The Importance of Leadership Training

Leadership is more than doing a good job at a senior level and contributing to the direction of the business.

What Defines Effective Leadership

Leadership is a vital component of any healthy business. Leaders help to shape and direct an organisation’s resources to improve efficiency and achieve business goals. Effective leadership means providing clarity of purpose, motivating the team and guiding the organisation to realise its mission. Great leaders inspire their teams and have the trust and support of their peers, taking calculated risks and being accountable for their actions. It is vital for the leaders of the business to work together as a high-performing team to support their people and positively influence the bottom line.

Why Leadership is Essential for Business Success

It is widely understood that well-trained and supported leadership teams, from the CEO down, build trust, resilience, and commitment. All of these reduce turnover and cost to hire in real terms and ensure top talent is retained in an ever-competitive marketplace.

The Importance of Leadership Training

The role of a leader is not only to provide strategic direction and operational planning but also to lead from the front, tackle the hard subjects and conversations, inspire, empower and support those managers and individuals throughout the business to achieve their very best. Then, and only then, with fully rounded leaders, will the benefits of their roles be felt to their fullest. Enabling them to have the skills and knowledge to meet strategic objectives will ultimately sustain and grow a profitable business that evolves year on year.

Failing to provide these individuals with the necessary skills, empowerment, strategic direction and the ability to communicate across many levels directly impacts productivity, employee retention (including cost to hire) and poor customer service. All of these contribute to the loss of clients or sales, reputational damage, and the decline of cash flow, resulting in large losses to a business.

Skills Every Leader Needs to Succeed

Most leaders understand what’s expected of them; however, a large number don’t have the skills, knowledge or objectivity to identify what is missing to enable them to be more effective or efficient. Sometimes the problem is as simple as the ability to take a complex, multifaceted project or problem and convey this into simple, bite-sized chunks, allowing everyone to understand and deliver their part to make it a success. What’s needed might be project management skills, but often, it’s effective communication, influence, and stakeholder management.

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How to Invest in Leadership Development

To get the most from your leadership teams, there is undoubtedly an internal investment required – of both time and resources – to deliver full programs, half-day sessions, and bite-sized digital training. For small and medium-sized businesses, this can be onerous, especially if the need for leaders to be more efficient and step away from the day-to-day is holding them back from attending sessions. The good news is skills and behaviours can be learnt in a number of ways, from formal qualifications and programmes to short sharp learning and 1-2-1 coaching. You can engage external partners that feel like part of your organisation, delivering impactful industry-relevant learning, as well as carefully trained mentors within your organisation who impart knowledge not found anywhere else.

The Risks of Poor Leadership Development

Whether it’s through 360° feedback tools that help leaders see their capability from another angle, a fully bespoke programme or 1-2-1 strategic coaching, every leader has the ability to positively or negatively impact the delivery of the company’s objectives and, in turn, the cash flow and profitability of the business. The more senior the individual, the greater the influence on other employees and the higher the risk to the business should a decision be made or a project be communicated that’s not in line with the business objectives.

To add to this dynamic, within every leadership team, you have individuals who are highly skilled and proficient in their field, each one with a slightly different preference in the way they need information to be conveyed and how they process and translate this into their teams. If preferences and ways of working are not understood or the leadership team is not aligned, it can cause miscommunication and frustration.

Tailored Leadership Training for Your Business

Developing learning programmes that incorporate skill profiles, standard or bespoke units, as well as 1-2-1 coaching and, where appropriate, funded programmes or qualifications allows teams to work in a joined-up manner, communicate more effectively, drive productivity and empower and inspire the rest of the organisation.

The Impact of Strong Leadership on Business Outcomes

The greatest impact can be gained from developing practical skills within a carefully written leadership programme linked to your company’s objectives. Often, a combination of coaching and mentoring allows individuals the space to unlock and gain knowledge from themselves and other leaders within similar businesses. The acquired knowledge, trust and accountability developed in these programs create high-performing teams that make better business and people decisions.

Whether there is a need to support an individual, a team moving to the next level of their leadership capability or the requirement to develop a talent pipeline that reduces the risk of single-point failure, the team of experts at MAD HR will work with you to deliver meaningful learning interventions and strategies that will make a positive impact to enable your business to thrive. Learn more about our Training and Coaching solutions.