What is leadership training?
It doesn’t matter if the leader is the owner of the company or an employee who stood out among the rest and was promoted. Contrary to what many people think, leadership skills can be developed in all people , just training and dedication. In this article we will provide you the importance of leadership training.
Leaders called born are, in general, people who can capture the attention of those around them and “make the whole thing happen”. All of these can be trained during leadership development programs .
Next, we will present the concept and purpose of leadership training, its types and a brief step-by-step guide to assemble training for your managers to develop better leadership techniques .
Leadership training consists of a course that aims to improve and practice the main competencies that are important for managers to be able to direct their team to results.
For this purpose, there are several skills that need to be worked on, such as:
- emotional intelligence;
- Communication;
- delegation;
- feedback ;
- creativity;
- responsibility;
- flexibility;
- commitment;
- reliability.
For this reason, applying leadership training is essential for companies that want to have inspiring leaders, who can deal with different situations and people with diplomacy, achieving the desired results.
And this is far from easy. After all, there is no such thing as a leadership profession. Becoming a leader is a consequence. That’s why it’s so difficult to adapt this role to different areas of a company and that’s why applying this training to leaders is so important.
How important is leadership training?
Leadership training is a benefit to employees and the company . So when you promote your employees to leadership roles, something special happens. Your company understands that it is honing its skills, work ethic and professional motivation to succeed.
However, if employees don’t have the skill set, there’s a lot to lose. Without the necessary training , promoting them to leadership roles can be risky and potentially result in takedowns. That is, your team members may exceed expectations in their current roles, but may be less successful in leadership roles.
The reason your employees would not be fit for leadership could be a lack of knowledge or experience, which is why it is so important to provide leadership training to all employees.
Leadership training helps them understand the role of a leader, the tasks involved, and what it takes to be a good manager.
Furthermore, leadership training is not only excellent for future leaders, it is also remarkably beneficial for updating other leaders.
Training your proactive employees in current leadership skills will help them develop. Soon, your investment will translate into a team full of trained managers.
It is in order to help in leadership training, that we have brought in this article some reasons why companies should invest in training their employees.
1-Higher productivity
By training your employees in effective leadership skills, you can increase the productivity of your workforce. Leaders are there to provide guidance to employees and ensure they are performing above expectations.
In the event of a deficit , the leaders you’ve trained will have the ability to assess problems, manage situations, and provide sensible solutions.
2-Incentive to other employees
Unfortunately, without proper leadership training, it is difficult for future leaders to create new opportunities.
Empowered employees should be sources of thought that other employees turn to for advice and guidance.
They need skills to communicate well and to inspire and encourage their peers. These qualities, in addition to increasing productivity, provide your team with a more pleasant working environment.
It is important to train and nurture future leaders by providing them with progressive leadership training . Do you want your team to develop the skills necessary to meet the roles and demands of greater responsibility as they become available? As such, proper training ensures that they are ready to take on these leadership roles.
3-Improved risk management
Companies know that when doing business, the element of risk will always be present. Therefore, you need to train your current and future leaders in risk management.
If you do, they will gain strategic vision and high risk management skills. Thus, improving the knowledge and practice of risk management of your employees will add ample value to any business.
4-Develop emotional intelligence
Emotional intelligence is one of the key personality traits that makes for a great leader. Understanding how emotions affect others ensures that people lead effectively, as well as with consideration and empathy.
Thus, leadership training programs that strongly emphasize emotional intelligence can result in the formation of leaders who are extremely skilled in the art of managing people.
5-Leadership training for projects
Without sufficient project leadership knowledge and strategy, leaders will likely struggle to handle all aspects of such a demanding responsibility.
Therefore, this lack can cause the project to go off course and end up with substantial losses for the business. Another possible problem on a project is team morale which can also decrease due to incorrect guidance and increased stress.
So, by teaching effective leadership skills, your employees will be able to better manage their teams and complete projects efficiently and on schedule. This increased efficiency on the part of employees generates productivity that will result in greater profits.
6-Adaptability to change
The business environment is constantly changing, and as such, leaders need to be able to recognize this change and adapt to it. For example, in a reality where your employees have little information to make the right decisions, leadership training will make a difference.
By training your employees, they will gain the ability to make better, more informed and decisive decisions.
Therefore, regardless of the industry or the size of your business, your leaders must have the necessary skills to effectively guide your team.
What is the purpose of leadership training?
The purpose of leadership training is to exercise and develop the core competencies that a leader must have, in a strategic way.
In other words, it is necessary to understand why this training is necessary. Is it the communication with the subordinates that is lacking? Or does the leader have difficulty delegating tasks to his team?
Without this vision of what needs to be improved, you can get a little lost when implementing leadership training in your company. That’s because, as you’ll see throughout the article, there are several specific leadership training topics, each with a focus, to solve a particular problem.
However, even if there really is a problem, it is always worth considering applying leadership training to managers. After all, something can always be improved.
In addition, managers are even more motivated to bring better results once they realize that the company cares about awakening their potential and invests in knowledge.
And to bring better results, leaders need to know how to guide their team towards goals and objectives. They are the ones who get their hands dirty on a daily basis, and without the right direction and motivation, they will not reach the scope of the area.
Therefore, investing in leadership training is investing in resources that bring results!
You may also be interested in this article: How to do emotional intelligence training at work?
5 leadership training topics
Before listing the main topics of leadership training for companies , it is important that we remember the role of a good leader :
- Inspire your employees;
- Encourage innovation and continuous process improvement ;
- Put the team in line with the company’s goals;
- Resolve internal conflicts;
- Keep the team motivated;
- Ensuring the necessary tools for the proper execution of all activities;
- Assist the team in problem solving;
- Give autonomy to your subordinates;
- Disseminate good practices and more.
With all that in mind, let’s move on to leadership training options.
1. Technical training
Have you ever heard the phrase “to send it, you have to know how to do it”? A leader does not command, however, a leader needs to have knowledge to guide his collaborators and analyze the proposals presented by his team.
For example, a sales leader needs to analyze a sales action and identify whether it is being effective or not.
A good manager must be able to identify gaps and propose improvements. A sales leader needs to know a script and have information about consumer behavior , as well as know a little about the workings of the human mind and what makes someone want something.
Finally, maintaining a training program on day-to-day technical issues in the department is essential.
A sales manager who doesn’t know what a sales funnel or inside sales is needs to be refreshed immediately!
The world is changing very fast and the techniques that worked yesterday don’t work today.
The company can create a technical training program for leaders , investing in online or in-person courses , sending these leaders to events and more.
Attention: you, as a leader, do not really need to know how to do everything that all the professionals who work with you know, but you do need to have a critical view of each area in order to contribute to the daily improvements of each process.
2. People Management
A leader deals fundamentally with people, so training related to the management of professionals is essential to keep the team engaged, united, motivated and in tune .
A people management course will help the leader to create an effective feedback policy , as well as establish communication tools to keep the dialogue transparent and open.
In addition, learning how to charge your employees so that they feel motivated to meet goals, as well as learning the best performance appraisal techniques , is critical for the leader to create a high performing team.
People management should not be done only by HR professionals , but mainly by managers who work directly with these employees.
Do you know what the different types of work teams are? Check out this infographic from Agendor:
3. Training to avoid micromanagement
Micromanagement happens when the leader does not give autonomy to his followers. He distributes the tasks, but says when, how and what must be done, all this in the smallest detail.
In addition, this boss (who is not the same as a leader) is following every step of his collaborators to ensure that the study is going as he wants.
This is not good!
A leader must let his team make decisions and get things done, because he trusts that team is doing its job well.
If you don’t trust your team, then you should propose to carry out some training that empowers your team so that it can walk on its own.
Micromanagement demotivates the professional and still takes up precise time for the boss, who should be performing other tasks.
In short, training for leadership not performing micromanagement is essential to create a team that is autonomous and achieves good results.
In the video below, a lecture organized by Endeavor with the theme “ Management and leadership of people in practice ”, it is worth checking out to complement the knowledge you have acquired so far.
4. Goal Management
Among the training for leadership that your company should be concerned about is training in goal management .
Your company must have a strategic plan with well-defined objectives and, based on that, leaders must understand how their team participates in achieving these objectives and monitor how they are doing.
In addition, some departments may have internal goals, so it is important that the manager knows how to control, demand and measure the results achieved.
5. Mentorship
The leader is often seen as a mentor to his followers. However, it is interesting to create a mentoring program so that the leaders themselves can develop with the help of even more experienced professionals, both inside and outside the company.
Mentoring can develop your leaders faster, in a focused and exponential way .
Consider adopting such a program to optimize leadership training.
