What makes a great leader?
Although there is no one single answer to this question, there are some crucial qualities that ideal leaders should have in common. Great leaders should be secure in their role and in their ability to inspire others and do their jobs. They must be able to play the roles of not only advocates but also mentors and coaches.
How can leaders get to this point?
Leadership Training is the answer!
Leadership training not only benefits team members, but it is also essential to the organization. When you decide to promote someone to a leadership role, you’re probably already well aware of their abilities, work ethic, and their drive for success, but how much do you know about their leadership skills and preparedness to lead a team? It’s really difficult to tell if they haven’t been in a leadership position ever before.
Your team members that excel in their current roles may fail when it comes to leadership. Even the team members that have the best intentions and all the potential to succeed as a leader are going to struggle in their transition and question themselves of whether they have what it takes to be a good leader. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t promote new leaders, but that you need to ensure you do everything you can to prepare them for their leadership roles and give them guidance through the transition.
This is where leadership training at the organizational level is crucial. You must equip your new leaders with the knowledge and experience to start them off on the right foot, and this can be achieved with training. Leadership training will help them understand the role of a leader, let them become accustomed to the responsibilities and duties of being a leader, and identify what truly makes a great leader.
Even more great reasons why leadership training is vital in today’s organizations:
To Increase Productivity
If you train your leaders in practical leadership skills, it will enhance the productivity of your workforce. Transitioning to a leadership role can come with a steep learning curve, but leadership training can significantly diminish this curve. A leader that comes into their role with knowledge and confidence will have a positive influence on the efficiency and effectiveness of their team. Empowered leaders can provide direction to team members and ensure they are performing at or above expectations.
Leadership training also sharpens problem-solving skills which means your trained leaders will be able to better handle assessing the problems that arise, managing conflicts, and providing practical solutions.
To Nurture Future Leaders
Leadership training is crucial at the organizational level to develop future leaders. . Ideal leaders are meant to be the powerhouse to which team members and associates turn for advice and direction. The abilities of leaders to communicate well and inspire and encourage team members increase their productivity while providing people with a more enjoyable environment to work in. So, it’s important to train and nurture future leaders with progressive leadership training. You want to provide adequate training to your people so that they develop the skills they need to fit the leadership roles that become available and take on those positions effectively.
To Improve Risk Management
Organizations worldwide know that an element of risk is always present in every business. So, it’s a smart idea to train future and current leaders in risk management so that they are able to tackle the demanding situations that come unexpectedly. . Critical situations require quick action and strategic thinking. A leader that has training and preparation on how to handle these circumstances will know how to approach the issue and take it step by step, resulting in a much better outcome than a leader with no or very little training in risk management.
To Develop Better Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence is one of the crucial personality traits that make a truly great leader. . The right understanding of how emotions affect others ensures people lead in an efficient and considerate way. So, it is recommended to put a strong emphasis on the element of emotional intelligence while conducting leadership training programs because it directly influences the performance of team members and leaders.
To Foster Project Leadership
The sufficient level of project leadership skills is crucial because without that, leaders will likely struggle to handle the different aspects of a project and its overall success of implementation. It’s easy for a project to get off course, over budget and miss deadline after deadline without the proper training or experience in project management. This could result in a substantial loss to the business. And it will also affect the morale of team members because of misguidance and magnified stress.
Don’t underestimate the importance of empowering your leaders with the development of project leadership skills. ; It will help them better manage their teams and close projects efficiently on time. On the organizational level, the increased efficiency will lead to an enhancement of the company’s overall productivity, resulting in higher profits.
To Improve Team Members’ Retention
Today’s organizations can improve the retention rate of their people by providing leadership training that focuses on developing great leaders. And great leaders are those who team members want to follow. If your people don’t feel connected, recognized, or appreciated at their workplace, they will eventually move on. These negative perceptions are directly related to the leadership around your people.
According to Forbes, a Harvard Business Review survey reveals 58 percent of people say they trust strangers more than their own boss. Moreover, Global studies revealed that 79 percent of people who quit their jobs cite ‘lack of appreciation’ as their reason for leaving. In addition, Forbes has further put forward that according to The Conference Board, 53 percent of Americans are currently unhappy at work.”
These alarming statistics clearly reveal where organizations are failing when it comes to retaining their people. So, it is the responsibility of employers to develop leaders who know how to communicate with and motivate team members, who look for ways to promote change and take action, and who can identify where the organization has to build practices, policies, and procedures that inspire growth.
It is also important to note that as millennials are going to comprise 75% of the workforce by 2025, it’s time for organizations to use ongoing leadership training to mitigate the tendency of generation Y – to constantly switch jobs and careers. By crafting leadership training programs that focus on empowering your future leaders, understanding the value of recognizing and encouraging team members, and providing the resources for their holistic growth, your organization can be more successful with team member retention efforts.
Summing Up
Leadership training is one of the crucial parts of any organization to develop an engaging work environment, motivated team members that deliver performance, and an overall thriving successful business.
However, a common objection to such training you may often hear is, “aren’t all of these skills just inherent and intuitive?” Or “can’t people just learn these skills on the job?”
Well, the answer is good leadership and effective management skills are intuitive and straightforward, but the execution of these skills can be quite tricky. We at Etech, strive to continuously empower our leaders so that that they can help develop our people in every possible way that leads to the overall organizational success.
