Antonio Coffield- Investing in Quality Leadership Training for Managers

Good managers are good for business. Taking them to the next level of effective managers to grow your business takes training. Good managers possess the ability to lead and communicate. They are your key to inspiring your line level teams toward the corporate vision and the organizations business goals.

Effective managers, on the other hand, possess a specific skill-set. They have a range of knowledge and demonstrate behaviors that are not always present in managers that evolve into leadership positions. There are some managers with whom these qualities are a natural fit. Those are not the ones we discuss here today as while they are great; they are also the extreme minority. The goal is to select leaders beyond just strong characters or showing dedication to work. The goal is to have a skill-set that comprises a toolkit of qualities (some through training) that will drive the best results for a business.

A few primary key characteristics lacking today are the ability to communicate, inspire and lead in management. Investing in management training is a massive contribution, developing high-quality, motivated leaders, capable of achieving greatness.

One major study found employers having under 100 employees provided only 12 minutes of manager training per six months and employers with 100-500 employees provided only six minutes of training during the same period.

There is a real thought process that leaders at that level do not need training and if any particular leader wants training, there are books to read or online generic videos to watch. This thinking is counterintuitive as their own experience will only guide the manager and continue to pass on any negative traits or habits onto their subordinates.

Good and bad leaders affect employee performance and organizational health overall. If your business has a purpose (profit, goal, community out-reach, non-profit objective, etc.) It goes without saying that investment in training is a smart tool to use because great leadership does not merely remain continuously great over time.

Let us examine a few reasons why structured training is critical and the best preparation for talented potential leaders of tomorrow.

Productivity

Without a doubt, consistent strong leadership increases the productivity of your workforce employees. Managers who are well trained set realistic goals, develop strategic plans for work and are decisive. Under a leadership training process, managers learn how to understand their team members on an emotional level to obtain the best results from each. Emotional Intelligence is critical here to the success of a leader to use empathy to empower and engage employees effectively. Qualified leadership training encompassing emotional intelligence will hone this skill in your leaders to have a massive effect on your entire teams.

Slowing down churn

It goes without saying, ineffective leaders do not build, but in effect, break up teams. With leadership training, you retain talent while at the same time reduce recruitment expenses and lost productivity. A massive study completed in the UK found 53% of any given workforce would leave their jobs when frustrated with an organizations inability to change and adapt. Nearly one in four (24%), say their leaders cause stress at work and just under a quarter (23%) do not recommend their company’s overall leadership.

Providing feedback through employee engagement

We all would like to receive positive and constructive criticism. Managers who undergo leadership training will know the difference in the delivery of feedback on their team members and understand its importance to keeping employees positive and productive even when feedback may be negative. It has been noted that 43% of highly-engaged employees receive feedback at least once a week compared to 18% with a low engagement index. Giving feedback is a skill for a manager’s toolkit that makes for a successful leader. This skill will (not may) motivate and increase productivity in your teams.

Leadership styles

Managers will gravitate to a leadership style that, while it may be best for them, it may not be in the best interest of a particular team or the organization. Leadership training guides your managers to self-review their styles of management and through self-assessment and feedback, understand their effectiveness within the organization. Knowing the intricacies involved with their style of management will better identify areas where growth or change needs to be taken. The result of this is a strong production team maintaining minimum conflict and significantly higher retention.

Decision making is better

Leaders function at a higher emotional intelligence level, having the perspective to make informed decisions. These skills can be taught; reframing a problem and making an evidence-based decision as an example. Leadership training will teach your managers and leaders how to identify and minimize risk, to use data effectively and identify the very best solutions available to benefit an organization overall.

The ends do justify the means

It is right and realistic that training will take energy, time, resources and money. Rather than focus on the training costs, the focus should be on the return on investment and ability to influence lasting change within the organization.

An increase in profits, productivity, efficiency and a greater sense of accountability and responsibility amongst all employees are a direct result of leadership training. It will positively affect your bottom line whether a for-profit or nonprofit, small or large organization.