Ways To Develop A Successful Leadership Program

Leadership development encourages leaders to become inspired and motivated to continue their very best. This motivation helps them to attain goals they made for themselves as well as the company. 

Unfortunately, many company leaders don’t fully appreciate or understand this. Why? Perhaps because they have problems with other company leaders, or perhaps they think that leaders are just born, and so developing leadership programs is a waste of time and money.  I would like to give those that think this way a number of benefits for developing a leadership program. A leadership development program will:

• Provide the company with a consciously defined leadership model representing current leadership best practices
• Support a consistent leadership culture
• Encourages team accountability
• Demonstrates that the company values their leaders and wants to invest in them
• Shows that the owner(s) value strong leadership
• Improves self-driven confidence, discipline and resiliency
• Drive performance improvement and hence the bottom line
• Develop a common language and approach which will aide in communicating the organization’s vision, goals, values and culture, assisting everyone in the organization to pull in the same direction.

In the end a leadership development program points to a culture of success – where everyone wins. 

An important factor to remember when developing a leadership program is that it is just not for those in leadership positions – but should be designed to also engage those who are not in a formal leadership position. Out of this pool will come the organization’s future leaders.

What are the tips to effectively train your employees and leaders to work in conjunction with each other? People in the leadership development field agree leaders need to be effective and can be that way with self-motivation. While there are numerous studies about the benefits of self-motivation, very few leaders actually follow the advice. 

If you’re creating a leadership development program for your employees, here are six tips to ensure the training is effective for all involved. 

Inform People To Think Ahead – If they can do this, they have the foundation laid to become a great leader. It’s easy for them to take on bigger, harder problems or contend with challenges that arise. By thinking ahead of time, they make careful plans to ensure mistakes are mitigated. 

Inspire Leaders To Learn About Themselves – This allows them to know what their strengths and weaknesses are, and come up with ways to move past, manage and address them. They can even find ways to better their strengths. 

Inspire Leaders To Share Experiences With Others – Leaders who are directly involved with employees and share their experiences tend to be more effective in boosting company morale and keeping employees with the company. 

Encourage Them To Pursue Additional Learning – The effective leaders know that constant learning is necessary. They understand that new things hit the market every day and that they need new skills to stay relevant and ensure the company meets its goals. In leadership development training, participants should be inspired to continue their learning, which could open up another world of opportunities they never believed was possible.

Inspire Them To Think Positive – Leaders are often faced with negative feelings and thoughts. In order for them to think positive, they need to face the negative emotions and admit that they too make mistakes that aren’t always in the best interest of employees and the company.  

Well-developed leaders inspire others to become leaders; and, strong leaders are self-motivated learners who model positive behaviors and ethical values providing shining examples for others to follow.

Thank you for reading, 
Richard P. Fontanie

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