Leadership development has always been one of my strong suits, beginning a decade ago from when I was an Army Officer to my current entrepreneurial pursuits. I’ve always believed in supporting and equipping leaders to handle the various challenges and obstacles that will come their way. For me, not investing in leadership development is akin to not keeping abreast of technology — you won’t go far if you insist on just settling for the good old ways.

Statistics reveal alarming facts about the state of leadership development in the business industry. There is much work to be done, especially if business owners are keen on equipping their best leaders to skillfully lead the team through trials and toward success.

Take a look at some of the most interesting and revealing statistics I’ve come across about leadership development. You’ll see why leadership development is such a crucial aspect in any organization and why business owners must invest in developing their leaders at every level of their careers. 

What Leadership Development Is All About

A business’ success depends largely on its leaders. A leader’s knowledge, skills, and experiences will be instrumental in ensuring the team continuously functions as efficiently, seamlessly, and productively as possible.  

Not everyone is cut out to be a leader. In fact, only 10% of people are natural-born leaders. However, this doesn’t mean only 10% of the population is eligible for leadership. The truth is leadership can also be learned. 

This is where leadership development comes in. It’s an excellent tool for further enhancing a natural leader’s inherent skills and enriching their knowledge and experiences in leadership. It can also be utilized to develop driven individuals and aspiring leaders so they can reach their full leadership potential. 

What Happens If You Don’t Invest in Leadership Development

One big mistake business owners make is not investing early in leadership development. Usually, they wait until something goes wrong before they take action. 

Keep this in mind — for every year you delay leadership development for your business, you cut about 7% of your annual profits. 

As the saying goes, “Prevention is always better than cure,” and this holds true with business leadership because finding solutions to problems (which are entirely avoidable, by the way) will leave you at a crossroads where success isn’t always guaranteed. 

On the other hand, if you invest early in leadership development, you prevent these problems from arising and potentially irreversibly damaging your company. 

Why Leadership Development Is Good for Your Business

Good leadership plays a significant role in practically all aspects of a business. This is why the most successful business owners invest in leadership development since this is a strategic way to ensure their companies are always in good hands. 

Take a look at some of the most appealing benefits of having a good leadership development program up your sleeve:

• Boosts employee productivity. Effective leaders have the power to increase each of their team members’ productivity by as much as 11%. The bottom line is employees feel more eager to contribute to the team when they like their leaders. 
• Reduces employee turnover. Surprisingly, 65% of employees would much rather have a change in leadership when they are unhappy with their manager than be given a pay raise. Most employees leave the organization to seek better leadership when this desire is unmet.
• Ensures a healthy leadership pipeline. Tomorrow’s leaders are today’s millennials, who comprise 49.7% of the global workforce in 2020. 52% of this demographic consider career advancement a top priority at work. Investing in early leadership development ensures they adopt the right mindset and acquire the necessary knowledge and skills early in their careers. 
• Individual enhancements. Leadership development participants were found to have a 25% increase in knowledge and skills. When they returned to the workplace to apply their learnings, they were observed to deliver a 20% increase in overall performance, resulting in a more driven, skilled, engaged, and productive workforce. 

Leadership Development Statistics

A study by Zipdo revealed that 56% of managers have yet to engage in proper leadership training. This is quite alarming since these leaders are at the helm of businesses, responsible for shaping work environments, and influencing productivity and profitability. 

This highlights the urgent need to provide adequate and continuous learning for all managers at different levels in their careers. This is the only way for businesses to aim for excellence and raise the bar for success in the leadership arena. 

Here are some interesting facts and revealing statistics on leadership development worth looking into:

Business Impact 

Leaders play significant roles in various business functions. They determine which goals must be prioritized, how tasks are accomplished, and how crises and conflicts must be managed. Their skills, knowledge, and experiences must thus be developed and enhanced at every leadership stage so they can be well-equipped to handle whatever comes their way. 

Unfortunately, based on statistics, even if 83% of businesses believe in developing their leaders at every level, only 5% are actually doing so. 

Here are some compelling reasons why you must invest in developing your leaders at every level:

• Inadequate leadership. 77% of businesses believe their leaders lack the skills and know-how to be truly effective at what they do. 
• Unrealized potential. 69% of employees say they will perform much better at their jobs if they feel more valued and recognized. Most of these driven individuals are eager to move up the corporate ladder and take on leadership roles in the organization. 
• Business profitability. When employees are motivated and engaged, they strive harder to achieve their full potential and contribute more significantly to the business’ success. Companies with engaged employees are 22% more profitable.

Proper Implementation 

In the US alone, approximately $160 billion is spent annually on leadership development. This accounts for almost half of the $366 billion spent globally each year. Leadership development can get expensive, so it’s crucial that it is accurately implemented and fully maximized. 

A solid leadership development plan will help your business retain its best people and, at the same time, attract top talents from the industry. When it comes to employee retention, 55% of CEOs believe developing future leaders is among their top challenges. However, 63% of millennials — the business industry’s emerging leaders — think they’re not receiving adequate support from their managers when preparing for leadership roles. 

This apparent incongruence results in millennials feeling undervalued and unappreciated, prompting them to look for better opportunities elsewhere. This leads to unhealthy, unreliable leadership pipelines for businesses that fail to invest in multi-level leadership development.

It’s not enough to simply invest in a leadership development program. As a business owner, you must ensure that the best techniques are accurately implemented, and your program is tailor-fitted to your organization’s and emerging leaders’ unique needs. 

Tapping the Right People

A Gallup study found that companies fail to tap the right people for the job 82% of the time. This alarming statistic shows that many businesses promote unsuitable individuals to leadership roles for the wrong reasons. This results in subpar leadership, employee demotivation and dissatisfaction, and inefficiency in the workplace. 

Furthermore, bad leadership can lead to financial losses. If unchecked, this could lead to disastrous consequences for a business. In fact, 1 bad leader can cost an organization approximately $126,000 a year because of workplace conflicts, high employee turnover, and low productivity. 

The key is to tap the right people for leadership roles because they will be instrumental in a business’ growth and success. Good leaders also give an organization an edge over the competition. 

Final Thoughts

Leadership development should be one of your secret weapons in ensuring your business goals are met, your employees are motivated and productive, and your business thrives amid a dynamic, competitive environment. 
We at Sancus Leadership are excited to share our expertise in crafting robust leadership development programs tailored to your business’ unique needs. Book a free leadership call with us today so we can start uncovering ways to develop your leaders into the ideal trailblazers for your business!

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.

Looking back at my military career, I realize I spent significant time developing leaders, especially when I joined the Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit. I would get excited whenever I spotted leadership potential in my team and would immediately set about drafting development plans with them. Today, in my entrepreneurial journey, leadership development is still one of my most valued business management aspects and strong suits. 

A leadership development plan is a scheme designed to create a pool of the best leaders in your business. It should bring out the best in your current leaders by further enhancing their skills and experiences. Use it also to tap promising individuals keen on taking on leadership roles. 

In this article, we’ll talk about what a leadership development plan is all about and what benefits you can enjoy if you have it up your sleeve. I’ll also let you in on the biggest mistakes most companies make when developing their leadership development plans so you can avoid making these same blunders. Then, I’ll guide you through the simple steps in designing your own leadership plan. 

Leadership Development Plan Defined

A leadership development plan is a detailed scheme designed to help aspiring leaders develop their skills, as well as aid current leaders advance in their careers so they can be better equipped to handle higher leadership roles. It’s a tool you can utilize as you progress in your career and enjoy professional growth. 

Biggest Mistakes with Leadership Development Plans

Leadership development doesn’t happen spontaneously — it’s a work in progress that requires businesses to adopt a more proactive approach to identifying leadership potential and developing leadership skills. 

In 2015, about $160 billion was spent by US companies alone and roughly $356 billion globally on workforce training and education. However, returns on investments weren’t favorable because there were no significant improvements in work efficiency, leadership techniques, and organizational performance.

Below are some of the identified culprits that render leadership development plans ineffective:

• Vague goals and unclear direction. This often leads to conflicting priorities and allows leaders and employees to concoct their own assumptions and objectives. It’s like giving unclear directions to your guests for your birthday party venue. Most of them will arrive late if they’re forced to waste time getting lost and asking for directions. Some may even be no-shows. 
• Lack of support from higher management. The know-how and experiences of seasoned leaders are crucial in developing upcoming leaders. Mentorship and coaching are among the most effective leadership development strategies, along with experiential training and immersion. Hearing something straight from the horse’s mouth is bound to be accurate and valuable information. 
• Lack of collaboration across business teams and functions. Developing leaders in, say, your sales department requires coordination with your marketing team. Leadership development necessitates excellent communication between relevant entities. Think about the last time you had an executive medical checkup. All bases had to be covered to ensure your health is in top form. 

What Makes a Good Leadership Development Plan

A good leadership development plan typically includes these elements:

• Clear, well-defined goals (short-term and long-term)
• Career analysis
• Training assessment
• Key performance indicators (KPIs)
• Specific action plans
• Established metrics
• Timelines
• Feedback tools

Here are some aspects you may want to focus on when creating your leadership development plan:

• Leadership styles
• Communication styles
• Motivation strategies
• Decision-making techniques 
• Key leadership competencies: conflict resolution, strategic thinking, etc. 

Benefits of Having a Good Leadership Development Plan

Creating the best leadership development plan for your business requires time, money, careful planning, and effort. If you arm yourself with the right strategies and adequate tools and support, you can establish a culture of excellence, empowerment, and teamwork where your workforce will feel valued, inspired, and inspired to reach their full potential.

A good leadership development plan will expose you to these gains:

• Enhanced job satisfaction
• Heightened sense of fulfillment 
• Increased self-confidence and credibility
• Evolution of a more impactful career
• Efficient sharing of organizational know-how
• Enhanced innovation and creativity
• A robust team of leaders
• Motivated and inspired workforce
• Enhanced productivity
• Success in building a solid reputation for yourself as an excellent leader

How To Create a Leadership Development Plan 

Leadership development programs are essential in forging the leaders of the future. It’s a way to ensure that your business will always be in good hands.

Here are the basic steps in creating your own leadership development plan:

1. Assess Your Current Situation

The first step is to assess your current situation and circumstances. 

Are you happy where you are? 

Are you content with what you’ve accomplished? 

Do you feel like you could do more? 

You might want to ask these questions at this stage to determine whether engaging in a leadership development program is indeed for you.

Make a list of your strengths and weaknesses. Identify areas of improvement and your usual shortcomings either as an employee or a leader. Armed with all this information, you become more self-aware, realistic, and sensible about how you would handle your professional growth. This is also how you can start determining the leadership styles you want to adopt in your career. 

It‘s also a  good idea to clearly recognize your company’s culture — how people interact, communicate, and get things done. One company’s culture may differ greatly from another’s. As a leader, respecting your organization’s culture to promote collaboration, synergy, and seamlessness in achieving common goals is essential.  

2. Set Your Goals

Goal-setting is the core of leadership development plans. Without them, you would have no clear idea of where you’re going and how to get there. At this stage, it’s essential to identify the critical leadership competencies that will be the foundation of your leadership development plan. 

Here are some of the key leadership competencies every leader must work on enhancing:

Competencies for Leading a Team

• Decision-making
• Conflict resolution
• Managing change
• Communication skills
• Integrity, trust, and honesty
• Cultural intelligence
• Digital intelligence

Competencies for Leading Oneself

• Agility and willingness to adapt to change
• Self-management
• Discipline
• Time management
• Accountability

Make sure you set SMARTER (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound; Evaluate and Readjust) goals in your leadership development plan.

3. Develop an Action Plan

Now, it’s time to design your leadership development plan. There are many ways to do it, and there really is no right and wrong way. What’s crucial is that you develop an action plan best suited to the participants’ unique needs. 

Consider any of these leadership development strategies:

Self-Assessment

Recruiting new talents into your leadership development program can improve employee motivation and retention. By encouraging them to undergo self-assessment, you can help them become more hands-on in their own development as a leader and enhance their sense of responsibility and accountability for their actions and the corresponding consequences and results. 

Mentoring

A good mentorship program effectively facilitates the transfer of organizational know-how, strategies, and culture between seasoned managers and upcoming leaders. 

Mentors benefit by enjoying the opportunity to further sharpen their leadership competencies, while mentees benefit by experiencing the support and guidance of those they can look up to and emulate in their careers. The organization benefits, too, since mentorship promotes loyalty and boosts engagement and productivity.

Outdoor Training

Who would’ve thought spending time in the great outdoors would be incredibly beneficial to your leadership career? Activities like camping, mountain climbing, biking, and whitewater rafting are fun and effective ways to bring out the best in your workforce. Nature provides excellent training grounds for enhancing skills such as:

• Critical-thinking
• Problem-solving
• Self-awareness
• Decision-making
• Empathy
• Resilience

We at Sancus Leadership are eager to help you level up your leadership game. We’ll take you to the most beautiful and stimulating outdoor locations so you can learn more about your strengths, limitations, and untapped potential. When you’re ready to take that first step toward becoming a better leader, book a free leadership call with us right away so we can start planning your leadership journey.

Final Thoughts

A good leadership development plan is a roadmap containing an overview of what you want to achieve, where you want to be within a specific period, and clear instructions on how to get there. It’s never too late to further develop your leadership competencies or, if you’re still on the fence about taking a stab at that promotion, to take that first step in embracing a leadership role. 

The sooner you start, the better, and a well-crafted leadership development plan will be your key to success. 

My time in the military taught me the value of always embarking on projects, tasks, and practically anything worth accomplishing with a clear mind, laser focus, and the confidence brought about by careful planning. Today, in my entrepreneurship journey, I still carry out these learnings because, truth be told, proper goal-setting helps make leadership challenges much easier to take on.

Set leadership goals by keeping in mind the SMARTER rule — goals have to be specific, measurable, actionable, risky, time-keyed, exciting, and relevant. They should inspire your team to step out of their comfort zone and continuously work toward self-improvement and excellence. 

Let’s dive deeper into what leadership goals are all about and why they must be tailor-fitted to your and your team’s unique circumstances and needs. We will also discuss the biggest misconceptions in goal-setting and the repercussions if you fall into these traps. Then, I’ll share a simple guide on how to set SMARTER leadership goals for yourself and your team. 

What Are Leadership Goals?

Leadership goals are objectives set by leaders that express their desire to enhance and develop their skills, competencies, and leadership styles. These may also address issues pertaining to improving team dynamics. Typically, leadership goals aim to boost engagement, efficiency, and productivity. 

The desire to grow and succeed shouldn’t end when you bag that promotion. As a leader, you must continuously assess your skills and set new goals for yourself and your team. 

The Biggest Mistakes in Goal-Setting

Setting leadership goals may seem easy, but it isn’t as simple as it may sound. Some leaders fall into traps and commit big mistakes during this crucial process. 

Let’s take a look at some of the biggest blunders you must avoid when setting leadership goals:

1. Setting Unrealistic Goals

A friend shared with me how a pharmaceutical company she previously worked with suddenly started setting absurd quotas for their sales teams. My friend was handling a life-saving drug, and she was once assigned an annual target that was 80% more than her previous yearly quota (which, take note, she wasn’t able to achieve). 

She was taken aback and asked her team leader for the rationale behind such an increase, and this was his explanation — the company now sets “penalties” for people unable to reach their quota for the year. My friend was shocked — it seemed like such an irrational, indiscriminate, and underhanded move from the company. 

Needless to say, practically everyone on the sales team shared my friend’s sentiments. The company experienced a rise in employee turnovers that year, and from those who chose to stay, there was a significant decrease in engagement, productivity, and commitment. 

Remember, goals should be challenging and must encourage you to step out of your comfort zone. However, they should remain reasonable and achievable because unrealistic goals may quickly lead to frustration, self-doubt, and burnout.

2. Setting Goals Not Aligned With the Organization

Leadership goals not aligned with organizational goals may confuse your team, prompting them to disengage or resist your efforts. Goals must be relevant so there won’t be a lack of buy-in from your team.

It’s similar to setting a play in volleyball. You shouldn’t make an outside hitter distribute the ball to the rest of the team to strategize attacks — this is not their role or what they’re trained for. The strategies and goals must make sense to the players in the same way that these must make sense to your team in the workplace. 

3. Not Monitoring Your Progress 

Not tracking your leadership goals is like aiming to buy a house by year-end but not doing anything to actually make that happen. Are you setting aside enough money to make that investment? Are you exploring available options to narrow your search for the best property that fits your needs and budget?

If you don’t monitor your progress in realizing your set goals, it would be like you’re just making a wish. You wouldn’t know where you stand, how far along you’ve come, and how far you still have to travel to get to your destination. Moreover, you won’t be able to review your strategies and make the necessary revisions along the way. 

The Benefits of Proper Goal-Setting

Goal-setting isn’t as simple as plotting targets for your team and expecting them to achieve these within the given period. These objectives won’t mean much and won’t amount to anything substantial if they aren’t SMARTER goals:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Actionable
• Risky
• Time-keyed
• Exciting
• Relevant

Setting SMARTER goals will:

• Provide your team a clearer focus and unified direction
• Motivate employees
• Provide metrics through which you can measure business growth and success
• Help sustain momentum
• Help encourage a more positive mindset and improved behavior 
• Help promote self-awareness and self-confidence

Types of Leadership Goals

There are multiple aspects attached to leadership, and these must be suitably considered during the goal-setting process. Here are 2 main types of leadership goals you must always keep in mind:

1. Enhancing leadership skills. Leaders must constantly improve themselves, specifically their soft and hard skills. Soft skills include adaptability, time management, and communication, while hard skills include people management, decision-making, and project management.  
2. Developing the team. Leaders must always aim to build their team and ensure work is accomplished seamlessly and efficiently. Team development typically includes improving motivation levels, productivity, and sustainability, as well as fostering values like teamwork, trust, and integrity. 

Examples of Leadership Goals

Take a look at some examples of leadership SMARTER goals:

• Increase team sales by 20% by the end of the third quarter. 
• Open 2 new branches by November 15.
• Improve leadership training by mentoring at least 1 aspiring leader every quarter. 

How To Successfully Set Leadership Goals

Leadership goals must always be tailor-fitted to your unique needs. That’s why it’s essential that you set time aside for this crucial responsibility. 

Here’s a quick guide on proficiently setting leadership goals:

1. Identify Your Priorities

The first thing you should do when setting leadership goals is to identify your priorities. Determine your short-term and long-term goals, and make a list beginning with the most urgent tasks down to the most non-vital ones. 

When it comes to identifying team priorities, invite your team members to share their insights since this can give you a broader perspective and a more accurate recognition of what truly impacts the team. 

2. Identify Strengths and Weaknesses

Take time to identify your team’s strengths and weaknesses, especially your own. As a leader, it’s not only essential to continuously strive for self-improvement — you must also commit to expanding your horizons and encouraging your team to adopt the same mindset. 

Consistently enhance your strengths and never be complacent with them. Remember, the business environment is constantly evolving, and you must always be ready to adapt to changing scenarios and ensure your leadership remains top-tier.

Strive to limit your weaknesses by working toward eventually converting them into your strengths. Are you familiar with the saying, “A team is only as strong as its weakest link?” No matter how many impressive team members you have, the weakest member will significantly pull the entire group down. 

3. Set Metrics To Track Your Progress

Metrics are essential in tracking and assessing your progress regarding goal completion. This is a great way to evaluate your performance versus the set goals so you can determine how effective (or deficient) your plans of action are. 

Monitoring your progress is also an excellent way to make adjustments when necessary. As a leader, you must be flexible and quick to react to changing scenarios. Remember, goals aren’t set in stone, and you’re free to revise and even abandon them if they’re no longer as relevant as they initially were. 

4. Celebrate Success

Make it a point to always acknowledge and celebrate with your team when goals are met. It may be through a gesture as simple as going around the room and exuberantly shaking each person’s hand, or it can be as grand as throwing a victory party for the whole team. You can even hand out tokens of recognition for people whose performances stood out from the rest.

Celebrating wins together will foster camaraderie and teamwork and boost your employees’ morale and motivation levels. You will inspire them to continuously commit to doing their share in achieving even bigger goals in the future.  

Final Thoughts

Goal-setting is crucial to effective leadership because it allows leaders to inspire and challenge themselves and their team members to always aim for excellence. 
Sancus Leadership has helped countless leaders from various industries work toward achieving their full potential. When you’re ready to accept that challenge, reach out to us, and we’ll give you a jump start by helping you come up with the most exciting leadership goals!

My days in the military taught me that you must always learn to adapt to varying situations. Tried and tested methods may not always be reliable, and sometimes, they may no longer be as relevant and practical as they once were. You should never be daunted by new strategies and innovative perspectives, and this mindset is especially useful for leaders who spearhead today’s dynamic and challenging business environment. 

The latest trends in leadership development include mobile learning, gamification, and blended learning. The thrust is to meet participants’ varying needs and expectations for maximum effectiveness. There’s also a strong inclination toward promoting wellness and compassion in leadership. 

This article will explore the latest trends in leadership development, beginning with the unique advantages of mobile learning, given the new generation’s pivotal role in today’s business world. We will also discuss gamification and blended learning, as well as the emergence of compassionate leadership and the promotion of health and wellness. To get the ball rolling, let’s dissect the urgency of investing in leadership development early. 

The Importance of Leadership Development

Having a solid leadership development program for your organization is a surefire way to ensure a healthy leadership pipeline. Leaders may come and go. Some may search for greener pastures, others will be up for retirement, while others may choose to stay. The point is you always have to ensure that leadership gaps are promptly filled to minimize inefficiency and chaos in the workplace. 

The biggest mistake most business owners make is not investing in leadership development early. Most direct their investments on senior leadership development, but at this stage, most leaders have already established solid skills and behaviors for themselves (unfortunately, including the bad ones). As the saying goes, “It’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks.”

When this happens, emerging leaders are virtually left to fend for themselves. They rely only on themselves to learn the skills necessary for effective leadership. Most of them resort to emulating their seniors. It would be great if they had excellent role models in the organization, but what happens when they start mirroring even the unfavorable behaviors of those in senior leadership positions?

This is how bad habits are fortified and a negative work culture is created. 

Investing in leadership development early brings about plenty of benefits. Let’s take a look at some of them:

• Effective transfer of organizational know-how and best practices
• Higher levels of motivation 
• Better job satisfaction
• Better work culture
• Higher employee retention rate
• Higher returns on investment (pertaining to leadership development) 
• Healthier leadership pipeline

The Latest Trends in Leadership Development

Leadership is a crucial factor in the success of any business. Bad leaders can quickly bring a company down, while good leaders can take it to new heights. That’s why leaders must remain relevant and competitive in their field and ensure they’re up-to-date with the latest trends in the industry. 

Let’s take a look at the latest trends in leadership development:

1. Mobile Learning

Currently, millennials are the dominant generation in terms of numbers. They make up about ¼ of the world’s population — that’s roughly 1.8 billion millennials. Statistics say that by 2030, the majority of managers in various industries will belong to the millennial generation. 

This is why leadership development is slowly evolving and adapting to address the needs of our future managers. Traditional approaches may no longer be reliable in training them to excel in their chosen fields. What we need are techniques and tools they’re familiar and comfortable with. 

According to Harvard Business Review, the average age of a first-time manager is 30. However, generally, it’s not until these leaders are 40 that they get their first taste of leadership training. A decade-long gap provides enough time for these leaders to develop bad habits and unprofitable practices in their leadership style. It can also lead to the stagnation of their know-how, skills, and experiences, leading to incompetence and ineffectiveness as a leader. 

This is where mobile learning steps in. It’s designed to meet the needs and expectations of our future leaders today. After all, it’s never too early to start teaching leadership skills, right?

Mobile learning offers alternatives to make leadership development more accessible to everyone. No matter where you are in the globe and no matter what you’re currently engaged in, mobile learning makes leadership training possible and convenient for you. 

2. Gamification and Virtual Reality

Gamification is the application of certain game elements — scoring, rules, elements of competition, leaderboards, etc. — to leadership development. These concepts can be utilized in the business setting and help make leadership training more exciting, engaging, and fruitful.

Integrating elements of gaming in leadership development results in higher engagement, better absorption of learnings, and boosted productivity.

However, the danger with gamification is the possibility of participants getting lost in the game element and completely forgetting about the program’s primary purpose. That’s why it’s essential that this leadership development strategy be utilized for targeted behaviors and skills. Otherwise, investments might go to waste, especially since gamification in leadership development can be pretty expensive. 

Gamification is all about organizing a specific scenario in such a way that the participants can easily apply the concepts they learn to real-life workplace scenarios. In a game of chess, for instance, the goal is to move around the board, collect as many of your opponent’s pieces as possible, and eventually vanquish the king to win the game. 

Translating that to leadership development, the goal is to learn various skills that will allow you to expertly lead your team through highs and lows in the business setting. You must learn how to vanquish the challenges and obstacles that will come your way so you can move forward in the mission to achieve the set goals.

3. Compassionate Leadership

Gone are the days when good leaders were known to be overly professional, never letting personal matters interfere with work. These days, compassionate leadership is fast becoming a preferred leadership style in the workplace. Concepts like compassion, empathy, and emotional intelligence are no longer confined to homes, classrooms, and other social setups. 

Compassionate leaders show empathy and emotional intelligence in the way they go about their business and deal with their team. Empathy is understanding and sharing the feelings of others, while emotional intelligence is one’s ability to expertly control and express emotions judiciously. 

Both of these are instrumental in establishing solid relationships within the team, creating a positive work culture, and fostering trust and respect within the organization — the trademarks of compassionate leadership.

Compassionate leadership is spreading like wildfire that in the US alone, around 20% of companies focus on empathy training for their leaders. This was highlighted by Apple CEO Tim Cook during his 2017 MIT commencement address. He also stressed the value of fostering empathy in the workplace, telling the audience to pay no heed to people who might convince them to disregard this essential soft skill.

Additionally, a survey revealed that 80% of the 150 CEOs who participated recognized empathy, active listening, and prompt responding as among the competencies crucial to leadership success. 

To give an example, compassionate leadership can be seen in how someone reacts when there’s an unforeseen issue in the workplace. Let’s say there’s a snowstorm one morning, and people are coming in late for work. 

Traditional leaders would reprimand their employees for being tardy and not preparing ahead despite frequent warnings from the weather station. Compassionate leaders, on the other hand, would understand their employees’ predicament, empathize with them, and forego any of the designated sanctions for tardiness. 

4. Health and Wellness

Work-life balance, and the promotion of physical and mental health, are also at the forefront of the latest leadership development trends. 

You might see workplaces these days with standing desks, balance boards, special rooms designated for exercise and other physical activities, and extended breaks for group wellness activities like walking or yoga. Some leaders even hire nutritionists and physical fitness experts to encourage and educate employees about healthier lifestyles. 

Leaders themselves prioritize their mental and physical health so they can be resilient and better equipped to face various business challenges. Poor mental and physical health can adversely affect team dynamics, such as engagement, collaboration, efficiency, and productivity. 

According to American Psychiatric Association statistics, US employers lose roughly $44 – $55 billion yearly in lost productivity due to poor physical or mental health. This is why leaders from some of the top companies promote these concepts to their team members:

• Regular exercise
• Balanced nutrition
• Adequate sleep and rest
• Mindfulness practices (such as yoga and meditation)
• Consultations with mental health professionals when necessary

5. Blended Learning

Leadership development will only be successful if the learnings being shared are genuinely absorbed by participants and accurately applied in actual work scenarios. However, the dilemma lies in the fact that not all participants think, act, and feel the same way. They all respond differently to stimuli — a particular leadership development technique may work wonders for one person, while it can be virtually futile for others. 

For that reason, leadership development programs are now keen on including the 70-20-10 framework in their roster. Here, 3 types of learning methods are utilized:

• 70% experiential learning
• 20% social learning 
• 10% formal training

Formal training comprises seminars, lectures, and other classroom-type setups. It’s a great way to pass information on to participants, especially those who respond well to structure and predictability. 

Social learning can be facilitated through coaching or mentoring. With the help of a senior leader, participants can focus on developing some of their most crucial leadership skills, like:

• Communication
• Self-awareness and self-management 
• Decision-making
• Problem-solving

Coaching and mentoring are often referred to interchangeably, but they differ in specific ways. Coaching involves a more formal, one-on-one leadership development program with a senior leader or coach. There are distinct goals to be achieved and specific skills to work on. 

Mentoring involves one-on-one interaction with a senior leader, too, but it is more informal and open-ended. The mentor-mentee relationship focuses on a broader scope of leadership competencies and generally lasts longer than coaching. 

Lastly, experiential learning essentially encapsulates “learning by doing.” This is a great way to ensure that participants know how to apply the learnings they acquired from the program to actual scenarios in the workplace. 

Fun, outdoor activities are great options to facilitate experiential learning. Take a look at some of these ideas:

• Scavenger hunts. They foster strategic thinking and problem-solving. 
• Camping. It helps establish teamwork, collaboration, and the value of task delegation.  
• Mountain climbing. It helps enhance resilience, critical thinking, and decision-making.

If you’re eager to know more about how experiential training can help develop the best leaders for your business, book us a free call right away so we can introduce you to the fun and exciting concept of outdoor learning. What better way to facilitate leadership development than through highly engaging, unforgettable, and constructive activities? We at Sancus Leadership are happy to be your leadership development partners!

Final Thoughts

The modern workplace is envisioned to be dynamic and inclusive, capable of adapting to the changing times. Leadership development has been working hard at evolving to cater to the industry’s ever-changing needs, hence, there are new trends to consider, especially if you’re keen on staying up-to-date, relevant, and effective. 

The latest trends in leadership development aim to address the evolving needs, wants, and expectations of future leaders. Remember, it’s never too early to invest in creating a robust leadership pipeline for your business. 

I’ve had my share of training budding leaders in the past, all the way back during my military days to my current exploits as an entrepreneur. One thing stands out in all my experiences — you must invest in your top people to bring out the best in them and make them want to stay. In business, this is crucial in ensuring your company stays on top of the game in a fast-paced, dynamic, and unforgiving environment. 

The challenges of leadership development programs include budget constraints and generic programs with a standardized or outdated approach irrelevant and unsuitable to your situation. You must also ensure you can entice top talents to stay by providing them opportunities to apply their learnings. 

In this article, we’ll discuss the challenges of empowering your most promising employees through leadership development programs. We’ll talk about how you can work around a tight budget, why it’s crucial to provide growth opportunities for your best people, and how important it is to have programs suited to your company’s unique needs. We’ll also discuss some of the biggest mistakes to avoid so you can reap maximum benefits for your business. 

Are Leadership Development Programs Essential?

Leadership development programs are essential in building a great organization. Developing and enhancing leadership competencies among your current and rising leaders results in a better, more efficient working environment for everyone. It also gives your business a competitive advantage.

Biggest Mistakes in Leadership Development

Leadership development is a long-term commitment. It’s easy to fall short of expectations and requirements, so you must be aware of its common pitfalls so you’ll know exactly what to do to avoid falling into their traps.

Here are 2 of the biggest mistakes in leadership development:

Not Setting Clear and Specific Objectives

If you don’t know exactly where you’re going, how do you plan accurate routes to reach your destination? Say you want to spend the day at the beach. You don’t just jump behind the wheel of your car and drive off into the sunset. You must first decide which beach to go to and figure out the best route to get there. 

The same goes for leadership development. You must plot clear and specific goals so you can accurately focus on intentional and strategic plans of action. Consider setting SMART goals — Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound — so participants will have a firm grasp on the program and understand the value of investing their time in this endeavor.

Not Including Senior Leaders

I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” If you regard this as true and apply this in the way you approach leadership development in your business, chances are your senior leaders will get left behind in today’s fast-paced, dynamic environment. 

You might say, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” but having this mindset puts your business at risk of falling prey to poor leadership, bad decisions, and a lack of effective, relevant strategies. 

Include your senior managers in your leadership development programs, perhaps even in the planning stages, and encourage them to actively participate and be open-minded about change. You can also engage them as speakers so they can be credible sources of authentic experiences from which others can learn valuable lessons. Their storytelling abilities will undoubtedly pique the interest of the audience. 

Benefits of Having Leadership Development Programs in Place

Leadership development programs help individuals sharpen their skills and become more confident in taking on a leadership role in the organization. It comes with many benefits, including:

• Improved employee morale
• Increased employee loyalty and retention
• Enhanced productivity
• Enhanced team collaboration
• Emergence of better leaders
• Improves your company’s bottom line
• Increased likelihood of attracting top talent
• Increased probability of success in spearheading and navigating change

When it comes to developing current leaders, in particular, a survey conducted by the Center for Creative Leadership among more than 5,000 leadership development program participants revealed that 99% realized their set goals pertaining to critical leadership aspects, such as self-awareness, effective communication, and efficient implementation of change.

Additionally, 97% of the respondents reported these benefits: 

• Better preparation for more compelling leadership roles and responsibilities
• Adequate readiness to face leadership challenges ahead
• Enhanced openness to collaboration, diversity, and innovative approaches to managing teams 

Challenges of Leadership Development Programs

Implementing a leadership development program for your business is no walk in the park. It entails difficulties and obstacles that you must be prepared and equipped to face.

Here are some of the biggest challenges of having leadership development programs in place:

1. Proliferation of Generic Programs

Most leadership development programs utilize a standardized approach targeted to the general population. The danger with these programs is that you fail to achieve the results you initially aimed for despite investing money, time, and effort. Ultimately, you might settle for mediocrity, assuming this is the best that could be achieved.

Generic programs may also be outdated. Remember, the business and leadership landscape continuously evolves. New strategies and leadership techniques have been developed, and technology is now integral to business management and solutions. Furthermore, the problems and challenges faced by today’s leaders differ significantly from those encountered by leaders in the past. 

To make your leadership development programs highly practical and relevant, they must be tailor-fitted to your company’s needs and to the unique personalities and goals of the individuals involved. You must also identify the specific issues and challenges your business deals with.

One way to accomplish this is to partner with a leadership training specialist who can help customize your leadership development program. At Sancus Leadership, we can help design a relevant and effective program for your current and budding leaders so your business will continue to thrive and succeed in a dynamic, demanding industry. When you’re ready to take this crucial step, book us a free leadership call, and we’ll get started right away!

2. Lack of Proper Application

Learnings and experiences will only be successful if they are suitably applied in various workplace scenarios. Some leaders mistakenly think it’s all about learning leadership laws, best practices, and industry standards. However, these are all merely theoretical. 

Practical application is necessary to ensure the success of your leadership development program. It’s a great way to track your progress, results, and success rate regarding goal achievement. 

It’s like learning about Bill Gates’ tricks of the trade for taking his business all the way to the top. None of these will really make sense to you if you’re not in the same industry experiencing the same situations. All these learnings will be abstract and impractical, with no real value.  

3. Budget Constraints

Training entails expenses. Leadership development, in particular, can get pretty expensive, especially when you decide to go all out. Books, modules, technology, manpower, and time required — all these come with additional expenses for the company.

A tip I can share is maximizing your available resources to cut costs. Consider these approaches:

• Coaching/mentoring: Tapping your best leaders to train newbies is a great way to share internal know-how and best practices. This strategy benefits both mentors and mentees — mentees enjoy the opportunity to be taught by seasoned leaders, while mentors get the chance to sharpen their leadership competencies. 
• Stretch assignments: These are tasks you assign to program participants that are currently beyond their skill level. This is excellent on-the-job training for them, plus you get the opportunity to show your best people that you’re eager to invest in them. For instance, cross-functional projects between departments are an excellent way to level up your leaders’ skills and boost engagement as well.

4. Enticing Top Talents To Stay

Your company’s leadership development programs must be at par with market expectations and trends to help ensure good leaders will want to stay loyal to the company. According to the Work Institute’s 2021 Mid-Year Retention Report, career-related reasons accounted for 21.1% of the reasons employees left their jobs — the number one cause.
This indicates that you must focus on providing professional and advancement opportunities for your best people to entice them to stay. The best people are keen on staying with employers who will invest in them and support them as they grow in their careers and reach their full potential.