Invest in future leaders, because your future depends on it.
Regardless of your business type or sector your competitiveness and ongoing success will depend on one thing: your future leaders. Leadership development is therefore one of the most valuable investments your business will ever make.
I don’t need to tell you… the business landscape has never been so uncertain and challenging; but it is also a place of immense opportunity and prosperity.
The people who will lead your business of tomorrow will need to possess an unprecedented range of skills combined with a deep understanding of your business and vision for its future.
A business with emerging leaders who are not only adept at navigating adversity whilst maintaining strategic and innovative mindsets but who are also technically and digitally savvy; will gain competitive advantage.
So who and where are your next generation of leaders? And how are you preparing them to lead?
Nature or nurture?
Many people possess the qualities and motivation for leadership success, but they require nurture and development. Even born leaders need grooming so that their skills are polished and honed.
By implementing well-designed, structured leadership development, you will not only ensure that your future leaders are equipped with the necessary skills; you will also have the benefit of developing exactly the type of leaders your business requires.
Investing time to work and develop your future leadership team will allow you to embed culture and values, align business strategy, and encourage a high level of teamwork and trust within this group.
Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others. – Jack Welch
Case study
I am currently working with the UK branch of a global organisation who has suffered poor leadership for many years resulting in a negative culture, resistant to change and where fun and rewards are non-existent. The emerging leaders struggled to make their mark, facing historic uncooperative attitudes and a wall of “we’ve always done it this way, why change?”.
With the help of government funding we were able to work together and implement a 12-month leadership and management programme embarking the entire management team on a continuous journey to lead a successful business and implement change.
They are now on a path where there is evidence of a shared vision, aligned values, concise goals, clear reporting lines, support, reward and a real sense of a team success.
There have been casualties during the process, but this is both inevitable and positive as their values were not aligned to those of the organisation and they were ultimately not part of the future.
As a result of this particular leadership journey, the business has experienced an increase in productivity, a higher level of customer service and improved staff retention reducing their ongoing recruitment costs.
What happens if you don’t invest in future leaders?
At some point you, or your current leadership team will be ready to move on. But to ensure your business continues to thrive, you need to keep your best talent onboard and engaged.
If you don’t invest in your future leaders, they will leave.
A lack of high-potential, invested employees will contribute to poor productivity and engagement and will ultimately affect your bottom line. Study after study shows that businesses who invest in leadership development perform better than those that don’t.
No longer a ‘nice to have’
A Leadership Development Programme is critical to the ongoing success of your business.
As a leader, you will have created and articulated a vision for your future… now who is going to drive and implement that vision, and how?
It’s never too early to identify and develop future leaders. Many organisations don’t think about leadership development until there is a pressing need, but by that point it is often too late.
Come and talk to me about developing your future leaders – there’s no time like the present!
