Training your leaders is a cornerstone to business success: here’s why.

One of the many perks of being the boss is more free reign… but let’s not forget that a leadership position endows employees with a unique responsibility: to drive business results from a group of individuals.

For this reason, it is critical to business success that leaders have the right skills and training to lead people towards a goal, i.e. to identify their team’s weaknesses, leverage their strengths, and motivate them to connect their interests to those of the business.

Leaders must be able to have courageous conversations with their staff. They must be able to give honest and fair feedback to create a sense of trust on the team, which we know forms the basis of productive teamwork! If a manager can’t identify and address misconduct or poor performance effectively, they are not mitigating business risks. Not acceptable!

Leaders must be able to give time and attention to maximising their team members’ potential. They must be perceptive enough to acknowledge what things their staff does well, and what things they don’t. Great leaders will often approach upper management about re-working job descriptions, developing stretch projects, and providing external training opportunities for staff. If you notice a team has failed to grow revenue, opportunities or savings… the manager has responsibility for that stagnation. That manager also risks massive turnover expenses by suffocating their team members.

Leaders must have the self-awareness to hold themselves accountable. This lends itself to a level of objectivity when interacting with the team. We’ve all seen disaster scenarios of favoritism, discrimination, neglect or volatility by managers, all of which are a direct result of managers making decisions based on personal preferences. While there should be room for authenticity in management styles, leaders must be trained to make decisions based on company values that are consistent across the business. If not, you end up with cultural silos… different teams operating by different standards. Ultimately your product or service to customers, and your internal engagement, will suffer.

*Quick reminder to not confuse technical-managers with people-managers! There should be room in the organisation to promote strong performers without adding people-management to their job duties. Not everyone is suited to lead others.