Research has shown that people are less likely to leave a job if they have good leadership. Less leaving equals less turnover, which creates more stability in the organization, more productivity as the workflow remains undisrupted, and higher employee morale.
Even though leadership development is such a crucial aspect of a good organization, it can be hard to know the best program, times, or method for development. It’s important to remember that when leadership development processes fail, it does not mean that there is a major catastrophe. It may simply mean that you did not get the results we were hoping to achieve. And that is often enough to feel like the whole process failed.
Training is an event, while learning is a process. Event-based development processes fail because they are just that – an event. To truly learn or improve your skills, one must develop a process over time. The process must also be integrated and engaging with senior leadership. Lastly, any leadership development process must be broadly applied.
Letting employees engage in the leadership development process, if they are a part of the change, will lead them to feel more receptive than if they feel the change was done to them. A successful process is focused and has leadership buy-in. All people are engaged. Now what? The steps below are a vital part of the development process.
- Feedback and benchmarking: Regular feedback helps employees know what their strengths are so they can continue to leverage them, and what their areas of improvement are so they can develop them. Benchmarking provides targets for improvement so they know they’re on the right track.
- Consistent selection: This ensures that employees are staying up-to-date with the necessary skills and competencies that align with the organization’s goals.
- Interactive design: Interactive design engages employees in the development process. Rather than passively going through the steps of development, they are excited about learning and growth.
- Accountability: This ensures that your employees take ownership of their actions, goals, and development. Regular performance reviews and goal tracking can help keep employees accountable.
Benchmarking Development
It is so important to know what success for a leadership development plan looks like so employees know when they have reached their goals. They also need to know their expectations. 360 Assessments have been used far and wide to help provide feedback and can be very effective. This is where the rest of the pieces come into play: coaching and mentoring, action planning, application focus, and being flexible.
A 360 Assessment without a coach or a mentor is not worth doing at all. You simply cannot be a leader without a coach. All top performers have them – in the music industry, the sports field, and the entertainment world. To be a good leader, one must have a good coach.
To dive deeper into these concepts, watch Leadership Development: 12 Ways to Develop Remarkable Leaders, presented by Kevin Eikenberry. Kevin is a recognized world expert on leadership development and learning and is the Chief Potential Officer of The Kevin Eikenberry Group. He is also the author of Remarkable Leadership.
To put practice into action and know the next steps to develop leaders, check out the course Remarkable Leadership. This handbook challenges participants to be more intentional about what, when, and how they learn. It also provides a practical plan for how to develop leadership skills by focusing on one of 12 competencies at a time.
