Leadership is rarely a natural talent. Instead, it is a skill set you can develop in yourself and others. As leaders, it's up to you to establish which of your employees desire and can thrive in leadership roles. It's these staff members you can train to take on leadership positions as your business expands.
Investing in leadership training ensures that the staff you promote to these positions inspire excellent performance in those under them. Here are some things to consider:
Choose the Key Skills to Teach
Aside from choosing to train qualified staff members, you must also select the necessary skills to instill in your leaders. What you focus on might differ based on your industry, your organizational culture, and the leadership styles of your existing leaders. The leadership skills necessary for construction or tool & die will significantly differ from leadership in education.
You want a balance of leaders with the statistics and mathematical savvy to set business goals and understand KPIs with those with high communication abilities. It is rare to find these skills in the same person, but not necessarily unheard of, so ensuring your team has multiple people who embody these abilities will help you.
As you choose leaders or employees to promote into leadership, consider which personality traits suit them and which leadership style and the role you need. You can adjust their training to bring out their strengths and counteract their weaknesses. There isn't any singular correct leadership style. A good leader can work with and inspire their team.
Encourage Workers to Think for Themselves
Micromanaging prevents leaders from working autonomously and making decisions for themselves. Part of training leaders is helping to hone their instincts and self-confidence to manage their team in a way that's suited to them. All your employees should be confident and have the ability to plan and work independently as the need arises—leaders especially. They need to be responsible for their work.
Leaders should adhere to the necessary rules and guidelines. However, they have the flexibility to handle many things according to their leadership style. What's crucial is that they resonate with workers and encourage them to act independently. If "nothing gets done" when leaders are out of the office, you have a problem as it indicates employees aren't engaged to be proactive when needed, which is also a symptom of poor retention.
Create Growth Opportunities
Many workers, unfortunately, feel that to grow, they must change jobs every few years, even though that often isn't the case. You can avoid this impression by creating an environment and culture that supports your staff. Ensure you provide growth opportunities and training to your employees, so they feel they have room to progress, gain experience, and expand their skills. That helps instill employee loyalty by giving the impression that you are loyal to them.
If you find an employee with leadership potential, you can start them on small tasks by putting them in charge of a small team or a single project to test their skills. You can tailor their training to work on future progress based on their performance. That allows your staff to learn with little risk to your company as they learn. Mistakes are a crucial part of this process, so letting them occur on a small scale prevents those mistakes from causing actual damage.
When choosing employees to promote into leadership, look for your upper management candidates amongst your mid-level management. Selecting internal candidates, when possible, also reduces your hiring costs because you only have to hire for the vacated lower-level position. Make allowances, of course, for talented employees who may not want to become leaders. Promoting somebody to management who doesn't want to be there is a recipe for poor leadership and losing that person.
Outsource Leadership Training Options
Conducting your leadership training in-house is expensive and often logistically infeasible for smaller companies. You can gain more options by outsourcing your leadership training through courses for your leaders and potential leaders. Courses are available online or in person, depending on your preferred route and cost.
Outsourcing also helps you conduct ongoing training to keep employees up-to-date with changing leadership trends. Send employees to conferences where they can network and connect with people in similar roles while learning from specialized experts. Many conferences are now virtual, which is a cheaper option, although face-to-face networking is hard to replace.
Teach Soft Skills like Communication and Mediation
Be careful not to focus too much on hard skills but teach those essential to all leadership positions. That includes communication and mediation training and key personality traits like empathy and work ethic. Leaders must develop the skills to recognize conflict early and resolve it or notice where conflict could occur and take measures to prevent it. They also must be able to explain things clearly to their subordinates and accept feedback while giving it. They also need to learn how to resolve issues without showing anger or raising their voice.
These skills make for more patient and thoughtful leaders who will create a more comfortable working environment for your employees. Good communication improves the overall atmosphere in the office, reducing toxicity, and building a company culture in which everyone is happier, more engaged, and more productive.
Provide Regular Feedback
New leaders often lack confidence. Those promoted internally may try to fall back into their old role when they are not comfortable or lacking in confidence. The best way to help them is to check in and provide regular feedback. Assigning new leaders a mentor is helpful by giving them a source for input and checking in on their progress. You can also assign them to shadow more experienced leaders through specific projects so they can see how other, more experienced leaders work.
That helps new leaders learn from examples and build rapport that helps leaders feel supported and improves the leadership team. Encourage new leaders to ask them questions and seek their advice, which allows them to know where to avoid mistakes or handle situations.
The ongoing investment you make in your leadership employees will also trickle down, as it teaches them to invest the same in their lower-level staff, which helps to create an engaged team who will stay at the company for extended periods.
PEOs Can Offer Guidance to Train Leaders
Working out how to give your employees the best leadership training can be a challenge. Working with a PEO can help. They can offer consultation and guidance to help you provide the best leadership training for your staff and may have online courses available that you can use. By working with a PEO, you can invest more effectively in your organization's future leaders and your employees.
