truly yields development; and devising an after-programme built into the organisation's framework, with a real return on investment.

The example of the Value Workshops, run for EML Executive Development's Executive MBA participants, testifies to this commitment.

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