Investing in employee leadership development is important. This shows you value your employees and want them to remain with your company long-term. It also tends to be less costly and time-consuming than hiring and training employees for leadership roles.
Fortunately, effective leadership development strategies can be simple and budget-friendly. Here are some tips to get started.
Follow these guidelines to implement leadership development strategies for your company.
Know the Differences Between Training and Development
Leadership development involves more than job-specific training. It also takes into consideration the organization’s current needs and future goals. This is why development needs to be an ongoing process.
Successful leaders require well-developed soft skills. These skills include communication, negotiation, team-building, conflict resolution, coaching, and visioning.
Leadership skills are best developed through hands-on experience. This experience should be combined with mentoring, role-playing, reading, and formal training for maximum success.
Uncover Skill Gaps
Determine which skills must be developed to strengthen your team and company both short- and long-term. These skills impact the type of leadership program you implement. Aligning employee development plans with business goals elevates the success of your team and organization.
Identify Future Leaders
Consider which of your employees should be trained to become company leaders. You may begin by talking with each employee about their career goals. Then, determine the skills and experience required to fill leadership roles both now and in the future.
This provides insight into each employee’s interest in participating in development opportunities to become a leader. It also helps you determine the appropriate training and learning.
Provide Leadership Training
Find ways to provide the appropriate leadership training during work hours. This may include on-the-job training, stretch assignments with coaching, or online workshops.
The leadership training should be done in frequent, short chunks to maximize effectiveness. For instance, five 1-hour sessions are more effective than a 5-hour training.
Promote a Leadership Mindset
Cultivate a culture of ongoing improvement in leadership skills. This encourages your employees to engage in self-directed learning in line with business goals.
Want Help Finding Leaders?
High Profile Staffing can place you with candidates ready to fill your leadership roles. Get started with us today.
