Leadership development has always been at the forefront of my endeavors, be it in the military more than a decade ago or today in my entrepreneurship journey. I’ve always believed that leaders are the driving forces behind the success of any team. That’s why, in business, the right leaders must be at the helm, always leading the company to new heights.
An employee leadership program will boost workforce loyalty and attract top talents from the industry. To be fruitful, you must involve the right participants, develop SMARTER goals, and offer personalized plans that cater to different personalities and needs.
Stick around to learn more about what employee leadership programs are all about and whether or not they’re truly essential for your business. We’ll discuss some of the most crucial elements of a sound leadership program so you can start designing one perfectly suited for your business’ unique needs. Let’s start!
Is a Leadership Program Essential for Your Business?
What will happen to your business if you don’t have a solid employee leadership program? Chances are your leaders will lack the necessary skills, know-how, and experiences to effectively lead the organization through the ups and downs of a dynamic, demanding business environment.
It’s like throwing caution to the wind and leaving your business’ fate to chance. No sensible business owner would do this, but surprisingly, many commit this grave blunder of not investing adequately in leadership training.
A solid employee leadership program helps nurture, develop, and train future leaders so they’ll be well-equipped to handle the challenges and obstacles that will undoubtedly come their way.
Crucial Elements of a Good Employee Leadership Program
A good employee leadership program provides support, guidance, and opportunities for your best and most promising talents to develop and enhance their skills for effective leadership.
Here are some of the most pivotal factors in an excellent leadership program:
1. The Right Participants
One of the primary goals of leadership development is to provide guidance and support for your best talents and help them grow in their careers. You must give them opportunities to enhance their skills and experiences in their chosen field so they can intensively contribute to the organization’s advancement and success. It will also be instrumental in encouraging and equipping your current and future leaders to lead others to success.
A good employee leadership program gives your workforce something to aim for. According to a 2019 Randstad survey, about 43% of the Gen Z population surveyed felt that a restricted career path was among the top reasons they wanted to quit their jobs. If you offer them a straightforward, well-defined program that will enable them to grow and move up the corporate ladder, you’ll retain the best talents within your organization.
Be concise in defining the criteria for your leadership program. This gives your employees a clear idea of what they need to do and accomplish to take their first step toward a leadership role in the organization. Remember, anyone can become a leader since leadership comes in various styles.
A common conviction is that it’s ⅓ inherent and ⅔ acquired. Here are some of the key competencies a leader candidate must possess:
- Integrity
- Resilience
- Adaptability
- Ability to inspire
- Emotional intelligence
- Passionate
- Innovative
- Problem-solving
- Critical thinking
- Inclusive
- Team player
- Impactful
- Driven
2. SMARTER Program Goals
Goals must be clearly set right from the start. It all depends on where the company is, where it wants to be given a certain period, and how it aims to get there. You must have a clear understanding of your business’ priorities so you can align your employee leadership program with it.
When setting goals for your employee leadership program, a good rule is to observe the SMARTER framework. Your goals must be:
- Specific: This allows you to formulate better, more accurate action plans.
- Measurable: Making your goals quantifiable makes it easier to track your progress.
- Actionable: Make sure your goals are doable so you can plot exactly what needs to be done to accomplish them.
- Risky: Your goals must encourage you to step out of your comfort zone. There must be a sense of danger, and they must be challenging to achieve.
- Time-keyed: Setting a deadline or time frame for your goals allows you to efficiently manage your time. It also helps you make room for new goals in the future.
- Exciting: Your goals must thrill you and captivate your attention. They must be worth pursuing and achieving.
- Relevant: Your goals must align with broader organizational goals and fit into the bigger picture. They must make sense to you and should be something you want to achieve.
I remember when my friend told me how she’d always wanted to write a book and felt quite disappointed with herself for still being unable to realize this dream. She said she’s been dreaming about being a published author since her early teen years. She has even started writing her book — just a few pages, but nothing substantial yet.
I asked her what went wrong, and she said life just got in the way. School, work, getting married, starting her small business, traveling, having kids — there’s always something more important demanding her attention and commitment.
I realized this is pretty much what happens to most people. There are so many unrealized dreams from our youth simply because we never really plan ahead and work deliberately and ceaselessly toward achieving our goals.
The simple SMARTER structure for goal-setting would’ve given my friend better chances of realizing her book-publishing dreams.
3. Leadership Styles
There are many different leadership styles, and you must give employees a glimpse of what is best suited for their unique personality, needs, expectations, and preferences.
Here are some of the most popular leadership styles implemented by business leaders:
- Democratic leadership style. Democratic leaders keep communication lines open and involve team members in practically all team aspects.
- Coaching leadership style. Coaching leaders strive to help their team members achieve their full potential.
- Transformational leadership style. Transformational leaders constantly strive for improvement in various aspects involving the team and its members.
- Autocratic leadership style. Autocratic leaders take it upon themselves to make decisions, draft action plans, and manage the team with minimal involvement of their team members.
- Bureaucratic leadership style. Bureaucratic leaders rely heavily on organizational rules and protocols to minimize risks.
- Situational leadership style. Situational leaders are the most flexible and adaptable. They assess a situation and adjust their leadership style depending on what they think would work best.
4. Create Personal Leadership Development Programs
There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to employee leadership plans. You must create personalized programs tailored to your employees’ goals, strengths, weaknesses, and preferences for maximum effectiveness.
Consider the 70-20-10 framework for leadership development. This simple structure states that the acquisition of learnings can be broken down into 3 main categories:
- 70% from experiential training (through immersion, apprenticeship, or outdoor learning)
- 20% from social interactions (through coaching and mentoring)
- 10% from formal training (through lectures, seminars, and presentations)
Experiential training is learning by doing. It’s not enough that you learn about various leadership concepts through lectures, slide presentations, or coaching sessions. Knowledge and skills will be best absorbed if you’re given the opportunity to apply what you’ve learned.
There are different training activities you can engage in to teach leadership skills like problem-solving, collaboration, and decision-making. Outdoor leadership programs, in particular, are fun, exciting, and practical strategies for developing your business’ future leaders.
Here are some ways through which outdoor training can help:
- Camping. Helps enhance collaboration, problem-solving, delegation, and communication skills.
- Hiking. Fosters trust, critical thinking, time management, and self-awareness.
- Volunteerism. Helps you practice integrity, emotional intelligence, and empathy.
- Outdoor games. Team games such as relays and treasure hunts help promote strategic thinking, conflict resolution, and adaptability.
Schedule a call with me today if you want to learn more about what experiential learning is all about. I’ll walk you through the many options available for outdoor training and how these can help you develop the right leaders for your business. We at Sancus Leadership can help design an employee leadership program best suited to your needs.
Final Thoughts
An employee leadership program is an excellent investment because it can help instill the right skills, competencies, and values in your business’ future leaders. It can also help you retain the best people in your organization and attract the best leaders in the industry. Having the best leaders will help drive your organization’s growth, efficiency, and productivity.
