Many managers lack basic leadership skills. The excessive control often prevents them from making innovative decisions. Despite the fact that the general requirements for a leader depend on the situation, the core competencies of such a person remain unchanged:the high professionalism and the ability to quickly adapt.
Leadership development begins with trust. Oftenly, managers lack the trust of their supervisors. In foreign companies, there is a practice where an employee is fully responsible for his work area, he becomes his sole manager. At the same time, the head of the company sets goals, but does not plan work details. This approach is effective from the point of view of developing leadership in the organization, as the manager gets the opportunity to improve himself as a leader. He can show determination, plan work, make decisions and be responsible for his actions. If the directors trust their managers, the last ones begin to think in completely different ways: they become interested in business development and customer satisfaction, perceive successes and failures with genuine conscientiousness, feel their responsibility along with the owners of the company, and become real entrepreneurs.
The leadership development system should include learning and practice. The best way to encourage an employee to develop is to identify his strengths and indicate what needs to be worked on. Using modern methods of teaching the employee will help get an objective idea of his professional level and leadership skills.
Some companies regularly conduct leadership practices for managers of key departments. The effectiveness of training is evaluated on the basis of how the employee applies the acquired knowledge in practice.
As practice shows, employees who want to develop leadership skills, observe their leaders and learn from their experience. The presence of a role model contributes to the development of leadership within the organization. The use of a mentoring system is one of the most effective ways of creating the necessary leadership skills among employees.
The leader can observe the senior colleague, learn from his management and decision-making methods, delve into the motives of his behavior, comprehend the logic of actions and analyze his personal qualities. Optimally, an employee can choose a “role model” for himself and, after observation and analysis, develop his own action plan, taking into account the features of the “role model”. Imitation is one of the most effective ways of learning. Despite the fact that each leader is a bright personality, the exchange of experience is always beneficial to all employees.
Each employee in a managerial position needs to have a personal development plan, that emphasises the acquisition of new skills, and not his career development. First of all, he should list his professional and personal achievements that will allow him to understand his starting point.
Leadership development in any firm implies goals that are clear and transparent to every future leader. An employee development plan may contain tasks for the year, key performance indicators, necessary training activities. Successful completion of certain courses, reading professional literature, and training for beginners may become a condition for leadership advancement. For example, some foreign companies oblige each leader to train his subordinates, and the results of training are taken into account when assessing the leadership qualities of the manager.
Personnel training and development is one of the key areas of modern business. The current entrepreneurial trends imply the fact that business owners pay much attention to the development of talents of their employees. The contribution to professional leadership skills within the organization not only prepares independent and proactive professionals, but also increases the level of the company's human resources.
