Leadership Development equips leaders with the skills necessary to motivate teams and unlock potential. It also helps them navigate organizational change and develop a culture of collaboration and innovation.
Developing your employees’ leadership competencies is an important part of employee engagement and retention. Specialized training programs can help employees feel valued by their employers and motivated to stay committed on their career journeys.
Effective leadership capabilities are a key part of an organization’s strategy, facilitating the execution of that strategy by building alignment and gaining mindshare within the company. These leadership capabilities are also the foundation for the success of other business functions, including sales, marketing, operations and human resources. This is why it is important to assess your current leaders, as well as potential future leaders, and to create a plan for leadership development within your organization.
Leadership assessment starts with identifying the skills that need to be improved or strengthened in order to meet your goals. Ideally, leadership capability assessments are a blend of both objective and subjective data. This information is gathered through a variety of settings and training methodologies, depending on the leader and their role. For example, senior executives often benefit from a one-on-one coaching engagement, while new managers are best trained through workshops.
Objective assessments provide valuable insights into a leader’s capabilities by examining four core competencies: dominance (focus on tasks), influence, steady and compliance. These assessments can help to identify a leader’s preferred styles and how those styles affect their ability to lead others.
Qualitative assessments take a more holistic approach to leadership development, exploring qualities like communication and empathy. For example, a leader’s ability to listen to and understand the perspectives of their teammates is an essential leadership quality. In addition, a leader’s level of trustworthiness is critical for motivating team members to follow their direction and achieve organizational goals.
Using a combination of both quantitative and qualitative assessments allows leadership experts to make informed decisions about the most effective development paths for your high potentials. In addition, mid-program assessments are a great way to remove obstacles that may be blocking your leadership development program from reaching its full potential and ensure it is on track to deliver the desired impact.
Aside from formal assessments, leadership development programs should always include opportunities for your leaders to practice their new skills in real-time. For example, DDI’s Leadership SnapshotSM is an interactive simulation that puts participants into the shoes of a frontline manager and gives them a chance to apply their leadership skills in realistic scenarios. This leadership development method is similar to how pilots train in flight simulators, and it helps your leaders to see the results of their actions before they are put into a real-world situation that could negatively affect their performance.
Setting Goals
Setting SMART goals provides a framework for developing leadership skills that is actionable and measurable. Creating specific, attainable, and relevant leadership development goals helps leaders understand what growth opportunities are available to them while aligning with organisational objectives. Goals should also be time-bound to ensure that leadership development activities occur at a pace that is achievable and sustainable.
To set leadership development goals, it is important to first identify a leader’s strengths and weaknesses, which can be done through self-assessment as well as feedback from supervisors and peers. Once these areas are identified, the next step is to define specific goals that will strengthen each weakness. These goals could include taking a public speaking course, seeking guidance from a mentor, or practicing presenting with coworkers.
Leadership development goals can be as simple as focusing on improving active listening, building empathy, and becoming more adaptable. However, these tactics are only effective if they are part of a comprehensive strategy that includes learning from mistakes, seeking out mentoring opportunities, or engaging in hands-on projects and internships.
Once leadership development goals are defined, it is important to share them with others in order to encourage growth. This can be accomplished through regular meetings with supervisors, coworkers, and mentors. It is also a good idea to use project management tools, such as Asana, to break larger goals into milestones that are easier to track and manage.
For example, a manager may decide to improve the team’s communication by developing a meeting agenda template that is more flexible and collaborative. This is a measurable, attainable, and relevant goal for the team’s growth as it will result in more productive meetings.
Another SMART goal is for managers to learn how to coach their team members by encouraging them to ask questions and providing feedback. This is an approach that can be highly beneficial to the team, as it can help them become more dynamic and resilient in the face of challenges and change. Achieving this goal can help leaders build their coaching capabilities and develop a more diverse workforce.
Developing Leadership Capabilities
We are all leaders in some way – whether it is our family, local sports team or a department of 5 employees. Leadership is about influencing people and driving the success of your organization. This is where leader development and leadership capability differ – leader development focuses on the individual and their personal growth, while leadership capability takes a more holistic approach and looks at ways to improve the overall capacity of the leadership team.
Effective leadership is about more than just managing people at a human level, it’s also about navigating operational factors like production quality and budgets. That’s why a strong leadership development program is designed to help future leaders develop both the soft skills necessary to manage people, as well as the hard skills required to drive company goals.
One of the most important aspects of leadership development is improving a leader’s self-awareness, which can be achieved through a variety of means including one-on-one coaching engagements and sessions focused on reflection. Developing self-awareness helps a leader understand how their personal beliefs and values impact their ability to motivate the people they lead – it’s about creating a more mindful leadership style.
Another aspect of leadership development is improving the ability to communicate effectively. This is critical for leaders to be able to articulate their vision and goals to the people they work with, as well as provide constructive feedback when needed. Leadership development programs often incorporate strategies to build communication skills, such as peer-to-peer training and regular feedback sessions.
The final aspect of leadership development is growing a leader’s resilience and ability to deal with challenges that may arise in the workplace. This can be achieved through sessions that encourage a leader to reflect on the past and consider how their own experiences have made them a more resilient leader, as well as through mentoring relationships with senior leadership and other members of the business community.
Leadership development programs are an important investment for businesses that want to grow and thrive. Employees are more likely to be attracted to, mature with and stay with companies that offer robust leadership development programs, which in turn can contribute to a sustainable culture of growth and learning within the business.
Developing Leadership Skills
Leadership development programs are designed to give future leaders the skills they need to lead their teams to success. Leadership programs typically cover a wide range of topics, from how to create a vision and develop a plan to achieve it to how to motivate and inspire employees. Using a variety of learning methods, such as case studies and role playing, leadership training is intended to improve both the soft skills that make up emotional intelligence and the hard skills, like strategic thinking and problem-solving.
One of the most important aspects of developing leadership is fostering the ability to communicate effectively. This includes the ability to convey ideas and expectations in a clear, concise manner and to listen actively to team members. Oftentimes, these communications are delivered through a variety of channels, including email, meetings and phone calls. Leadership development programs also include training on how to conduct 360-degree assessments, wherein participants receive feedback from those above them, below them and on the side.
In addition, effective leaders must be able to build and maintain trust in their teams. This can be done by setting a good example, encouraging collaboration and building a positive work environment. This type of leadership also involves coaching and mentoring team members to help them reach their full potential.
Companies that focus on leadership development can improve their chances of retaining valuable employees. A 2016 study showed that the top reason for employee turnover was a lack of career advancement opportunities. Leadership development is an excellent way to keep up with the fast pace of change in the workplace and ensure that company-wide goals are being met.
The right leaders can transform your business by motivating your team to meet your organizational goals. However, not every employee has the potential to become a leader, as some may prefer to remain in their current roles or don’t want the pressures that come with managing others. To identify these employees, many organizations use talent development programs to profile employee capabilities. These programs can reveal which employees are likely to succeed as a leader and then work with them to develop their leadership capabilities.