Internal Leadership Development: 3 Key Initiatives
A recent article spoke of the importance of developing leaders internally within an organization. The passing away of Steve Jobs was mentioned as an example of organizations that need to plan for the future generation of leaders. Apple is a great company and it will be interesting to see how the new leaders within that magnificent organization respond to the challenges ahead.
The vision, mission and goals of an organization rely upon the leaders within the organization to make it happen through the efforts of the entire team. Leaders must be present at all levels of the company from the CEO level down to the line level supervisor. In fact, good organizations recognize the importance of leadership and begin working with line level employees on leadership development related skill building. Here are three key initiatives to take that will assist any organization in developing leadership internally.
Initiative Number One: Create an Internal Leadership Development Strategy
The first thing to do here is to schedule the time to actually think and properly strategize a complete and comprehensive internal leadership development strategy for the entire organization. Secondly make sure the internal leadership development strategy is complete and comprehensive. Make sure all levels of the organization are covered.
Leadership development is something that must be constantly worked on. The strategy must be built with this in mind. No leader ever reached a point where the people around him/her say that that is good enough he/she does not need to work on anything else. Great leaders are in a state of constant learning and development. Create the strategy with them in mind!
Initiative Number Two: Properly Fund the Strategy
Nothing will kill morale more than promising training and development for employees but having to cancel the training and development for budget reasons. Realistically, budgets do have to be created and resources have to be allocated based on changing and challenging conditions. The annual budget should result in money being allocated to training and development. Make the promises for training and development after the budget is known.
Make sure the importance of training and development gets an equal seat at the table with the various other needs for resources. Remember that failing to properly train and develop future leaders will have a cost to it. Average or poor leaders result in a drop in revenues and customer loyalty ratings.
Initiative Number Three: Measure the ROI for Your Strategy
Leadership development done appropriately will result in improved performance at all levels of the business. Leadership development is not a onetime let's get a quick boost in employee morale type of program. Leadership development should be measured by traditional business performance standards. Here is a short non inclusive list:
- Improved Sales
- Improved Performance
- Higher Customer Loyalty
- Fewer Employee complaints and negative interactions (law suits)
- Less Sick Time
The return on investment should be clearly present. If not, the leadership development program needs to be reviewed and changes made. The results will speak for themselves. Make sure proper measurements are in place. Make changes as necessary. leadership development done appropriately will provide for a competitive advantage. Is it time to develop a leadership development program?