Developing effective and empowered leaders is one of the most important things an organization can do to ensure the successful accomplishment of its goals, whatever they may be.
That’s because leadership influences nearly all aspects of a business, such as the selection, engagement, and retention of talent, customer loyalty, and overall brand perception and influence. Yet despite its importance, many companies seem to struggle with leadership development.
Perhaps the biggest reason for that struggle is the new and varied set of behaviors and skills today’s leaders need to be effective. One of the worst mistakes any organization can make is to base its promotions or leadership decisions on tenure. Simply being a long-serving veteran of the organization or a star individual performer does not automatically make someone a candidate for leadership or demonstrate they have the necessary commitment to the role, the team or the company.
In today’s ever-evolving and increasingly complex environment, effective leaders must be able to guide staff through moments of uncertainty, be a trusted source for honest and open communication, and encourage and inspire their teams to take risks without fear of failure. As Deloitte notes in its 2017 Global Human Capital Trends report, leadership is increasingly about the challenges leaders face rather than the “art” of leadership. And those challenges are many.
Today’s workplace can have up to four generations of workers, all of whom have different expectations about what it takes to keep them truly engaged. Millennial workers, for example, expect an environment of constant development, mentoring and stretch assignments. If your organization doesn’t offer that, another will, and much of your younger generation of workers will be enticed to leave. And as organizations replace their old hierarchical structures with a more linear and inclusive management model, leaders can no longer simply issue instructions and expect them to be followed. Leaders must now be able to inspire a diverse set of employees, often located in multiple locations, with networks of teams made up of a mix of full-time, temporary and “gig” workers.
The Deloitte report highlights another challenge: The leadership pipeline in many companies is too top-heavy, preventing newer people from getting adequate opportunities for on-the-job learning and development. That’s why identifying and assessing potential leaders early in their careers should be an ongoing priority for organizations. While many leadership skills can be taught and strengthened over time with training, not every employee will have the inherent qualities, behaviors, and traits that will make them a truly effective leader. So even as you invest in the development of all your employees, you need to pay special attention to providing development training to the natural-born leaders you find.
Investing in the leadership development of these individuals doesn’t just help them. One of the biggest factors in employee disengagement is a lack of confidence in the abilities of their leaders. Building up the skills and talents of natural-born leaders benefits your entire organization by ensuring a strong leadership pipeline, enhancing the engagement and empowerment of other employees and producing improved bottom-line results.
Here are some simple strategies you can use to help cultivate a culture of effective leadership within your organization:
Whatever steps you take, remember that how you treat your employees, including how you identify and develop your leaders of the future, will have a big impact on how successful your organization will be.
By Lisa Sterling
Source: Forbes
This management backlash has roots in several places. For one, trust in leadership has eroded sharply. Only 21% of workers strongly agree that they trust the leadership in their company, and the number has been on the decline since the pandemic.
Knowledge workers, employees with technical expertise and high-level executives alike can benefit from training to grasp the nascent tech. Across industries, businesses are laying out plans to train employees to use generative AI and AI tools effectively.
There also needs to be an understanding of the toll that caring takes on the mental, and sometimes physical, health of the individual. The constant mental burden of ensuring that both children and the elderly are cared for needs to be recognised by managers, followed by an honest discussion with employees about how best to manage and support it.
