I have the opportunity to interact with people from all different walks of life and at many different levels of organizations on a monthly basis. In these interactions, the topic of leadership often comes up in conversation. It is the single most important issue in business today.
Recently, I have had numerous conversations regarding leadership training, which repeatedly came down to a single identified systematic fail point. That point is: we do not develop our leaders effectively, we simply train them and assume that success will just magically appear.
Companies invest countless amounts of their training budget into leadership training but fail to invest in their people when the training has been completed. Don’t let this happen to you. Here are some tips on how to get the most out of that investment.
If your company does not currently have an entrenched leadership training curriculum, carefully research what options are available to you. There are hundreds of different courses that can be found through the Internet, which can be daunting. Select a program with merit and substance that the candidate has to formulate a report or research project. Death by PowerPoint does not usually work here. Webinars and online courses are quite good, but nothing speaks to leadership better than a live interactive setting.
If you are going to proceed with this trajectory for training, ensure that you bring in speakers and instructors with real leadership credibility. You will get instant buy-in from your audience when you do this. Most importantly, ensure that you provide the training to various levels of employees within your company. When leaders and subordinates learn the same material, they can mutually assist and support each other after the training has been completed, sharing ideas based on the material covered.
Following the successful completion of a training course, we are generally presented with a certificate from the course facilitator or a member of senior leadership. A handshake and wish of “good luck” cannot be the end. Now is the important part.
You have a newly trained employee eagerly waiting to impart their experience within your company. Assign them a mentor right now. I am not suggesting that you take a mentor away from their respective responsibilities to sit with this person on a daily basis they are mentoring, but ensure that there is a plan in place. Ensure that regularly scheduled meetings are put in place for discussions related to leadership where the mentoring can take place.
Lastly, take the opportunity for job shadowing if time and resources allow. This will be mutually beneficial to both the mentor and those they are mentoring to exchange ideas and concepts which will ultimately lead to success at many different levels.
Leadership starts at the top of the organization. If this a priority within your company, make it one. Establish tangible benchmarks for your people by demonstrating that it is important at all levels within your organization. Share success stories or unique leadership concepts through your local newsletter or through email. The most effective will always be achieved when the leader of the company personally recognizes leadership excellence at a team meeting. This will resonate with all employees and serve as a motivational tool. People will buy in to excellence in leadership through these techniques.
The worst thing that we can do when developing our future leaders is to leave them on an island after we’ve invested time and money into their development. Don’t let them hang their certificate on their wall and then make an assumption that they will succeed in leading people. Leadership development is a continuum, not simply a one-time event.
Embrace higher learning within your organization in leadership by putting the concepts listed above into an action plan. Don’t make it a one-time event or annual check mark – encourage and develop to ensure the legacy of your company.
It would be a tragedy if the next CEO or president of your company was overlooked when they were at the grassroots level because they were never recognized for their potential and developed when you had the opportunity.
Lead every day. Lead well.
Cam Kowalski is a career security professional who was in charge of aviation security control planning for both the 2010 Winter Olympic Games and the G8 and G20 summits for the RCMP. He is also president of Jetstream Management Group, a Vancouver-based leadership development and project management consulting company. Follow Cam on Twitter @jetstreamteam
