Describing the Leadership Development Program for Organizations - byldgroup/BYLD-Group GitHub Wiki

An old saying goes, “Leaders are not made; leaders are born.” In the changing global corporate scenario, companies are increasingly investing their time and efforts in imparting leadership training. It has, in fact, become a critical component for companies looking to improve their employee engagement, upskilling programs, and higher retention. Every other organization should design its unique leadership development program that caters to addressing the challenges and opportunities required for the company’s employees in the future. Certain building blocks apply to all types of businesses.     

Core Elements that Comprise Leadership Development

Leadership is a rare quality required from all those who aspire to take up managerial roles and responsibilities. Here are some elements of leadership development that must be part of the crucial process.

Coaching and Mentorship

Firstly, providing a particular coach or mentor for each person in your leadership development program is crucial. This way, they will gain access and exposure to top management and gain insights tailored to assist them with their shortcomings.

They will have a clearer perspective on the day-to-day performance of the company’s leadership and sharpen their skills on a personal level. Great coaches provide a safe, nurturing space for employees where they can learn, ask questions, offer suggestions and imbibe various traits for managerial roles and leadership training.

Coaches or mentors can help employees better identify the specific directions in which employees want to undertake their journey. Coaches can provide a better insight to people about the skills they wish to hone and how they would be excited to add value to their companies.

Role of Accountability in Leadership Training

Tomorrow’s management will need to learn today how they can hold teammates accountable without micromanaging and taking accountability for their actions. These two segments are more or less interconnected as the latter is directly responsible for the former.

Exhibiting critical accountability as a leader is difficult when your actions are publicly speculated and judged with stronger repercussions for missteps, instilling a broader culture of accountability.

Conversely, having the right foot forward in leadership development ensures that everyone feels connected with their work and can speak up freely when things are wrong.

Encouraging accountability allows people to pursue their innovative ideas, but it is a mandatory trait for every future leader and is a ‘must-have’ in their toolkit.

Need for Management Change for Leadership Training

Whether there’s an upcoming company reorganization or corporate restructuring, layoffs or a pivot in the overall strategic direction will cause a change in business as an inevitable phenomenon.

Traditionally, changing the management was all about setting the right tone, determining the correct process, and over-communicating to achieve a seamless execution. Still, given the complexity and speed of change, it is different now.

Changing management today is about empowering more people throughout the team to define and shape the required changes rather than pushing an iron-clad plan from the top to bring about a forced change in development.

Influence and Negotiation Skills

A good leader must master the art of soft skills and have an inherent ability to establish an instant connection with people through effective communication skills and leadership training. Along with exceptional soft skills, a leader should be well versed with amazing negotiation skills to successfully influence others (especially across reporting lines) to create value for each party.

Despite having greater responsibility and accountability, leaders are still a part of a larger team. Their actions, combined with the actions of their team both, can reflect directly on them and shine a light on leadership development.       Both influencing and negotiation can have disastrous results for unskilled employees and foster negative sentiments amongst each other, which a leader must avoid. On the other hand, opportunities for win-win situations and value creation are left on the table that a leader should pick up!             These elements are a must-have for every leadership training program to develop great leaders; one requires dynamism and diversity to enforce the proper proclamation of leadership development!