Importance of investing in Leadership Development Program

[December 24, 2020]  “The single biggest way to impact an organization is to focus on Leadership Development.” – John C. Maxwell.

It is no surprise that everyone from Boomers to Gen Z; employees of different generation want to get better at leadership skills. LinkedIn Learning’s 2020 Workplace Learning Report found that leaders in learning and development, identified leadership and management, creative problem solving and communication as the highest-priority skills that workers need to learn to succeed at work.

By implementing a structured leadership development program, organizations can be sure that the next generation of leaders will be prepared to lead and also benefit from the training to become great leaders.

We have listed down compelling reasons as to why individuals and organizations should invest in leadership development programs:

1. Enhance your company’s culture: Leaders and the leadership team are known to preserve the culture of an organization. Welcoming a new member to the leadership team might be risky. But investing the time to work and coach your leadership team members through an effective leadership development program will ensure a healthy and positive culture thus percolating the principles of the organization culture to a much deeper level
2. Progressive impact on performance: The leadership development manifests benefits and makes substantial improvements in the progression to achieving goals. Implementing effective leadership programs will impact and develop great leaders. Organizations and leadership teams perform better when there are potent and while effective leaders are monitoring progress and maximizing results. There are various ways to foster future leaders with e-learning and coaching programs.
3. Attract and retain employees: An effective leadership and a good manager increases chances of the employee sticking to the company, thus reducing the cost of replacing them. Great managers always strive to inspire employees and reward them for the positive impact of their contribution to achieve goals. Employees are highly influential, and organizations need to invest more internally, so externally they can attract more talent.
4. Encourage strategy execution: Effective leadership development is never personal; it reflects in the business strategy and prepare employees with the leadership skills needed to achieve it. Leadership development allows organizations to mold the culture and blueprint of the business. Developing and promoting people internally is cost-effective to organizations.
5. Better the Leaders, Better The chain of employees: Businesses that focus on investing in human potential have a healthy leadership development atmosphere. This culture encourages risk-taking and endorses a well-communicated leadership model. Leadership development strategy emphasis on opportunities that drive revenue to diminish costs and improve customer satisfaction.
6. Employer-Employee success: A focused internal training for employees and leaders is key to build a successful strategy. Timely leadership development programs for existing employees affirm their commitment along with preserving skills, perforating confidential information and makes them feel valued
7. Generate Competency Framework: Efficient leadership programs encourage coherent communication and development. This helps in nurturing a strong and trusted relationship amongst all contributors in the organization. With a clear idea of defined competencies and successive execution, the distribution of responsibilities helps in achieving business goals seamlessly.

Implementing leadership programs educate great leaders to tackle highly complex business challenges and external environments. Business leaders reinforce a company’s mission and vision to create a culture of inclusion and growth. Strategies combined with the need for digitization and artificial intelligence is the most productive and efficient way of building businesses.

Every organization must invest in a leadership development program to prepare the future leaders. It’s paramount to remember that the greatest leaders don’t develop skills overnight but  the result of years of diligence, hard work and coaching.