The results of misguided and poor leadership can be debilitating for an organization, and the consequences can manifest in many ways.
- Poor communication. Effective leaders create a safe environment where people of differing and contrasting ideas feel safe to speak up. This kind of culture creates collaboration and ends up with impactful synergies. On the contrary, leaders who are not on top of their game find themselves in meetings where people are uncomfortable with expressing and challenging each other’s ideas.
- High attrition. Valuable employees leave because they feel unheard, irrelevant, dispensable, and demotivated. Although these feelings are internal, an effective leader is in control enough to know when employees are feeling left behind. Individuals have different motivations, and a good leader can connect staff to opportunities that help motivate them. When employees feel valued and inspired, they collectively provide inputs and outputs that propel the company.
- Lack of succession planning. A good leader can regularly share his or her best practices with highly competent employees. Succession planning is essential to business continuity in case of promotions or positive and negative fortuitous events. The lack of adequate preparation in this area can affect a company’s productivity and efficiency.
The manifestations of poor leadership, such as problematic communication, high attrition, and the absence of succession planning can be resolved through continuous training and development. To fix poor communication in the workplace, reinforcing a culture where feedback is valued is one of the ways to go. To keep employees, hearing out their concerns and recognizing their efforts go a long way. Succession can be planned through mentorship programs.
Steps to deploying a culture-shifting training:
- Communicating the objectives.Learners can focus more when they know what the training is about and how they can benefit from it. When they understand that feedback makes a resilient company, it is easier for them to be accepting and generous of carefully stated feedback.Training is not only applicable to non-leaders. Helping leaders ask the right questions during a meeting or coaching session is a powerful tool. In a matter of minutes, they can uncover the motivations of employees and provide proper guidance, which builds meaningful mentorship at work.
- Engaging the learners.Having an environment that’s conducive to learning is the first step. Quiet and well-ventilated training rooms, easy-to-access coffee and loo, as well as the right projector wall mount setup, all contribute to preventing hindrances during learning. To capture active participation, interactive discussions are a must.
- Meeting the training goals.The training goals are not achieved right after training. Leaders should continue walking the talk to reinforce learning during training. If feedback is that important, leaders themselves should showcase healthy exchanges of ideas and constructive criticisms.
Training curricula that advocate business solutions should be implemented mindfully. Although training makes a difference, leaders are still expected to have meaningful conversations among peers. The right conversations will build mutual trust, which is crucial in the workplace because it positively influences employees, their productivity and loyalty.
