Think about someone in your life who has been a great leader. If the environment was conducive to allowing that leader to truly lead, then it was probably a pretty fruitful situation and a great environment, right? Great leadership results in the following:
- increased productivity
- better employee engagement
- higher levels of efficiency
- a positive organization reputation
- it ultimately increases your organization’s bottom line
So, investing in leadership is not only a GOOD investment, but one that is necessary for the success of your organization. Let’s break down why this is the case, and why you SHOULD invest in your leadership.
Good leadership development training prepares leaders for the important elements of leadership. The elements that, if executed well, lead to the aforementioned benefits and overall success of the organization. Some people are natural leaders. But that doesn’t mean that they are always going to do the right thing. And when you have someone in a place of influence making poor choices, it can be a detrimental to the company. So making sure your leaders are properly trained can and will make a huge difference!
MENTAL PREPAREDNESS
How do your leaders react under stress? what happens when a tough situation arises? Training leaders in mental preparedness will give them the tools they need to navigate successfully through a tough situation. Additionally, it’s important to be sure our leaders are growth-minded. Thinking in a way that is always moving forward will generate a healthy professional environment. One that is conducive to both individual career advancement and organization growth.
CULTURE
Creating a positive culture in the workplace is so critical to the healthy success and growth of the organization. Sure, a company can grow through aggression and competitiveness. But that is a weak, faulty foundation that will eventually cause major issues. Creating a culture of growth, excitement, and excellence will generate organic, healthy growth in both the organization and it’s team members.
A great leader knows how to set the standards, and keep the organization’s mission and vision in view. Each team member needs to have a purpose and know their place in the bigger picture. A good leader knows how to help each individual learn this about themselves and create a level of ownership and pride in their job.
EXCELLENT COMMUNICATION AND DECISION MAKING
So many issues (big and small!) go back to poor communication, as do many poor decisions! A great leader must know how to not only effectively communicate themselves, but coach their team to communicate effectively. There’s a science to effective communication, especially when you’re working with a number of different personalities. Understanding your team and how each individual functions is the first vital step in learning and teaching effective communication.
TEAM COHESIVENESS
Playing hand in hand with culture, team cohesiveness can be achieved by a leader who is able to encourage the purpose and growth of each individual and facilitate effective planning and communication so that each player knows their own valuable role and how they support one another.
EMPLOYEE RETENTION
When the above elements are all functioning and in place, employees are happy. And when employees are happy, they stay. Seems simple enough, yet employee retention is a huge issue for many organizations. Keeping your team happy doesn’t mean bending over backward to appease them. It means creating a positive culture and a structure that enables them to grow and advance. When an individual has purpose and feels valued, they won’t be inclined to look elsewhere. In fact, multiple recent studies about what people value in a job place purpose, company culture, and value above monetary compensation.
POSITIVE REPUTATION
By now you are seeing how all of these elements play into and rely upon each other. If an organization’s culture is a good one with great leadership, yielding quality work by engaged, happy employees, the organization’s reputation is naturally going to be a positive one. Why? Because experience, that’s why. When the employee experience is good, the customer service and/or sales experience is good, and B2B experience is good. Positivity is infectious! And a good leader will continually “infect” the environment and team with vision, purpose and forward thinking and ultimately create a positive reputation for the organization. And in our current culture, almost everyone spouts their opinions and rants and raves about every experience whether it’s good or bad, and people make decisions based on this. So, having a positive reputation goes a LONG way!
EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP STYLE
Great leadership is organic. A great leader should be able to execute the elements we’ve discussed, but in their own natural way. A great leader is driven and it’s really hard to be driven when you’re trying to follow a rule book or checklist of things to do to be a great leader.
Here at Stretch, we have worked with hundreds of leaders and we understand how to break it down and empower individuals to be great leaders with their very own effective leadership styles. We’d love to work with your leadership team! Contact us to find out more.