What is the ultimate sign of “poor management”? For some, it can be the disengaged talent, low productivity. For some, it can be staff turnover or the unhappy customers. As for me, it’s the reluctance to invest in leadership development. Straightforwardly, it's a thankless job, one that doesn't reward anyone or anything.
While constructing any story, a person also has to move his gaze towards the point of deconstruction ( i.e. from where the things are deviating). Keeping it in mind, I would like to start the discussion with the mindsets that are resposible for poor leadership development.
- Lack of trust and credibility on leadership training- It can happen due to frequent disappointments the upper notch members see after sending out their people to leadership programs.
- Lack of knowledge on leadership programs- to understand what kind of mentor and mentorship can help their people.
- Some managers think this is the way it has to be- I did it, so he can also do it. Before coming to this conclusion, one must think the industrial era is rapidly changing and bringing new, diversified issues.
- We don’t have the time, don’t have the budget or it is not prioritized now- Anyone with a rational mind would not dare to underestimate the power of knowledge that is required to survive this competitive era. I know, these kind of problems are not off the mark. But you can always do the little changes that you can afford. It is much better than being stagnant.
Now, the three primary reasons of - why the organizations should encourage leadership development (training and coaching).
Leaders help the team to thrive
Emotional intelligence is the act of knowing, understanding, and responding to emotions of the self, together with the awareness of --how your words and activities influence others. That’s why emotional intelligence is crucial for leaders to get success.
Like I mentioned earlier in my posts, leadership should be an act of self-love transforming into the love for others; for your job; for your team; for your career; for your family, friends, colleagues; for everything that encourages you to thrive more. Therefore, a leader need to reach out each and every person out there, even the ones with smallest voices. Because there's nothing more disheartening to witness the untouched potentials being flushed down just because they are unable to raise their voices. A leader with right mentorship can engage those talents and nurture them to future leaders.
Leaders help to make better decisions
Leaders help the organization in ethical decision-making (also correcting the cultural mediocrity).
These days, it’s not uncommon to find stressful scenarios influencing the ethical awareness of people. There are times, people’s personal values are getting blocked by the needs of the company. Now, I don’t entirely condemn this kind of culture setup for all the organization failures. Although it's a traditional way of doing things, if done right, it can be quite rewarding. And, sacrificing the personal needs for a bigger purpose really do sound heroic.
Yet this kind of leadership doesn’t always work due to the clash of ideas (on personal dreams, visions, needs). Because people do not honor the commitments if they can’t see the value residing in them. The constant fears of being laid off, restrictions over how you want to work or over-expectations of excellent performance without any job satisfaction enhance the anxiety and depression. Sooner or later, the opposition reaches the breaking point of discussion and compramise.
Therefore, a leader needs to imply the premises and ideas of a shared culture change. The leadership training and mentoring can give the proper comprehension of what is needed to make this kind of transformation work.
Leaders lessen the gap between strategy and execution
When comes to strategy and execution - the detailed road maps of a clear vision and the maps of implementation are needed. Trying to plan everything before the execution (when you know the least about how events will unravel) is also one of the failures a good leader must avoid at all cost.
Excellent leaders instill focus by creating shared goals that are clear and understood; everyone understands their roles in achieving the shared goals.
Also, leaders shouldn’t escalate commitment when they are aware of the flaws in the plan. Before thinking yourself as someone who can’t afford errors, see yourself as a person with authenticity. The true rewards of leadership come from leadership itself – not from the next promotion or tangible reward. And no organization will get better until leadership admits that something is broken.
