How important are leadership development programmes?

Encouraging leadership development within your organisation is crucial to the lasting success of your business. Leaders aren’t born, they are developed. Developing staff who are looking to progress their career is a great way to retain employees, as they will see a future with your organisation. We want to help you create leaders with a broader vision of your company.

Encouraging leadership development with HR practitioners

One of the key parts of the role of an HR practitioner is to ensure that the company has the right people performing well in leadership roles. Incorporating the human resources department in the entire employee lifecycle, rather than just the talent acquisition and exiting stages, sets your organisation up for success. HR plays a vital part in finding the right candidates for your company, which should lead to HR nurturing and enhancing an employee’s skills as they progress through their career. 
Ultimately, HR should be developing candidates and retaining their services by helping to provide them with an extensive career progression plan. This will ultimately reduce costs for the business in terms of recruiting externally, save time, and conclusively affect the bottom line in a positive way.

How to get the best future leaders

HR practitioners can often face the difficult task of identifying and cultivating future business leaders. One of the common mistakes is the misinterpretation between high performance and high potential. Hiring managers should combine, instincts with HR analytics tools, to ensure they are tracking the progression of staff to see who has the potential for leadership in the future. For example, investing in an effective appraisal system can make it easier to track progress and identify areas for improvement.

Carrying out a needs assessment

A needs assessment should be carried out to closely align the development program to the needs of the organisation. This is a critical part of planning a process as it can reveal problems and identify appropriate solutions for both the past and future performance, thus encouraging improvement. 
There are several options for a needs assessment that a company could use and many are free. The results of the assessment and research should provide a plan for your business to begin to implement a leadership development program. This process is always ongoing as external and internal factors will influence change. However, a continuous cycle of evaluation and enhancement will ensure your development programs will evolve in a way that benefits your business.

How technology is impacting the future leader

It is no surprise that technology is playing a huge part in the way future leaders are developing. Future leaders should be aware of the challenges and opportunities that technology presents to design, and deliver business strategies. Future leaders have to embrace change, learning, communication and diversity, and at leadership level technology can be one of the most useful tools to do so. 
Innovative leaders should be able to implement new technologies to supplement rather than replace human activity. Using technology to work smarter and more productively in the future, will be important for future leaders to retain the top talent and make the most out of their staff. The most successful leaders are those who understand how much technology can strengthen their ability in managing people, building teams, and keeping track of work across all channels and locations. 

Why you should implement a leadership development programme 

It is crucial to invest in your people to develop your business and prepare for the next generation of leaders. You can expect a huge return on investment, in that you will be nurturing and training your current employees to take on strategic positions. This will cost you less in the future as you won’t require new employees with extensive experience to lead your business.
Strong leadership can help with a talent shortage, spread ethos, and motivate and improve employee engagement. Making a name for yourself as a business who invests in their people will encourage other professionals to work for your organisation. Furthermore, this will boost employee productivity and happiness, which will improve the company culture. Investing in leadership development sends a message to your people that you care and inspires them to meet, and exceed, performance expectations. 
If you are looking to discuss your options to implement a leadership development programme or you are looking to hire professionals in your sector, get in touch with one of our specialist recruitment consultants today. 
Jason Hurnaum
Managing Consultant, Michael Page Human Resources
T: 020 7269 2147