Leadership training is one of the most important initiatives for a company to invest in. It upskills a new generation of workers, improves decision-making within a business, promotes employee engagement which drives and facilitates growth.
Putting together a successful, bespoke leadership development programme takes time and effort and isn’t something to be rushed. So, what are the key points of effective leadership development?
Clear goals and progression
The core of an effective leadership training programme is to lay out clear goals for an employee at the beginning and ensure there is structured progression. Start with establishing short term and long-term leadership goals and break down the steps on how to get to each goal.
As part of this journey, set out development opportunities along the way and project work within the current position. For example, an employee could participate in an training exercise to improve their decision-making which can be implemented into their current role as part of a project based exercise during the training.
Small groups for reaping the most rewards
Group size is another vital part of a successful leadership training programme. It’s best practice to keep group numbers small to ensure each participant gets the time they need to develop. Our leadership development programmes have no more than 12 aspiring managers on the training to ensure contact time with the trainer is maintained.
Assign an experienced leader to every group and focus on developing the skills of each individual. This can then be reported back into the group and participants can work together in joint exercises.
Building an environment for role models
To help develop the habits of a leader, it’s crucial that the participants in your programme have people who they can learn behaviours from. That’s where one-to-one coaching comes in and mentors can be provided to help assess the performance of employees and help them reach their goals.
In addition, the mentor will display leadership characteristics that will inspire the people they are teaching.
Use technology successfully
Incorporating the right technology into a leadership training course makes a huge difference. This can include communication software, CRM systems and tools for tracking and monitoring progress.
An example is a video conferencing platform like Zoom/Teams for a mentor and mentee to have regular catchups if the business is practising home working. This ensures relationships are build like they would in an office environment. Effective leadership heavily relies on relationship building and this ensures “in person” relationships are created and maintained. Other technology than can be used can be a platform called Slack which allows teams to communicate remotely and provide leadership development tasks to people who’re working across different locations.
Employ multiple learning methods
Everyone learns in a different way and an effective leadership training programme takes this into account. There needs to be a multi-media training approach to ensure that every participant feels confident in building their skills.
For instance, there are many different learning styles to which one learner may find benefit in watching a series of short training videos, where another may prefer a more auditory style of learning, and another learner may require a practical workshop where they are putting what they’ve learned into action on a weekly basis.
Ongoing support
Even after the leadership programme is finished, it’s worth continually checking in with participants to see how they are applying what they’ve learned in real-time. Providing this support will help to keep them focused and take proactive steps towards continued personal development.
As part of all Brook’s Leadership Development programmes, we build in one-to-one support to facilitate and support implementation of the newly taught skills. In our eyes, this is the biggest and most important element of our training to ensure old habits are forgotten!!
Book your leadership training with Brook today
As specialists in leadership development, we can help you create in-depth management training courses bespoke to your business designed to engage, motivate and increase the performance of your employees. For more information, contact us today.
