Leadership Development Training
Leadership Development Training
Why is Leadership development training important to your organisation?
Because, to a large degree, it is the quality of the leadership that will determine whether or not your organisation will achieve its goals, or not.
- If the leadership team is effective, then the chances of success go up.
- If the leadership team is not effective, then the chances of success go down.
Leadership qualities are not innate. They are learnable skills.
There is a myth that "leaders are born; not made".
This false idea has led some people to ask, "Can leadership skills be learned?"
Of course leadership skills can be learned.
EVERY complex skill you have is a learned skill.
Hardly any skills are innate skills.
- You had to learn to do practically everything you do.
- You had to learn to tie your shoes.
- You had to learn to walk down stairs.
- You had to learn to drive your car.
Everything you do, you had to learn to do.
There is no such thing as innate knowledge.
So, you can be confident that, if you want to, you can develop your teams' leadership skills.
If you want to develop leadership skills in the team, then you can, by means of proper training.
Leadership development training is about learning new skills
Leadership is a complex issue.
All complex things are made up from a larger number of simpler component parts. Leadership is made up of a larger number of component parts.
Leadership development is about identifying the parts that combine to make up the concept of "Leader", and then to analyse each leadership quality and then to discover what associated skills are related to that quality; and then practicing each skill, in its turn.
As an example look at the following diagram.
Leadership development training will teach your leaders how to lead
All leaders need to be clear, in their own minds, about all parts of the leadership model and how to apply the ideas of leadership to their own particular situation.
Let's look at each part:
1. What is our vision or goal?
The leader is the person with the vision for a better future. A leader with no vision is a contradiction in terms. How can you lead someone to a better future if you cannot see a better future in your imagination?
The vision must be clear and specific.
- Clear: meaning that the leader "sees" the goal in his-her mind's eye as a clear and distinct image that he-she can talk about, at length, in vivid terms.
- Specific: meaning the details of the finished product are specific and well designed.
Example: An architect of a building has specific measurements for every part of the building in his her mind, before even the first brick is laid.
And in the same way, the architect of any great venture has a very clear idea of what the finished product will look like.
The goal must be morally sound.
We don't count immoral leaders in the category of great leader. So for us, Adolf Hitler is NOT an example of a "Great leader".
If you are leading a group of bank robbers, then you are not a "great leader".
The rule is that, "The achievement of your goal should not violate the rights of others".
2. Why is the goal important?
The goal is the target.
But the leader must also provide the REASON for the target. If there is no reason to act, people won't be motivated to act. So the leader must provide reasons to act.
Motivators
There are two basic motivators: Pleasure and pain.
So the leader needs to be able to spell out to the team both sets of motivators.
- All the benefits we will enjoy if we do achieve the goal. (Positive motivators).
- All the painful consequences we will suffer if we don't achieve the goal. (Negative motivators).
3. The method: By what means can we achieve the goal?
The leader must now be able to formulate a plausible plan that will be the method by which the goal will be achieved.
And in order to do that, the leadership needs to identify the answers to the following questions:
- To achieve the goal, what are the abilities, information, skills and knowledge we need to assemble together?
- To achieve the goal, what material resources do we need to assemble?
- To achieve the goal, what are the steps we need to take, and in what order?
4. What feeling do we need to inspire in the team?
So far we have covered the goal, the reason for the goal and the logical means to achieve the goal.
The last part of the method is to provide the emotions that will inspire people to take the necessary action to achieve the goal.
These emotional components are the fuel that drives the plans into reality.
There are many emotions that the leader has to engage with, and inspire in the team. But the most important are:
- Confidence: the team must believe they can win.
- Motivation: the team must want to win. They need to have enough desire to push them past the sticking points that will, almost certainly, occur.
- Trust: they need to trust the leader, trust the plan, and trust each other. If any one of these three types of trust is missing the team performance will flounder.
- Loyalty: The same three elements apply. The team should have loyalty to the leader, loyalty to the plan, and loyalty to the other members of the team. Disloyalty will cause the team to flounder.
If you want to know more about leadership training, follow this link.
Leadership Training - The Effective Leader Manager
As the team leader or manager, you know that, on the technical level, you are very good. In your role as an effective and inspirational leader-manager, you recognise that there may be some gaps. Now you are searching for a method to help you to improve your skills as a team-leader and manager - click here to find out more!
About the Author: Chris Farmer
Chris Farmer is the founder of the Corporate Coach Group and has many years’ experience in training leaders and managers, in both the public and private sectors, to achieve their organisational goals, especially during tough economic times. He is also well aware of the disciplines and problems associated with running a business.
Over the years, Chris has designed and delivered thousands of training programmes and has coached and motivated many management teams, groups and individuals. His training programmes are both structured and clear, designed to help delegates organise their thinking and, wherever necessary, to improve their techniques and skills.
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