BY: AMA STAFF
Traditionally, leaders are responsible for establishing and communicating the vision and mission of the organization to their groups. Today, however, the job must extend to leadership training. Once the vital pieces are taken care of, leaders need to ensure that all members of their team are trained to lead. The best vision in the world won’t do any good if the team members can’t execute and move the organization forward.
Why leadership training for all employees?
With the fast pace, digitization, and globalization driving business today, it is more important than ever to provide leadership training for all employees to ensure shared leadership. A company’s responsiveness and decision making must adapt to meet the challenges of retiring executives, overloaded employees, and flatter, more dispersed organizations. When employees are given more of a say in decisions, they are more engaged and motivated. And by giving leadership training to all employees, organizations can retain high performers and high potentials.
A key way to meet these challenges is to train leaders at all levels. Leadership can and should be demonstrated throughout the organization. Even new leaders can be shown how to lead. The best managers take the time to develop more leaders so that everyone’s leadership potential grows.
The fundamentals of leadership training
To begin developing leaders at all levels, consider the following information:
The many levels of leadership include:
- Self-leadership: individually achieving a result
- Direct leadership: motivating someone else to achieve a result
- Group leadership: motivating a group to achieve a result
- Executive leadership: motivating an organization or major department to achieve a result
The elements of leadership are:
- Creating a vision and setting the direction toward an outcome or result
- Being responsible for the achievement of results
- Influencing and inspiring others
- Empowering others to get results
- Being accountable for results—regardless of the outcome
The key steps to leadership development are:
- Assess the developmental needs of the person
- Design a customized development program for that individual
- Evaluate and coach the person’s performance
- Gauge his or her readiness for recognition, rewards, and promotion
As you develop your leadership training strategies, keep in mind that leadership is not a specific “position.” All individuals can learn to lead. In today's business world, organizations cannot afford to ignore the benefits of developing the leadership potential of all employees.
Source: Adapted from the American Management Association course Developing Leaders at All Levels.