Leadership Training Program is essentially an activity to make Leaders out of Managers so that they can improve the team’s performance and thus the company as a whole.
Leadership is the process of leading individuals as a group to achieve a common objective. Leadership Training Program is the activity geared towards bringing out the leader in you so that they can bring out the best in employees by communicating effectively about what needs to be done and why it matters.
Even if one is full of charisma and people naturally line up to follow him anywhere, he could always hone his leadership skills. Or, if one is just like others who are not natural-born leaders, but finds themselves in a position of leadership, he will want to study the techniques that rally teams to success. Even though Leadership is not rocket science, but like rocket science, it can be learned.
There are various leadership styles. They can be classified as:
Autocratic Style: An Autocratic leader believes that he is the smartest person at the table and knows more than others. They make all the decisions with little input from the team members. This was generally the approach in the past, but it will not resonate with the team members in today’s age.
Authoritative Style: This is a style of confident leaders who map the way and set expectations while engaging and energizing followers along the way. In a climate of uncertainty, these leaders lift the fog for people. They help them see where the company is going and what is going to happen when they get there. They do not just issue orders but allow people choice and latitude on how to achieve common goals.
Pacesetting Style:
This is a self-driven leadership style where they set the pace as in racing, and set the bar high, and push their team members to run hard and fast to the finish line. However, this can hurt the team members as even the most driven employee may become stressed, working under this style of leadership in the long run.
Democratic Style: Here they share information with employees about anything that affects their work responsibilities. They also seek employees’ opinions before approving a final decision. This can develop trust and promote team spirit and cooperation from employees, and help employees grow and develop.
Coaching Style: Here the leader views people as a reservoir of talent to be developed and he seeks to unlock people’s potential. They believe that everyone has the power within themselves, and they give people a little direction to help them tap into their ability to achieve all that they are capable of.
Affiliative Style: Here the leader gets up close and personal with people. He pays attention to and supports the emotional needs of team members. He opens up a pipeline that connects him or her to the team.
It is necessary to choose one’s leadership style which is enumerated in the Leadership Training Program:
Knowing which of the leadership styles works best for you is part of being a good leader. Developing a signature style with the ability to stretch into other styles as the situation warrants may help enhance your leadership effectiveness.
Know yourself. Start by raising your awareness of your dominant leadership style. You can do this by asking trusted colleagues to describe the strengths of your leadership style. You can also take a leadership style assessment.
Understand the different styles. Get familiar with the repertoire of leadership styles that can work best for a given situation. What new skills do you need to develop?
Practice makes a leader. Be genuine with any approach you use. Moving from a dominant leadership style to a different one may be challenging at first. Practice the new behaviors until they become natural.
Develop your leadership agility. Traditional leadership styles are still relevant in today’s workplace, but they may need to be combined with new approaches in line with how leadership is defined for the next century.
Today’s business environments are fraught with challenges due to the changing demographics and the employee expectations of a diverse workforce. This may call for a new breed of leader who is an amalgamation of most of the leadership styles discussed here. An agile leadership style may be the ultimate leadership style required for leading today’s talent.
Some of the key components of a Leadership Training Program are:
Training on building your “bench”. Leaders are part of the long-term strategic organ of your organization
Learning about goal setting
Improving soft skills
Time management training
Learning to delegate effectively
The art of giving and receiving feedback
Follow-up and coaching.
The purpose of Leadership training is to make leaders competent to function effectively and manage and influence the employees. It assists in organizing and synthesizing complex ideas into a tapestry of words and images. It also aids in improving the critical skill-visioning process and eventually aiding in analyzing the past, understanding the present, and exploring options to craft a clear future vision. It helps in the following:
Focus
Communication
Prioritizing, Planning, and delegating
Rationalizing conflict
Inspiring and motivating
The Ken Blanchard Companies has come up with a proven, time-tested leadership training program:
The SLII, which is a very easy-to-understand, practical framework that enables your manager to diagnose the development level of an employee for a task. This incorporates Blanchard’s latest research and state-of-the-art design theory. This creates a learning experience that allows for quick mastery of the methodology and enables managers to help their direct reports soar to new professional heights.
The SLII believes that great leaders build meaningful connections. Great leaders give their people what they need and when they need it. That means having authentic conversations that empower them. They care about their growth, being their champion, and seeing their promise. Leading situationally is a dramatic departure from management styles of the past, and it’s an approach that produces dramatically better returns than other management styles. They accelerate development, ensure the Manager and team members speak the same language, and improve retention, as it improves morale, commitment, and engagement. It unlocks creativity as the employees who feel supported by their manager are far more engaged and that is the foundation of innovation.
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