It’s a competitive era, and you risk blotting your organization if you still place followers, not leaders, in your organisation. Companies recognise they need to promote leadership development to survive in today’s volatile, complex & ambiguous environment.
As John C. Maxwell quotes, “The single biggest way to impact an organisation is to focus on leadership development.”
While it is undoubtedly complex and challenging to promote leadership development, there are numerous ways companies can invest in the leadership development of their employees. For example, the corporate world sees the provision of learning opportunities or having personnel from higher management coach the employees as highly beneficial. And these have proved to help retain the best of the best leaders over the long term.
Are you seeking ways to promote leadership development in your organisation?
Navigate your way toward achieving your goals with the below-mentioned deep-rooted methods.
#1 Ensure Clarity & Visibility of Goals
“Just as your car runs more smoothly and requires less energy to go faster and farther when the wheels are in perfect alignment, you perform better when your thoughts, feelings, emotions, goals, and values are in balance.”- Brian Tracy
Encourage your leaders, managers, and executives to underpin the pursuit of promoting leadership in your organisation. The first aspect is to have clarity & visibility of goals— goals that must be SMART.
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S-Specific
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M-Measurable
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A-Achievable
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R-Relevant
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T-Time-bound
Correspondingly, the goals must be communicated well to ensure complete visibility and improve leadership effectiveness. Everyone in the team must know the organisational goals and their role in achieving them.
#2 Identify Potential Leaders
“Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence.”- Sheryl Sandberg.
As quoted by Sheryl Sandberg, companies that can spot the quality in their employees are carving a promising future for themselves. In the present-day dynamic work environment, it has become inevitable to establish a sturdy leadership pipeline for the future. Most importantly, organisations need to identify and select the best potential leaders with unconscious bias.
Sometimes, the leader may not “look the part” due to experience, position, appearance, or communication style. But the correct identification is crucial, owing to the need to find leaders at all organisational levels.
#3 Preach Accountability & Responsibility
“Creating a culture of integrity and accountability not only improves effectiveness, it also generates a respectful, enjoyable, and life-giving setting in which to work.”- Tom Hanson.
Create an environment that supports and promotes accountability and responsibility among the leaders. The idea is to bring around improvement and effectiveness in their leadership.
Provide them with leadership training & build a work culture that is entirely participating, both with responsibility and accountability.
#4 Practice Inclusivity
“When we listen and celebrate what is both common and different, we become a wiser, more inclusive, and better organisation.”- Pat Wadors.
Make sure your leaders know you want them to continue growing with the company and that their growth matters. Allow them to bring up new ideas and provide feedback on improving the process. Eventually, the organisation will witness a paradigm shift in how leadership goals are viewed and promoted.
Related Read: What is Diversity & Inclusion in the Workplace, and Why is it Important?
#5 Tread a Path
“Leaders are the ones who have the courage to go first, to put themselves at personal risk to open a path for others to follow.”- Simon Sinek.
Since only a leader can identify another leader, it becomes important that the top management plays a role here. This means the top-level management must show a clear path to their employees-turned-leaders to advance and achieve goals.
Furthermore, it will also enlighten them regarding the necessary steps to achieve leadership team development goals.
#6 Foster a Coaching Culture
“Coaching is unlocking a person’s potential to maximise their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them.”- Timothy Gallwey.
Various organisations develop formal leadership development programs for leadership training. However, the need is to have coaches at all levels that are inspiring & knowledgeable. For leadership development to proliferate, individuals must be allowed to coach or be coached.
The method fosters a work environment where knowledge sharing is prioritised, and feedback impacts performance.
#7 Focus on Continuous Performance Management
“The only real difference between one organisation and another is the performance of its people.”- Peter F. Drucker.
It would take a closer look to understand that leadership is not only about influencing people. Veritably, it is about leaders leading the organisation to attain goals. The fact here is that leadership is not just a title but a responsibility. Leadership development can be mapped out as leading the self, leading others, and leading the organisation as a whole.
Continuous performance management becomes crucial here to monitor the performance holistically. Further, results can be measured against the expectations and the efforts that go into promoting leadership.
#8 Promote a “Learn by Doing” Attitude
“For there to be a true maturity, people must be given room to grow, which includes room to fail.”- Charles R. Swindoll.
Unarguably, you cannot support leadership team development merely by advocating it. Instead, as a leader developing other leaders, you ought to give them room to achieve goals or learn the ways.
One thing worth mentioning here is your leaders may sometimes misfire. But nevertheless, they will never hit right unless they have the opportunity to shoot.
Final Words
The corporate world has a long way to go before it gets hold of future-proof methods to promote leadership development. However, by the time it becomes a welcoming process, seeking the best talent & identifying foundational components within your organisation is a strong starting point.
Stay awake instead of waiting for leadership development to happen.
Stay open to ideas and let your organisation adapt to suitable ways to achieve leadership goals.
Cornerstone Global Partners (CGP) Singapore, an award-winning recruitment firm in Singapore, believes people are the cornerstone of every great company. And our mission statement clearly states it:
As every building requires a cornerstone, we believe people are the cornerstone of every great company. Our recruitment experts are passionate about bringing together great people with great companies.
We have a comprehensive line of HR solutions to help you spot your organisation’s future leaders. Get in touch with us to learn more about CGP and its services.
FAQs
1. What are the three ways to improve leadership in the workplace?
The most powerful ways to improve leadership in the workplace are:
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Promote clarity of goals across the organisation so that every employee knows them and understands their role in achieving them.
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Focus on personal learning where the chosen leaders can learn and lead through uncertainty.
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Enable feedback so the leaders can bring up new ideas and share feedback on the current processes.
2. Why is it essential to promote leadership?
The present world is very volatile and complex. Additionally, it isn’t easy for a single person to manage and run an organisation smoothly. Therefore, employers have recognised the power of having leaders at all levels who can take the responsibility to bring the desired results by achieving goals. This has given rise to the need for promoting leadership.
