As a provider of HR services to other companies, there are times when we get to see the dirty laundry of some other businesses. Of course we’re professionally sworn to secrecy over who these businesses are and what their issues might be, but when we look at the organisations that have the most serious problems, those with high staff turnover or are considered poor to work for, the one word that keeps surfacing is culture.
Culture will pretty much determine the overall success of an organisation, and it isn’t always about how staff are treated. A bad company culture is felt by its customers too and determines how it handles change and approaches innovation.
Good culture is almost tangible. It can be seen in the attitude and morale of the employees; their positive approach and willingness to learn and grow. Organisational culture is always driven by its leadership.
To enable a positive culture, organisations require a leadership strategy that is aligned with the overall business strategy and provides its employees with the leadership skills needed to implement it. A leadership development strategy enables the organisation to positively mould and shape the culture.
You’ll know us to be passionate about Leadership Development; we’ve been delivering leadership training for over 20 years. Here are the most prominent reasons why businesses should implement a leadership development programme.
Provides stronger strategic vision and purpose: Starting with a compelling vision and purpose and developing company strategies to achieve may not be easy but it is an excellent opportunity to demonstrate strong leadership. Leadership training and development can help managers to lay the foundations for their organisational vision and implement the strategy cohesively and therefore successfully.
Drives morale and productivity: When an organisation is guided by a decisive leader or leaders, with good business ethics, clear vision and strong strategic direction, the positive energy will permeate throughout the organisation. By implementing a properly considered leadership training program that is aligned with the company values, all managers will learn to manage consistently and with the same message. They’ll learn to manage their own time effectively, set realistic expectations and motivate employees.
Training trickle-down: Leadership development will benefit everyone in the organisation and have a trickle-down effect from top levels of management to supervisors and lower levels of management. When the management is strong at the top-executive level, the positive effects will filter through to all employees.
Strengthens organisational bonds: Leadership training programs not only develop strong leaders but support managers and supervisors in becoming better followers as well as encouraging feedback from their own teams and front-line staff. The bi-directional teamwork promotes a cohesive and collaborative working environment that fosters creativity and initiative. Team-member training will enable all employees to understand the organisation’s, their manager’s and their co-workers’ expectations of them.
Cross-pollination of ideas: By attending well-run leadership training, managers have opportunity to interact with other managers and discuss common leadership and management issues that will be raised during the training. This is an excellent way to brainstorm new and different ways to approach problems or issues and find innovative techniques to incorporate into your organisation’s own leadership practices.
Follower Satisfaction: Leadership programs benefit the followers as much as the leader. A leader with greater clarity, direction and effectiveness enables those traits to rub-off onto those they are leading. Followers will build admiration and have a greater sense of direction and purpose, which leads to greater motivation and ultimately, productivity.
Recognised Investment: Good quality training that goes above and beyond the compliance led sheep-dip style of training is recognised by employees as investment in them. Managers will be keen to implement their learnings and, knowing they are working for a business that invests in them aids staff retention.
Enables Succession Planning: Leadership skills are fundamental to any role within the business and good leaders are required at all levels. Leadership training programs help identify people with the potential to fill leadership positions and mould and shape the executive team of the future. Promoting from within comes with a raft of advantages and is significantly less expensive than recruiting externally.
Accountability: A Leadership program identifies individuals’ areas of strength and where further development is needed. A good programme will direct individuals to develop their own action plan to overcome areas of weakness thereby enabling accountability for their own performance.
Self Leadership: Ultimately, the aim must be to enable leaders in an organisation to recognise where they are for any particular task or competency and take the necessary steps to upskill themselves. Promoting a culture of self-leadership is something that progressive businesses actively develop as part of a growth strategy.
Good leadership produces a good culture. We can work with you to develop your own leadership development programme for you and your team. We’ll discuss your vision, goals and strategy and design a bespoke solution that works for you. Talk to us. Call 01452 331331 or e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
