leadership development program

You've decided to make a proper leadership development program and have identified potential future leaders. What elements should the program contain?

A good leadership development program should be designed to develop leaders incrementally. So, start with the fundamentals and workout to more advanced levels. For first-level managers the program should include the subsequent.

1. going to know the individual. Leaders who don't really know themselves tend to be less effective than those that do. this is not meant to be a "getting in-tuned together with your feelings" sort of session, but a tough, honest check out each person's strengths and weaknesses.
2. Basic leadership theory. There are many areas to review here, but else, i like to recommend studying motivation theory (Herzberg), needs, (Maslow), and therefore the various theories of leadership styles, especially Situational Leadership (Hersey and Blanchard).
3. Communication. Effective communication is important . Place emphasis on the differences in communicating as a pacesetter and therefore the importance of listening.
4. deciding and problem solving. These are two areas that do not get nearly the eye they ought to in leadership development.
5. Managing change. it always falls to the lower levels of management to truly implement change.
6. Delegation. Though this is often a more advanced topic, the fundamentals of delegation should be understood by all levels of leadership.

In addition, beginning leaders should be introduced to human relations topics like diversity and handling difficult people also as interacting with unions if necessary. this is often just an inventory of basics and may be expanded.

During this stage of development, much of the knowledge must be provided during a seminar or workshop setting; but, don't consider a couple of hours during a classroom sufficient. Leadership may be a hands-on activity. Each of those subjects should include some application . as an example , when studying leadership theory, have the new leader evaluate their workers and supply an analysis of where they're on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, or Hersey and Blanchard's Situational Leadership model.

The next level of leadership development program should address mid-level leaders. These are leaders who produce other leaders who report back to them. Their development program should include a more in-depth discussion of the topics above but with emphasis on working with other leaders. Development at this level should involve more projects that reinforce the teachings learned. as an example , a mid-level leader could be assigned a project that addresses a posh issue requiring a multi-faceted solution. this could be something that's a touch beyond their normal day-to-day responsibilities. A caution though. Don't make something up. There are probably many real issues that require to be addressed and make-work projects don't show that senior leadership is basically dedicated to the leader's development. Another important assignment at this level is to pick a replacement leader and act as their coach.

The third level of development is for leaders who are approaching senior or executive levels of leadership development program. Interestingly, this level requires more training in management functions. While human relations are still important, such things as budgeting, marketing, logistics, and international relationships must be understood. However, and this is often important, if leaders at this level haven't received the essential leadership training discussed above, then I strongly urge you to incorporate a minimum of a number of it in their training. Senior leaders who don't understand basic leadership can do disastrous things!