Every successful business is a testament to the contribution and influence of its employees from the top to the bottom. However leaders are crucial to steer the ship. Departments can be unable to function with a lack of effective management, which underscores the significance of professional development and education for leaders. A 領袖訓練營 can help companies identify and develop the next generation of leaders. Furthermore, opportunities for ongoing development can assist existing leaders in improving their leadership capabilities and help to advance to leadership positions in the near future.

The benefits of an Leadership Development Program

The pre-pandemic period, finding the best candidates for vacant jobs was already a problem. Employers can expect their jobs to be empty for an average of 43 days, with some kinds of jobs (like engineering and healthcare roles) take longer.

This is especially true for those in leadership positions, as the hiring process is usually more rigorous , and positions remain vacant for longer periods of time. In the end having the best leaders in place is an important retention strategy. Prior to the outbreak, when workers had different prioritization, more than 60% of employees quit “specifically” due to inadequate management.

The value of good leaders is immense to any company, which is why leadership development an essential aspect of training and maintaining current as well as future leaders.

By providing programs for developing leaders, companies can:

Determine potential leaders within your organisation.
Provide customized coaching and leadership training for those with high potential
Retention rates of leaders to increase
Establish leadership pathways for diverse talent

These programs do not have to be confined as separate entities. By creating comprehensive training programs that integrate all these elements and draw on your greatest resources (your employees) the leadership training programs could transform all aspects of your business, from profits to turnover.

Identify Potential Leaders

Many companies choose to promote or hire individuals within their own teams whenever it is possible. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of this practice. In actual fact, LinkedIn found that internal hiring rose by 20% by 2020, in line with an increase that was prior to the outbreak.

The hiring of internal leaders isn’t anything less than common good. Employees at the junior level with tenure have a greater understanding of the business’s mission and structure, its product and even their personal team. External hires might have valuable experiences or qualifications which aren’t readily available in the internal pool of potential employees, but it’s not always possible to replace the deep level of expertise and knowledge of the company that tenured employees bring to the table.

The training of leaders can assist organizations in identifying the potential leaders of the future.

A two-step procedure can start the ball rolling:

Managers or leaders have identified junior employees with the characteristics of a leader.
Invite the identified leaders to participate in an upcoming high-potentials mentorship program

There aren’t all high-potentials who require promotion to a leadership role in a hurry, or even at all. By inviting them to high-potentials programs lets the organization learn what they are capable of, aids them get used to the concept and expectations of leadership and also provides space for learning and mentorship that could close the gaps in critical skills which could be a hindrance to promotions.

Train High Potentials to internal hiring opportunities

Everyone in your business is in need of training. This is a given. However, the training for leadership is distinct in that it might or may not be specific to a particular domain. That means it is that there’s two distinct ways the training of leaders is important for those with people with high potential.

1. There are learned skills that are applicable to any leader.

Effective leaders possess certain traits or skills which can be learned or developed through programs of training. These traits can be transferred to any leadership position regardless of the department they are in. In its blog for graduate students, Northwestern University lists 5 leadership characteristics or qualities that great leaders demonstrate:

Self-awareness and self-development
The ability to help others develop
Encourage innovation and strategic thinking
Moral and civic-mindedness
Learn to communicate cross-culturally

Be aware that none of these skills are specific to one specific job or industry. These are skills that are required to be successful in sales, marketing engineering, human resources and design, as well as many other areas. There are many other abilities that can be listed as leadership also including communicating, decisive decision-making as well as organization, thoughtfulness, and focus. The most important thing is that your top potentials are either) already demonstrating the qualities that your company needs the more from their leaders, or B) are ready be able to learn these skills.

2. There are leadership qualities that are domain-specific

Certain leadership positions require extraordinary specific knowledge of the role or technology. A company may have highly-qualified individuals who possess an outstanding collection of general leadership abilities (such as the ones above) but need more time to acquire the technical expertise required by their specific field or job. They’re typically junior-level or mid-level workers who have only a few years of experience however their duties within the company are a bit limited.

In these situations the training for leadership could involve one-on-one mentoring or coaching together with leaders from that department. In addition, the training options within the program might involve taking on additional responsibility that helps to close the gaps in knowledge or skills for those with already demonstrated leadership abilities but lack the specific job experience in the domain.

Organizations that are rapidly growing could find this approach to the development of their leadership. Finding potential leaders early could cut down the time and cost associated with recruitment for leadership. It also allows organizations to locate the most suitable people, without having to suffer the negative consequences of hiring leaders from outside versus internally (more about this later).

In such situations the training for leadership could involve individual coaching or mentoring based on skills alongside other leaders in the department. In addition, the training options within the program might involve taking on additional responsibility that helps to close the knowledge gaps or gaps in skills for those who possess naturally-developed or already-established leadership skills but don’t have the relevant skills and experience that is specific to the job.

Organizations that are rapidly growing might find this method of the development of their leadership. Being able to identify potential leaders earlier will cut down on the time and cost associated with recruiting leaders. It also allows organizations to locate the most suitable people, without having to suffer the negative consequences of hiring leaders from outside versus internally (more about this below).

Keep Your Top Talented Employees

Your strategy for leadership development will play an important part in the way you keep employees. First of all, the majority of employees would like to be offered opportunities for development. A recent LinkedIn survey revealed that 94 percent of employees would stay for longer with an organization that believes in and provides learning opportunities. Leadership development is a good example of the concept of learning.

Internally hired employees can aid in your career progression

Retention is more beyond providing opportunities for learning but, in particular, in the area of the leadership. Your hiring strategy for leaders could be either a positive or negative effect on the retention of your employees. The LinkedIn 2020 Global Talent Trends report discovered that talent managers stay for 41% longer when the company focuses on internal recruitment over external hiring.

The reason for this is pretty evident. It is all about the career path you choose to take. If your employees see you employing internal candidates for leadership positions, they’re more likely to think about a future in your company. If other reasons don’t cause them to quit to another company, they’ll stick around in hopes of moving to a company they trust.

Making a choice to choose a candidate from outside can lead people to give up

Research confirms this and so. For instance the Harvard Business Review (HBR) study revealed that internal employees who apply but get denied a job that is offered to an outside hire are twice as likely to be fired than those who did not apply even.

This could cause some hiring managers nervous about accepting applications from candidates who are internal, however, it brings us back to our previous issue regarding internally hiring (your employees would like to see you do this). According to HBR’s research, the rate of quitting for internal applicants who have been rejected is reduced by half after having an interview with hiring managers instead of being denied the job at a later point in the procedure.

In the end, HBR also found that the internal candidates who apply , but do not be hired are considering whether you employ another person internally or externally. If they are interview by an HR manager and their rates of quitting drop to 50% once they discover the hiring of an employee internally.

If possible, hiring internally for leadership positions is the most secure option. If you are watching your team and noticing some leadership shortages, it could be best to offer the opportunity to develop your leadership skills instead of hiring external employees for posts of leadership.

Create leadership Pathways to attract diverse Talent

We’re in the midst of an equity, diversity, and inclusion movement that’s long overdue. The old roadblocks to advancement in careers persist. It is evident in the statistics nearly 86 percent of Fortune 500 CEO are White males. Women only hold a mere 8 percent of executive positions on the board. NPR summarizes the diversity issue in leadership in a concise way: “You can still count the number of Black CEOs on one hand.”

Diversity in race and gender improves profit

The issue isn’t as an issue of a skill gap for minority workers, but rather it’s the issue with access. Opportunities for leadership development usually are a result of personal connections. Without these connections historically marginalized groups within the workforce have had to locate the kind of leadership training and mentoring opportunities that allow the visibility needed for promotions.

There’s an enormous revenue advantage by focusing on diversity in the talent pool for leadership. Studies show that businesses that have a greater percentage of women who are in positions enjoy higher profits margins. Particularly, “the firm with more women is likely to see a six percentage points increase in net profits and overall net profits were less than 3 percent.”

A McKinsey study independently proved the positive effect of leadership diversity on profit. The study found that businesses in the top quartile in terms of the diversity of their genders were 21 percent more profitable than companies in the bottom quartile in this particular category. In addition, the firms with a greater degree of diversity in their culture were 34 percent more likely to be more profitable than the ones without diversity in terms of EBIT margins.

Help to overcome the challenges of leadership development by Mentoring

Short story short, businesses that invest in leadership training programs are able to increase their profits and decrease the rate of turnover. By identifying talent with high potential early, businesses can tap the existing talent pool for internal recruitment and advancement opportunities. This, by itself, is a significant retention strategy. However, when paired with the focus on DEI companies are able to focus on not only making money through retention but also boosting profits.