For a business to thrive in a highly competitive environment, it is essential that managers continuously improve their leadership skills. This allows them to remain agile in a fast-changing market environment where they face different challenges literally every day. In simple words, whether you are a small start-up or a large international company, you need strong and charismatic leaders to ensure the growth and development of your business.
This article aims to emphasize the importance of leadership in today's business environment and also provide a full understanding of how a leadership development plan is created to enable you to cultivate competent leaders who are excellent at what they do.
The effectiveness of the work of senior managers in any company should be constantly monitored. Leadership competencies are one of the most important skills managers and supervisors need to be able to better organise work processes, inspire and incentivise employees, and easily adapt to any changes.
Effective leadership development requires a well-thought-out plan that takes into account the unique characteristics of an organisation, position and individual. By developing such a plan, you will be taking the first - and very important - step in creating a team culture designed to extract maximum value from your employees with high potential for further development and growth.
According to 2020 data from Statista, 4 out of 10 businesses in the US and Europe consider their niche to be very competitive, and this trend is getting stronger year on year. Crises and high levels of competition are serious obstacles for many businesses wishing to consistently grow and prosper in the long term. This is where leadership development enters the scene as an essential initiative aimed at growing and retaining valuable talent. So, if you haven't yet created a leadership development plan for your organisation, let's look at a few reasons why you should fill the gap now:
In recent years, rapidly evolving internet technology has had a significant impact on how businesses operate. However, crises such as the recent pandemic can turn things upside down, demonstrating just how important leadership skills can be in keeping companies afloat during extreme disasters.
So, to develop future leaders and retain top talent, you need your leadership development programme. Below you will find 7 important steps you should follow to develop your leadership development programs.
Not every company, even large ones, has its leadership development program as well as procedures for finding talent and assessing their qualities. The problem is that the talent search process itself is quite complex, as you need to look at much more than just current performance indicators. To uncover hidden leadership qualities, assess important employee attributes such as willingness to learn, adaptability, strategic thinking and empathy. Favour those with high potential leadership skills and high performance.
If senior management will not support your leadership development initiative, there is no point in creating a plan. Although leadership development has many positive benefits for the company, there are a few things that can hinder getting buy-in from stakeholders.
The first is the funding issue because leadership development can require substantial investment. The second is the possible desire of management to be involved in the process of selecting talent for the program. The third is the willingness and ability of the manager to be directly involved in the leadership development process. And finally, the willingness of your employees to participate in the program, as even some natural leaders are reluctant to take up leadership positions for one reason or another.
Leadership can be different. Experts identify 8 main leadership styles including democratic or autocratic, coaching and transformational. For an effective leadership development plan, you should not focus on just one that you like. To successfully handle crises, you must cultivate leaders of different styles. Thus, through this diversification, you will master a flexible leadership style allowing you to function effectively in a variety of settings.
Being a leader is much more than just knowing how to run a business. The best leaders can inspire employees, implement change and grow a company in a highly competitive environment. A true leader must have the personal and professional flexibility to cope with any challenges presented by a fast-changing environment. There are several key competencies that modern leaders should possess - check them out below:
There are many other leadership skills that you should instil in your talented employees. Competencies like digital intelligence, cultural intelligence, and agility have received the most attention lately. Keep in mind that according to a recent DDI World study, only 12% of leaders have sufficient interpersonal skills to effectively interact with people and manage teams.
So, you've probably already identified the leadership competencies your employees need to possess. Now, to design the right leadership program, find the gaps in your employees' skills and devise training and development plans to address them. Try to establish open and honest communication to identify potential problems such as a lack of training or leadership continuity so that your leadership training program works best.
There are many options for creating a learning environment for your employees, which is essential in a fast-paced business world. For example, you can use self-paced microlearning services like those offered by Google or LinkedIn. You can also send your employees on refresher courses, rotate positions, and provide additional mentoring so that different types of leaders fill in each other's gaps. Try to develop a leadership training plan to ensure all stakeholders are working together for the best results.
You may have developed a terrific leadership development plan for your talents. However, you can only realise how effective it is by constantly monitoring your employees' progress. Provide feedback and maximise engagement in the learning process so that you can make timely changes and improvements. Through trial and error, you will develop a good program to help your employees develop the leadership skills your company needs.
Consider developing a leadership training template to make some things easier and unify your training approach. This way you can ensure that employees from different parts of your company get the same quality of training. A well-designed template will give you a clear training structure from the very setting of objectives to the evaluation of results achieved. Consider the template as a framework that can be adapted to the specific characteristics of each employee.
Below you can find a simple example of a leadership development plan template that you can customise to suit your goals and objectives:
Although we are all different, leaders don't just become leaders. Your well-designed leadership development plan will certainly bear fruit. However, be prepared for the following challenges:
Before developing a plan, study your company in detail to learn about potential problems and take proactive measures.
Did this article convince you of the need to develop leadership skills in your best employees? Nurturing and investing resources in the talent you already have will demonstrate your willingness to work on building a capable workforce. By analysing the potential problems in your company, following the steps outlined in this article and using the templates, you can strengthen the position of your business and make it capable of weathering the storms of change.
To cultivate talent to become effective team leaders, you need to systematically develop their core skills. By establishing your leadership development programme, you can improve process and human resource management, strengthen your corporate culture, increase productivity and retain talent.
While a leadership development plan is tailored to the specific needs of your business, it should contain some common elements. These include assessing current leadership skills, setting goals, training and coaching, evaluating progress and making adjustments.
Today's leadership requirements are highly complex, where the ability to withstand competition and cope with crisis moments are key skills. However, effective leaders must also possess communication, decision-making, team motivation, strategic thinking, emotional intelligence and many other skills.
Your company's business strategies, the needs of your teams, the professional goals of your employees, and the business environment are constantly changing. Therefore, you should update your plan at least once a year to adapt it to innovations and changes.
There are many metrics you can apply including productivity growth, employee turnover, number of new leaders within the company, team dynamics and others.
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