US companies alone spend almost $14 billion annually on leadership development. Learning and development is a critical long-term business investment, but making the compelling business case executives expect for such an investment is no trivial matter. Senior stakeholders may agree that leadership development is crucial, but they often struggle to tie it to measurable outcomes. Meanwhile, what is measurable is the opportunity cost of training: Each hour an emerging leader spends away from the workplace is an hour of productivity and output lost.

So how can learning leaders successfully showcase the value an LDP generates? Because the pain point is the opportunity cost, it makes sense to frame a business case around time: the time saved in a business with well-developed leadership competencies.

Money is Time

Time is not just one constrained resource of many; arguably, in today’s fast-paced world it is the ultimate and most scarce. Capital can be raised and saved, but time slips through our fingers with every moment that passes. All of us, from interns to execs, feel the frustration of wasted time at a more visceral level than wasted money. And just as capital is allocated strategically up-front to yield high-impact results, the same must be done with time.

When you invest time in an LDP that enriches the skills of your HiPos, your ROI presents itself as time returned that can be devoted to higher-value activities to improve the business. Some examples of a time-based ROI include:

Improved Problem Solving

An LDP rooted in experiential learning can prevent workflow bottlenecks by developing the skills to solve problems quickly or prevent them from occurring in the first place. When people are afforded the ability to learn by doing, they can incorporate the competencies acquired into their work much more rapidly. This means less time spent fighting fires and more on strategic activities.