“Long term business performance comes from leadership culture and careful and continuous development of leadership at all levels.” ~ 1Bersin, J., Forbes

Leadership within an organisation is essential to company success, ensuring that a business performs at expected levels, whilst maintaining established standards and productivity requirements. The problem that companies often fail to address however is that leadership is not limited to management alone. It is a standard that needs to be fulfilled in each level of your business profile and one that is often overlooked.

Lack of leadership, or the ability to achieve it, is widely acknowledged to be one of the key reasons talented employees become disenchanted within a company2. Having a company’s best and brightest leave can cause enormous issues within a business, opening up gaps in company structure and costing your organisation in more ways than the expected costs of recruitment and training.

So how does Leadership Development Training help you both retain your current employees, identify talent and run your organisation in the most efficient way possible?

5 Key Benefits of Leadership Development.

1. Entice, Develop, and Keep Talent (return on investment)

Leadership development programs can be a key selling point in your recruitment strategy. Companies that mention a focus on increasing skills and providing opportunities for development are more likely to attract talented individuals who are interested in improving both themselves and their abilities.

By developing talent as part of their employment, organisations are further able to ensure they can mould employees to fit their company culture and business requirements, and do so at a cheaper cost then hiring skilled leaders from the get go. Employees are also more likely to show loyalty to a business that aids them in achieving their goals and provides opportunities for them to develop both personally and within the company. If the pandemic showed us anything, it is that in a pre-pandemic world keeping the talent that you have is more important than ever.

2. Increased Productivity (strategic problem-solving, mends skills gap)

Development of employee potential has a three-fold effect.

  • It allows employers to better identify which roles employees are best suited for.
  • Allows employees to strengthen certain skills and learn new ones, providing companies with talent that can be used in multiple scenarios and positions.
  • Teaches problem solving techniques and abilities that increase employee’s capability to complete tasks and solve issues as they occur.

3. Remove the Leadership Gap (smooth transitions)

Leadership development increases employee’s ability to both fill gaps between management and your regular team, and to cope with company changes and upheavals. By ensuring your employees have been trained to work as leaders you ensure they have the necessary skills to step in as required and the ability to step up when management positions become open. In-house hires for management positions have hugely positive impacts on employee’s willingness to learn, strive and stay in your employment.

4. Improve Company Culture and Reputation

People talk. And within business it is not uncommon for your employees to openly (or quietly) share information with others within your sector in regards to a) your company culture, b) what it is like to work for you and c) whether there are opportunities to advance.

Companies that have a focus on employee improvement and development are more likely to have positive feedback by their employee’s both in house and to prospective employee’s, stakeholders and clients. A report from 2Bersin by Deloitte on High Impact Leadership showed companies that provide leadership training to also have reputations for excellent organisation and strong core values and beliefs within the company as well as increased employee motivation. All of which are reflected by their employees to the outside world.

5. Discover the Diamond in the Rough (identify potential leaders)

Leaders don’t grow out of the ground like daisies and promoting people unequipped to lead can have disastrous results in a business. Leadership development programs are an excellent way to identify who amongst your employees thrives in leaderships roles. Often these programs can show employee’s that you may not have realised have excellent potential as both leaders and problem solvers.

Without your Leadership Development Program you may miss the talent you have in your employment pool and instead waste time and money promoting either the wrong person, or hiring someone new, when all that was required was some extra coaching of what you already have.

References

  1. Bersin, J., 2012, It’s not the CEO, it’s the leadership strategy that matters, Forbes [Accessed 24th May 2022 – https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbersin/2012/07/30/its-not-the-ceo-its-the-leadership-strategy-that-matters/]
  2. Bersin by Deloitte, 2017, High-Impact Leadership, Deloitte Development LLC

Venture Corporate Recharge have been Leaders in People Development since 1990 and remains as one of South Australia’s highest rated experiential programs experts. Contact us today to organise a Leadership Development Program or series of workshops to suit your companies needs and requirements.