Leadership qualities will always be in demand and will be critical to a business’s success. Leadership can be considered a practical skill encompassing the ability of an individual to lead, influence or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations to achieve a common goal.
Some believe leadership is a skill that you are born with; but, to the contrary, it is in fact a skill that can be honed. The most successful organizations recognize this simple truth and take the proper steps to ensure the leadership pipeline is fully stacked with talent poised to lead. These organizations know to invest in employees by creating opportunities for leadership and by guiding and coaching employees once they are in leadership positions to guarantee their success.
Creating Opportunities for Leadership Along the Way
Imagine yourself starting a garden in your backyard. You travel to the local gardening store, buy some seeds and return home. Now imagine instead of tilling the soil and planting each seed carefully in a row, you simply toss a handful of seeds into the yard, go about your day and never look back. It is completely possible that over time a few of the seeds will take root and sprout; however, the resulting “garden” will not yield the bountiful crop you desired due to the lack of time, attention and care the seeds needed.
This same concept can be applied to the workplace. Employees should be given opportunities to succeed and lead. These opportunities can, and should, be presented early in employees’ career journeys and should be nurtured along the way.
Here are a few effective methods to create leadership opportunities for employees:
Create Low-Risk Leadership Opportunities
It’s important to recognize that leadership opportunities exist at every level of employment. Entry-level and mid-career individual contributors need a chance to take the responsibility of planning, delegating and influencing members of their teams and organizations in low-pressure situations. These opportunities can come in the form of scheduling and running meetings, planning and organizing volunteer events or leading small project teams.
By running meetings, planning events and leading teams, employees will build competence and confidence for roles and responsibilities with higher stakes. This will also allow for critique, review and feedback about the employee’s leadership capabilities and performance.
Create Mentoring and Coaching Programs
Ensure your company has mentoring and coaching programs available to provide support to those employees interested in moving up your organization’s corporate ladder. This is a part of nurturing employees for success and can greatly assist as they transition to new roles.
These programs can be short-term or long-term and can have the added benefit of employee empowerment and retention. Partnering with an expert management consulting firm such as A Legacy Group can help you determine which mentoring and coaching program would work best for your company and assist in its implementation.
Train Employees on Soft Skills in Addition to Technical Skills
Managing people will require skills beyond just the technical kind. Soft skills are a must-have to be a quality manager. These are the types of skills that may not be innate for everyone. Luckily, with proper training, coaching and feedback, soft skills can be acquired and mastered. Employees need to be trained on soft skills such as:
- Effective listening
- Negotiation
- Problem-solving
- Time management
- Organization
- Delegation
- Goal setting
- Conflict management
- Conflict resolution
- Conducting performance reviews
- Communication styles
- Empathy
Help Employees Network
Encouraging employees to network both inside and outside of your company will help build their interpersonal skills which are critical to successful leadership. When employees expand their networks they also expand their opportunities to influence others. Company events like potlucks, holiday parties and team builders allow employees to connect with the colleagues and coworkers outside of their day-to-day teams.
Partnering with local non-profits can reveal opportunities for employees to join junior boards or to take other roles of responsibility. This can greatly enhance their visibility and grow their outside networks.
Tips to Integrate as a New Leader
Let’s say your company has taken all the necessary steps to guide your employees into positions of leadership. Be sure, the work does not stop here. It’s important to continue guiding these employees to ensure success. Here are a few tips to impart upon those new leaders:
Delegate more responsibility
Trust your employees to do their jobs well. Delegate all tasks that could potentially distract from new leadership responsibilities.
Know Difference Between Leading and Managing
Leaders need to make sure goals are met through influencing and inspiring their teams, not by getting into the weeds and details of day-to-day operations.
Recognize New Social Dynamics with Former Colleagues
For those managing people who used to be peers, credibility and authority must be established without appearing as if the promotion has “gone to the individual’s head”. Walking this line takes a lot of consideration. Navigating the new social dynamics will ultimately influence and affect each individual’s leadership style.
Letting Go of the Previous Role
Recognizing that newly made leaders were probably very good at their previous roles is important in understanding why it may be hard for some to let go of those roles. Acknowledging this simple fact is the first step in letting go. Once this is done, new leaders can take steps to let go through delegating, trusting their teams and taking the lead on being inspirational and influential to accomplish organizational goals.
Balance Urgent Matters with Everyday Tasks
Learning how to prioritize tasks by matter of importance will be a key learning for those in new positions of leadership. Tasks should be recognized and categorized by the amount of value derived from each activity. Activities that do not need to be met with a sense of urgency should either be postponed or delegated to others.
Go For Quick Wins
New leaders should prioritize the five most important tasks to tackle first in their new positions. To help narrow down the top five tasks, leaders should look for the solutions that yield visible results. Executing high value and high impact solutions early on will help make a great first impression as a new leader.
Prioritize Relationships
Building relationships with team members, peers and anyone else who will enhance the success of the team is key to transitioning into a leadership position. Leaders should do this early, often and consistently.
Choose A Legacy Group to Groom Your Employees for Leadership
Every individual has the potential to lead; often, the potential simply needs to be untapped. If you want to thrive in leading organizations to success, it is necessary to exhibit the skills, qualities and attributes of successful leaders. A Legacy Group exists to assist you and your leadership team every step of the way in building effective leaders within your organization. We are passionate about helping today’s leaders shape the workplace of tomorrow. We offer coaching, training, assessment testing and more. Schedule a consultation with our team and let us help you take your leadership skills to the next level, today!