As a leader, you have to set the right direction, make smart decisions, and lead the way for everyone to achieve strategic goals. Without leaders to make these things happen, businesses will find it nearly impossible to drive growth and remain profitable. Understand why leadership development is important, and how it can benefit your organization in this latest blog.
A growing company consists of teams that need key people to lead them. But, both teams and people come and go. When current leaders leave, new teams emerge, or new challenges arise, companies need a pipeline of well-trained professionals, like VersaTel Solutions, who can step in and take charge. Leadership development ensures that a company maintains a dynamic pool of in-house talent who possess the training required to secure competitive advantage and achieve desired business results.
Read key areas your business could benefit when you make smart investments in leadership development:
Competitive advantage
Good leaders inspire people to deliver excellent performance that can lead to establishing and maintaining a competitive advantage. With the right training, these professionals also tend to formulate and execute effective strategies that help move their companies forward.
A good leadership development program helps improve people’s ability to solve problems and navigate changes, which ultimately enhances an organization’s agility to thrive in any business environment.
Talent recruitment and retention
When companies provide vague or inadequate employee development and leadership programs they tend to have higher staff attrition rates in comparison to organizations with strong leadership development strategies. The vast majority of workers — especially millennials and Gen Zers — value programs and job experiences that help improve their skills and enhance their careers. Bad leadership erodes employee engagement, dilutes the impact of coaching, and increases turnover rates.
Succession planning and skills progression
A good leadership development program aims to equip staff with relevant skills that will help them not only to advance in their career but also to assume ever bigger roles in their organization’s success. Be sure that a pipeline of well-trained talent will cushion any sudden turnover, avoiding any serious setback and keeping the company on track.
Identify potential leaders
When identifying potential leaders, leverage performance assessment scores, tenure, attitude and behavior, and professional history when making your initial and subsequent selection. Also, consider current leadership assessment tests to find high-potential individuals at the onset, even from new hires and applicants. This will help you with going beyond the usual suspects (i.e., ideal workers/high performers) to discover low-key personnel who have strong leadership traits.
“Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.“
— Ruth Bader Ginsburg
With these key areas be sure to also make an honest self-assessment, define expectations, and track progress. Don’t be afraid to change tactics and tools when you need to. Try going for a blended but unified approach that gives current and potential team leaders the best of everything to succeed at their most: in-house mentoring, coaching, online learning, formal workshops, off-site training, and skills certification.
Always remember that leadership is a growth engine that runs on learning. To nurture future leaders and dependable staff, shows a sign of always aiming for a work environment that encourages continuous learning to develop within the organization.