The Value of Leadership Development

If you value your business, you need to value and develop your leaders.

In the words of Eleanor Roosevelt:

“A good leader inspires people to have confidence in the leader, a great leader inspires people to have confidence in themselves.”

Why Invest in Leadership Development?

We need leaders everywhere.

Someone needs to show us how to stay organised, build confidence, or complete a project.

When things get rough, we need someone reliable and trustworthy to turn to for guidance.

Great leaders create a positive impact on those around them, so why do some workplaces still underestimate the benefits of leadership development and training?

What is Leadership Training?

Leadership training usually refers to programs or courses that work to improve skills that are valuable in leadership, such as decision-making, communicating, problem-solving, and adaptability.

Becoming a leader means evaluating your current abilities and learning how to improve them. The goal of leadership training is to build your skills.

If you’re just starting your leadership training, you must develop your self-awareness. Being a great leader isn’t just about knowing a lot about your industry; it demans that you understand your needs, strengths, and weaknesses to learn how to best support your team.

Research has found that great leaders help build trust between employees and managers, creating a company culture where people feel comfortable and welcome. In turn this makes employees feel welcome to make suggestions or share their perspectives, which boosts the creative ideas and innovation flowing in the office.

Leadership Development at every Stage

Being a leader isn't reserved for certain positions.

Leadership for development will help employees at any stage to improve their skills and level up. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been in the industry for one year, five years, or more.

Here are a few employee positions at a variety of career levels and the potential benefits from leadership training for their specific stage:

• New leaders: First leadership position and you need all the leadership and new manager training you can get! You might not have prior leadership experience and feel like an imposter, but you have been given the opportunity to be a leader. That means it is time to learn. It's when you learn leadership’s basic do's and don'ts and how to start off on the right foot.

• Early to mid-career professionals: After gaining experience in your role and industry, you're probably ready to move up. But you’ll need to build on your existing knowledge to reach your full potential as a leader. Or, you might not want to secure a management position, but having those new skills would be helpful for your current job.

• Executives and directors: You've been in a leadership position for a while now, but it is time to improve your leadership style. Your industry is always changing, and you want to continue to be a role model. This is when you could really benefit from developing the skills to help with mentoring and inspiring others.

Four Benefits of Leadership Training

1. Helps with employee retention

A business can't run without engaged employees. Studies have found that team members who work with inspirational and strong leaders are more likely to be engaged and stay at their current job.

Workplaces with a higher employee turnover rate aren't engaging their staff enough or providing the support they need. That's where a strong leader comes in: to keep team members engaged and motivated at work.

2. . Manages challenging situations

Problems and issues can arise in any work environment. Things like being short-staffed during someone’s vacation, or your technology failing to work all happen at any time. And when nobody knows how to handle them, even the smallest challenges can derail an entire workplace.

3. Boosts overall productivity

A great leader ensures that everyone knows how to do their job well. You'll make sure that everyone feels comfortable with and has clarity about their roles. Soon enough, team members won't need to stop and ask questions or look for clarification and can work more efficiently.

4. Increases everyone's confidence

Poor leaders fill team members with self-doubt and lower their self-esteem. These leaders don't make team members feel capable or successful. But as a strong leader, you’ll empower others and make a positive impact on the work environment.

Why is Leadership Development important?

Businesses crumble without effective leadership. Individuals, teams, and companies can’t meet their goals. And when they don’t meet their goals, it’ll make them question their abilities and self-worth, negatively impacting their wellbeing. Your workplace needs quality leadership, and that’s harder to do without training.

The following key points were taken from a recent report:

Around 77% of organisations report they are experiencing a leadership gap

Leaders who spend more time managing than interacting with employees on a personal level are 32% less engaged

Leaders are feeling less confident in helping team members avoid burnout and making hiring decisions

If you’re still not convinced, here are five other ways that leadership training benefits workplaces:

1. Sharpens everyone's communication skills so that people have a better understanding of how to work as a team, boosting teamwork and collaboration

2. Helps guide a business toward success and growth opportunities

3. Helps to manage change and demonstrates what adaptability looks like

4. Demonstrates confidence and authority in project leadership

5. Promotes an educating, empowering, and encouraging company culture

Leadership Development Modules

Experiencing the benefits of leadership training is exciting for you and your team. Your newly developed self-awareness will help other team members flourish and be more productive while you learn what's most important to you.

MJSP Management Consulting offers a Performance Leadership Program which consists of 12 individual modules. We are able to offer this in a flexible manner where you can complete all twelve modules, or you can pick the ones that you feel are the most suitable for your and your organisation. To find out more about our leadership development modules, please contact us today on (07) 3839 1233.