The best way for organizations to cultivate skills for management roles is through a leadership development program. This not only helps the leaders to direct and motivate the other employees, but it also helps the employees to acquire skills that are capable of propelling their career trajectory. In this article, we will focus more on the leader development programs, specifically their importance.
What is leadership development?
In simple terms, leadership development in an organization is a program that is geared towards training employees to take up leadership roles. There are structured programs and unstructured programs, where the former involves a planned curriculum, and the latter, a situation where managers identify employees that have shown leadership potential and then help them to cultivate those skills.
Why are leadership development programs important?
There are so many benefits attached to leadership development programs, but here are the two most common:
Leadership Development Leads to Sustained Success – leadership development programs drive sustained success through the following aspects.
- Attracting and retaining talent
- Improving bottom-line financial performance
- Driving strategy execution
- Increasing success through change navigation.
The Power of Leadership Development to Attract and Retain Talent – according to a recent report, organizations that prove to have strong leadership maturity are most likely to retain a high number of aspiring leaders looking to build on their skills for competitive advantage. There is no doubt that when talented individuals leave a company, it causes tremendous stress and expense for the company, as the management has to hire new employees – and this leads to additional costs. From advertising for the position to the recruitment, relocation as well as the training, it can be a lot for sure.
Elements of an employee leadership development program
Program type – leadership training programs can either be formal, or informal. The formal program is the most popular where a dedicated mentor or coach selects the employees that would best benefit from the leadership development.
Training schedule – a training schedule is also a crucial element in a leadership development program, whereby the coach designs a consistent plan that he or she follows throughout the program.
Rules and implementation strategies – the rules that are used as a guide are also crucial and should be quite consistent. Also, the program should be professional, and it takes place during work hours and it also promotes a sense of fairness and equity amongst the people participating.
Leadership development training plan examples
Self-assessment – the very first step in the leadership development program is doing a ‘self-assessment.’ It can be an online form or an employee’s journal that the leaders can review, so as to understand what to include in the training plan.
Personality profile – after the assessment is done and you have everything there is to learn about the team members, there may be a need to discuss any challenges the employees experience while working together. This is where a personality test comes in handy, as it enables one to give more details of their qualities, preferences, as well as motivations.
Thoughtfully matched mentor – marching people based on their personality and work style is something that works really well in leadership development, especially through mentoring. The personality test will give you the information that you need to learn the personalities of the team members.
Other examples include group coaching and outside education.
Final word
As you can see, leadership development programs are pretty crucial to any organization. As an employee, purpose to invest your time in improving your leadership skills. As an organization, explore a wide array of leadership solutions that would allow you to engage and boost your talent, which will certainly move your organization to the next level.