How to conduct a successful leadership development program with your team

During one’s professional trajectory, achieving a position of leadership is one of the major goals of lots of people. But then what?

All managers, including those long-standing and with a lot of experience, need constant updating, always keeping in mind the constant need to develop their skills.

To do so, leadership training is crucial because it’s a way of promoting high-performance professional qualification.

Now, if you’re an entrepreneur and have other people working in your business, you should know that part of the success of large companies is consistent training, which allows the development of all employees.

Do you want to learn more about this subject?

In this article, we’ll show you how to build and conduct a leadership-training program directed to the development of managers’ skills.

We’ll show you 5 steps that are key for the training program to have excellent results in a way that it allows the company to grow. Check them out:

1. Identify your leaders’ needs

Good leadership training must be based on each company manager’s strengths and weaknesses. So, knowing these points is the first step to create and conduct a training program.

There’s a myth that people who hold high positions in a company don’t have weaknesses, nor do they need to develop their strengths.

However, you can be sure that even top leaders need to develop skills and maintain constant growth.

The identification of strengths and weaknesses should be done individually, based on each manager’s characteristics and professional history.

In this manner, it is possible to know the individual needs of the leaders and propose the right intervention for each person.

Strengths can be enhanced while weaknesses can be circumvented during the training program.

Believe me, even if you think that your managers have nothing to improve, it is possible to find certain improvement points even during the training program. And don’t think that we’re just talking about technical skills.

It is possible for you to identify certain behavioral aspects that might prevent someone’s development in your business, causing stagnation, poor results and negative interference with other professionals.

A manager’s strengths and weaknesses directly influence team members’ behavior, taking into account the strategic position and importance occupied by the leadership in an organization.

Therefore, carefully evaluate everything you believe can be improved.

2. Create individual career plans

When we are dealing with managers, leadership training achieves better results when done together with the presentation of a career plan.

Leaders must be aware of where they want to go and which steps must be followed in order to achieve their goals within the company.

Providing a global view of the roles and positions to be filled along their trajectory, facilitates each person’s perception of their strengths and weaknesses, which allows them to think about the points they need to improve.

In addition, a career plan helps you, as an entrepreneur, to identify the characteristics and skills necessary for each position, which makes it easier for you to create a training program.

The expected results of a leadership-training program is to train managers so that they can develop their roles much more accurately and efficiently, in addition to preparing them to exceed their current position and move up within the company.

Therefore, career plans should be provided together with the training program. By doing so, people will not only know where they are but also, where they are headed and what is needed to make it happen.

3. Conduct technical and behavioral training programs

As we mentioned in our first tip, there are two aspects that can be addressed in a leadership-training program:

1. Technical skills;
2. Behavioral development.

A training program that doesn’t contemplate both elements is considered incomplete, because a balance between these two skills is fundamental.

Leaders should know how to deal with people, i.e., being extremely experienced and being recognized as authority in their field isn’t enough if they don’t know how to communicate and delegate tasks to others.

But do you know what behavioral and technical aspects are, and how they can be worked on during the leadership-training program?

The technical aspects are related to managers’ professional training, their experience and fulfillment of the requirements in order to progress in their career plan.

On the other hand, behavioral aspects are subjective in nature and are linked to a leader’s profile. These are elements such as an aptitude to solve conflicts and good communication.

Both paths can be followed during a leadership-training program, so as to allow the full maturity of the manager. It is up to you to decide which aspect you should focus on more.

4. Promote the exchange of experiences

The training programs must be conducted so as to allow the sharing of experiences among managers.

When several professionals in leadership positions go through a training program, the results are much more positive.

In addition to integration, this model allows each leader to learn and, at the same time, teach by sharing, albeit indirectly, their experiences.

That way, all those involved can get an idea of what others are doing and can thus apply new strategies in their areas based on the perspective of other managers.

This is a time for reflection and absorption of professional as well as behavioral knowledge.

There’s nothing better than gathering, in the same training program, professionals with the same goals: help in the company’s growth and also, perfect their own leadership skills in order to become a better professional.

5. Consider hiring an outside consultant

One of the major difficulties during the leadership-training program is maintaining neutrality. By being too close to the company leaders, you might not always be able to identify people’s strengths and weaknesses.

As we’ve mentioned before, this is the first step to create ways to help in the development of professionals who work for you. But if you are unable to identify what needs to be improved, you’ll never be able to think of ways to train your leaders.

If this is your case, consider hiring an outside HR consultant, which will ensure a neutral view of your company’s professionals.

The perspective of impartial third parties is much more assertive, capable of identifying aspects that, although often evident, go unnoticed by entrepreneurs.

It’s absolutely normal to ignore something when contact and involvement with the internal processes is considerable.

But if you cannot make this type of investment now, another alternative is to start communicating more with your managers in order to receive monthly or even weekly feedback.

By doing so, you’ll notice what other professionals are thinking regarding each one and you can propose improvements.

Help your leaders develop their skills

Within the company, leaders are seen as guides to those who make up a team.

For this reason, the development of these people is essential so that everyone can evolve together.

This means that leadership training has results that go far beyond managers, since it influences an entire company area. After all, well-trained leaders are able to motivate a team in a more effective manner.

In addition, a good training program also offers benefits such as solving internal conflicts.

Therefore, always encourage your leaders to seek training, qualification, and constant growth.