Leadership training has a huge impact on companies so it’s essential to find ways of enhancing leadership skills. Leaders have an important role to play in a company and many of their decisions have a direct impact on success or failure.
Organizations invest in methods that ensure leaders stay at the top of their game. Even though some individuals have natural abilities that put them in a good position to lead, no one is born a leader. Top leaders work hard to cultivate their natural characteristics. This doesn’t happen overnight.
One important trait that all top leaders share is their unquenchable thirst for self-improvement. They work hard to continuously develop their skillset. Companies should aid this journey by providing leadership training through comprehensive eLearning programs.
Leadership plays an essential role in worker satisfaction. In fact, it’s the second most important driver according to this study.
With that in mind, here are ten leadership training strategies that come at no cost.
#1: Let Participants Drive Leadership Training
Participants should start by determining the focus areas of their development. This gives them a sense of empowerment. Just make sure they are limited to no more than three focus areas.
You can have them fill out a survey or have a meeting to decide the learning focus for the upcoming year. If you’re creating an eLearning program, then their input will help you decide what content to include.
Participants should also create their accountability plan, so they know their goals and have specific deadlines for meeting them. They should also practice using these skills in their work environment.
#2: Invite Senior Executives
Senior executives should play a role in the leadership training program. In fact, they should ideally teach certain sections of it. With eLearning or a virtual class, you can have them be part of training videos for specific skills that match their job. Senior leaders create a more impactful, motivational experience.
One of the best approaches is to have the senior executive share their personal experience with leadership training. Have them explain why it’s important. This can be a standalone video that introduces a module for an eLearning development training course.
If the session is in person and the leader is nearby, the leader can even kick off the training session.
#3: Promote Knowledge Sharing
Encourage individuals in leadership positions to share their insights with peers within the company. This not only helps the company with learning development, but also gets the learner to recall, reflect, and apply what they have learned into a practical situation. Participant’s knowledge sharing in the formal training and before/after during the informal training is essential to effective modern learning. The intent should not be for an expert to espouse information on leaders. Rather, leaders should learn from each other to capitalize on their collective wisdom and experience.
We see growth in others more clearly than we see it in ourselves so by sharing these experiences, you’ll gain an outside perspective. This is a seamless first step toward the practical application of new skills.
#4: Encourage Storytelling
We all love a good story. Everything from entertainment to marketing revolves around storytelling. Stories will drive lessons further and also provides social proof that leadership training is effective.
Encourage everyone involved in the training to share personal stories of their success as part of the overall leadership training approach. Not only does this foster rapport amongst attendees, but it drives recall of the learning points.
#5: Create a System of Accountability
Leaders within a company will naturally connect with each other so training can capitalize on this. Have participants partner with peers in the class and use the connections they create. Dedicate time in the training that allows these connections to grow by allowing them to work together on training activities.
What this does is creates a deeper rapport that sustains even after training. Leverage this by having attendees formally make accountability partners to implement their training action plans. Having someone to hold leaders accountable is a strong motivational tool for continued leadership training. And having that person be another leader in the training program further drives the accountability commitment. It benefits everyone involved.
#6: Prioritize Communication
One of the most important aspects of learning development is communication. It should be the foundation of a leader’s skillset. So when helping build leadership skills, create a clear goal within the program that directly connects with their existing work commitment. The best approach is to build a learning solution around a real issue within the company.
Building a focused leadership program encourages everyone involved to communicate their approach. But even though it’s encouraged, make sure to emphasize the importance of communication in every training session.
#7: Make Sure Everyone is Connected
Find innovative ways for people within these training programs to connect at all aspects of the formal and informal training. Some organizations create a specific Teams or Yammer channel or other intranet site to encourage connections.
The goal is to allow individuals who are training to connect and share their experiences, ask questions, and communicate so they gain more value from training. Just be sure that whatever method you choose is convenient.
#8: Embed Leadership Training into Everyday Activities
By removing barriers for adopting these new skills, you’ll find that training is more seamless. Find ways to integrate learning into their workflow. Develop systems where future leaders are coached while carrying out everyday tasks. This gives them experience utilizing these new skills. You can even create processes that deliver new strategies easily within the workflow.
#9: Set Performance Metrics
Like earlier, let individuals involved in leadership training have a voice in what metrics are used to reflect their learning. The idea is to create a system of accountability. This is especially important in learning development.
Help guide their growth and discover what techniques are having the biggest impact. By letting individuals decide their own learning experience, you will inspire motivation.
#10: Create Moments of Reflection Within the System
Leadership training is designed to push participants out of their comfort zone and cultivate new skills. So set up informal moments of reflection within the system. Create reminders that ask each member to reflect on their latest insights and application both within the formal training and in the informal training.
Build these reminders directly into everyday business processes. For instance, an email reminder that asks participants to share their key insights into previous lessons is a great starting point. Another method would be using a corporate Teams channel where everyone can share these reflections. A more advanced method would be an in-application system message that helps learners pause and reflect.
Leadership Training is Vital to a Company’s Growth
Some leadership skills diminish over time. We see managers who struggle with their new position only months after getting promoted. Supervisors become stressed and find themselves unable to handle workers. Both examples are the result of diminished leadership skills.
Encourage engagement in leadership training by utilizing these ten no-cost techniques. Feel free to contact us if you need help with eLearning development courses that specialize in leadership training.