Some people are simply born to lead. They naturally find their way into leadership or management roles and thrive in them, helping their organizations achieve their goals. While finding natural leaders is always great, it can be a rare occurrence. Some individuals have that “natural-born leader” DNA and are ready to hit the ground running. Others possess the same competencies to be effective leaders but need some training and development to help them realize their full leadership potential.
With McQuaig, we can help you identify your team members who demonstrate this “leadership” DNA, determine how well each employee matches your own business’ leadership competencies, and provide you with a program to maximize your prospective leader’s potential for success in your business.
If your organization focuses on talent management and leadership development, individual team members do not necessarily need to have that innate knack for taking charge. Many employees can become great managers if you’re willing to invest in them and provide them with the resources they need to blossom.
Remember that your team will only go as far as its leadership can take it. Even if you’ve got top talent in the ranks, their potential can be squandered by poor management. If you want to help your employees avoid that fate, learn how to teach your organization’s leaders to be better managers.
Improve Your Team Managers
There’s always room for improvement when it comes to leadership, and that improvement always comes faster when you prioritize it. Help your team managers reach their potential by following these tips.
Show Them You Trust Them
Building confidence is a major factor in leadership development. One of the best ways to instill confidence in your team managers is to show them that you trust them. This can mean allowing them to follow their managerial instincts, asking them for their input on important decisions, or simply allowing them to make a mistake and learn from it.
Recognize Their Accomplishments
If your managers are not engaged, the employees they are supposed to be leading will eventually follow suit.
One of the easiest ways to make any employee disengage is to fail to recognize their accomplishments or express your gratitude for them. Employee recognition can be a small personal gesture or a bigger, grander one with the entire team involved. Both should be employed at the right time.
Identify What Good Leadership Is
The concept of leadership can be somewhat abstract and mean different things to different people or businesses. Typically, “good leadership” involves empowering and inspiring people, taking initiative, leading change, and embracing the company’s vision, but each organization’s definition of good leadership can vary.
When you define the characteristics that make a good leader for your organization, you make your standards for leadership and management clear. This makes it a lot easier for your managers to meet expectations and fulfill their role in leading their team to success.
The Benefits of Leadership Development
There are many benefits to showing a leader how to be a better manager (rather than simply seeking out natural leaders). If you are not currently prioritizing leadership development, then consider the following benefits.
Custom Fit Management
When you develop leadership skills in your employees, you are developing the specific type of leader that you believe will fit best with your organization. Even a great natural leader with lots of management experience at another company might not fit as well as someone who was developed internally and has acquired all the right skills.
Retaining Top Talent
If you are lucky enough to employ a highly qualified and gifted individual, don’t waste their potential by failing to provide them with development opportunities. Such poor talent management will inevitably lead to low retention rates.
There’s no doubt that your employees will stick around longer if you show them there’s room to grow and provide them with the resources to do it. A culture of internal mobility helps to retain your top talent. Talent and leadership development programs show your team that you are willing to invest in their potential and help them grow with your company.
Improve Organizational Performance
Good talent management is simply good for a company’s bottom line. A team of great leaders will help those they’ve been tasked with leading to achieve their potential and continue their own development. Your organization will benefit in more ways than one.
McQuaig Institute 360 Leadership Reviews
If you really want to ensure good talent management and improve leadership development, you can take advantage of McQuaig Institute 360 Leadership Reviews.
These reviews are created through the collection of feedback from managers, peers, and direct reports and can serve to quantify leadership skills so that strengths and weaknesses can be identified and improved upon.
To get an even clearer picture of a participant’s leadership skills, 360 Leadership Reviews have them complete the same assessment as managers to see how well their leadership skills align.
These reports can prove to be a powerful asset in furthering your goals toward developing the best possible leaders for your organization.
If you’re interested in using McQuaig assessments to develop your leadership, request a demo from McQuaig Institute today.