An American business Executive Jack Welch famous quote sounds like this: “before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others’’. It is a motivation to enhance the capacity of others to become future effective leaders. And it is only possible through a simple and effective leadership development plan. Through such a plan, leadership qualities can be nurtured in employees covering their goals that align with organizational goals.
Hence, we provide you with guidance on creating an effective leadership development plan to have successful leaders in an organization. This will help you get productive tips and improve leadership skills training in your organization.
Before we go deeper into details, let’s understand what a leadership development plan is.
What is a Leadership Development Plan?
As the term implies, a leadership development plan is a detailed blueprint that is set to help employees gain leadership competencies for better roles in the future. It’s a complete and detailed plan that includes learning activities and professional developmental skills for career growth.
Leadership development plans engage employees through leadership training, networking, soft skills, expanding and diversifying knowledge, creating a culture of mentorship, practicing self-discipline and communication, and overall focusing on big-picture thinking. All these qualities and skills prepare individuals for future leadership positions.
Why is Leadership Development so Important?
Leadership is a critical factor for future job placement. An article published on important future jobs focuses on human creativity, originality, critical thinking, initiative, and persuasive and negotiation skills. Complex problem-solving, attention to detail, and resilience were also vital job requirements.
‘’Emotional intelligence, leadership, and social influence, as well as service orientation, are also set to see a particular increase in demand relative to their current prominence today.’’
Based on the research, by 2022, newly emerging occupations will grow in large firms requiring leadership skills to handle the latest technology algorithms and machines emerging simultaneously, significantly influencing most jobs.
It is also expected to increase human roles in sales, marketing, management, people and culture, developmental training, social media, and organizational development.
What else makes a leadership plan so important?
- It drives better business results.
- Good leaders drive innovation.
- Skilled and competent leaders are more responsive
- It inspires higher employee engagement
- Enhance company internal and external communication.
- Improve customer retention
- Also, improve employee loyalty
It is essential to create a proper growth plan to deal with all these. Let’s learn more about why businesses need an effective leadership development plan.
Why Do You Need a Leadership Development Plan?
The idea of creating a leadership development plan might seem a bit shaky, but having a more specific, realistic, and flexible plan, including accessible goals, can be very effective. A well-thought plan reflecting critical and structured thinking and collaboration can inspire today’s employees to become great future leaders.
To make leadership development effective, planning provides clear and concrete goals and helps to influence employees through involvement in activities. Having a clear roadmap means you can take action right away to achieve your objectives. Planning is always fact-based, increasing the chances of achieving more success.
Therefore, you must develop a proper plan to enhance employees’ leadership skills, which have a long-term effect on personal satisfaction, growth, and development, and increase the productivity of an organization.
How to Create the Best Leadership Development Strategy
The question is how to create the best leadership development plan or strategy. Talking about the best leadership development strategy, Marcus Buckingham said,
“the chief responsibility of the leader is only seen through the eyes of followers’ needs. Followers need to have confidence in a better future. Giving the leaders an employee engagement tool, real-time engagement to see themselves through the eyes of the followers would help in Leadership development.”
Additionally, when engaging with employees, leaders freely move them around to fulfill gaps and fulfill the needs of the followers, better understanding the importance of leadership development. Leaders turn the legitimate anxiety of followers about the future into a vivid picture through employee engagement, and that’s what employees must be prepared for. To turn the anxiety of followers into hope, as being anxious about the future is adaptive. However, leaders must bring confidence for a better future.
Therefore, one must develop a leadership plan for success, sustainability, and survival in a competitive market.
Leadership Development Plan – Complete Guidance
Experts who have experience working as leaders, trainers, and researchers recommend this leadership development plan. Let’s understand these best practices to implement in our organization.
Step 1: Figure Out Initial Developmental Goals
You must figure out clear goals to set for the process to follow. It’s a starting point and primary base for the leadership development plan.
It’s necessary to understand strengths and weaknesses at the workplace and identify areas where improvement is needed. After identification, having a clear and specific timeline to achieve the results can ensure your vision for the company.
“Just like anything else: If you don’t know where you’re going, you’re probably not going to get there,” Bernstein says. “It sounds overly simplistic, but that summarizes why goals are important.”
Step 2: Study Great Leader’s Traits
Reading about different leadership styles, such as transformational, transactional, and autocratic leadership, would be very helpful. Also, define what kind of leaders you need and what skills or competencies are required for such a leadership style.
You can also create a list of skills that you are looking for in a good leader aligned with your company’s goals and objectives. Additionally, prepare a list of employees who demonstrate talent and interest in leadership goals.
Step 3: Assessment of Your Personality
There are qualities and skills that you need as a team leader. These can include communication, critical thinking, evaluation of authentic change in someone’s personality, planning career growth, negotiating transactions in careers, and giving accurate and constructive feedback.
In your leadership development plan, you can include the things you typically don’t practice. Things like soft skills, including creating value, practicing empathy, and actively listening, show that you can effectively tackle any challenge and bring organizational change.
You can use different personality trait assessment tools for yourself, freely available online. These tools will help you personalize your development and keep it on track.
Step 4: Write Down Your Top Values
The core values of any leader guide them toward their decision.
“Each member of your team has the potential for personal greatness; the leader’s job is to help them achieve it.” – John Wooden.
Your values are used to assist, identify, make decisions, show empathy, and listen to others. It will help you understand what value is a top priority to be regularly practiced.
Step 5: Check Your Perceptions of Other’s Opinion
You might need a whistleblower to tell you what other employees think of you when you are not around. Or a trusted friend who would advise and guide you to make decisions that benefit your employees.
Knowing how others perceive you would help change or sustain your behavior and attitude toward them. It is essential to know about employees’ opinions to strengthen yourself.
Step 6: Prepare a Personal Vision System
Having a personal vision statement makes things easier to follow. Every great leader has a unique vision for the future of the company or employees. For example, John Rampton, the founder of Hostt.com, vision is very business-oriented.
“I want to make it so that every person in the world can afford to start their own business.”
Campbell Soup Company’s vision is:
“To serve as a leader, live a balanced life, and apply ethical principles to make a significant difference.”
Step 7: Chose Skills to Develop
Finally, choose a skill that needs improvement or development, creates a timeline, and work on this skill. These skills can be categorized as leadership, interpersonal, and technical. Align the skill with your goals and vision statement.
Step 8: Set the Goal
Brainstorm to make these skills attainable through effective practice. Make sure your goals are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound). Unrealistic goals lead to failure, and leaders usually lose their confidence in setting unattainable goals.
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Creating a Leadership Development Plan
To create great leaders who will provide sustainable solutions to future problems, it is essential to prepare them for upcoming challenges. A Leadership Development plan is the best strategy to adapt to meet these challenges. Using the above guidelines, you can create an effective and efficient Leadership development plan for future success.
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