We need leaders everywhere.
Someone needs to show us how to stay organized, build confidence, or complete a project. When things get rough, we need someone reliable and trustworthy to turn to for guidance.
Great leaders create a positive impact on those around them, so why do some workplaces still underestimate the benefits of leadership training?
Not everyone has natural leadership characteristics, but that's OK. Effective leaders undergo years of training that demand dedication, a growth mindset, and attention to detail.
Some people need a bit extra help honing their leadership skills, and that's what we're here to help with. We'll explain the key benefits of leadership training, what it is, why it's important for our work environment, and how we go about achieving it.
What is leadership training?
Leadership training usually refers to programs or courses that work to improve employees' leadership skills, like decision-making, communicating, problem-solving, and adaptability.
Becoming a leader means evaluating your current abilities and learning how to improve them. In leadership training programs, people evaluate leadership strategies, review examples of strong and poor leadership, and analyze how to do better.
The goal of leadership training is to build these skills — or sharpen team members' existing skills — to help them become future leaders. And, whenever there's a leadership challenge, trained team members can step in for guidance and support.
If you’re just starting your leadership training, you must develop your self-awareness. Being a great leader isn’t just about knowing a lot about your industry. It demands you to understand your needs, strengths, and weaknesses to learn how to best support your team.
Knowing your own faults and increasing your interpersonal skills helps you identify similar traits in your team to empower them.
Training for leadership skills takes time, but it's a worthwhile investment. Successful leaders uplift a company and help them stay on track toward its common goals.
Research has found that great leaders help build trust between employees and managers, creating a company culture where people feel comfortable and welcome. Employees feel welcome to make suggestions or share their perspectives, which boosts the creative ideas and innovation flowing in the office.
But employees can’t undergo leadership training alone. To be effective, this training demands a coach who's already a successful leader to pass on this information. Even if it’s done virtually or asynchronously, it still requires an experienced teacher or mentor.
If you're looking for someone to help you through this journey, consider meeting with a BetterUp coach. They'll be your biggest cheerleader as you sharpen your leadership skills and guide you toward a future full of confidence.
Who can undergo leadership training?
Being a leader isn't reserved for certain positions. Leadership for development in any position will help anyone improve their skills and level up. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been in the industry for one year, five years, or more. But it’s especially helpful to get started if you want to become a leader without prior experience.
Plus, most leadership roles are constantly evolving. And just when you think you know everything about a position, you'll encounter a new challenge. It might be your team growing, shrinking, or taking on new responsibilities — but it’ll demand that you adapt. Everyone can learn something new about leadership, regardless of their career stage.
Here are a few employee positions at a variety of career levels and how you might benefit from leadership training:
- New leaders: This is when you're starting your first leadership position and need all the leadership and new manager training you can get. You might not have prior leadership experience and feel like an imposter, but you've been given the opportunity to be a leader. That means it’s time to learn. It's when you learn leadership’s basic do's and don'ts and how to start off on the right foot.
- Early to mid-career professionals: After gaining experience in your role and industry, you're probably ready to move up. But you’ll need to build on your existing knowledge to reach your full potential as a leader. Or, you might not want to secure a management position, but having those new skills would be helpful for your current job.
- Executives and directors: You've been in a leadership position for a while now, but it's time to improve your leadership style. Your industry is always changing, and you want to continue to be a role model. This is when you develop skills to help with mentoring and inspiring others.
5 benefits of leadership training
One of the main things to remember when talking about the benefits of leadership training is that it's not all about you. Sure, it helps make your resume stand out and builds your confidence, but your leadership skills are invaluable for your team.
Here are five key benefits of leadership training:
1. Helps with employee retention
A business can't run without engaged employees. Studies have found that team members who work with inspirational and strong leaders are more likely to be engaged and stay at their current job.
Workplaces with a higher employee turnover rate aren't engaging their staff enough or providing the support they need. That's where a strong leader comes in: to keep team members engaged and motivated at work.
2. Manages challenging situations
Problems and issues can arise in any work environment. Things like being short-staffed during someone’s vacation or your technology failing to work all happen at any time. And when nobody knows how to handle them, even the smallest challenges derail an entire office.
'But with an effective leader, problem-solving isn’t an issue. In the face of adversity, a great leader will empower team members to work through problems — not jump to feeling stress or giving up.
3. Work as a Whole Person
What does it mean to be a leader who shows up as a Whole Person? It means you'll bring all of your values to work, not just leave them at home. Your leadership training will improve your Whole Self in areas like your emotional regulation, how you interact with others, and the quality of your work.
Plus, what you learn at work will transfer to your personal life. Navigating conflict with your friends or family will be easier with improved patience, empathy, and creative problem-solving skills.
4. Boosts overall productivity
A great leader ensures that everyone knows how to do their job well. You'll make sure that everyone feels comfortable with and has clarity about their roles. Soon enough, team members won't need to stop and ask questions or look for clarification and can work more efficiently.
And when your team members are doing their best, your team will have higher enjoyment, productivity, and satisfaction.
5. Increases everyone's confidence
Poor leaders fill team members with self-doubt and lower their self-esteem. These leaders don't make team members feel capable or successful. But as a strong leader, you’ll empower others and make a positive impact on the work environment.
Employees will be calm and motivated due to your confidence and patience while searching for solutions and motivate others to keep working toward their goals.
Studies have found that teams with leaders who take the time to teach their employees new things are more resilient. You'll all see that you've gained new skills that allow you to set more ambitious goals and be bolder.
Why is leadership development important?
Why is leadership training important? Businesses crumble without effective leadership. Individuals, teams, and companies can’t meet their goals. And when they don’t meet their goals, it’ll make them question their abilities and self-worth, negatively impacting their well-being. Your workplace needs quality leadership, and that’s harder to do without training.
The Global Leadership Forecast found that U.S. companies spent about 160 billion dollars on employee training and education, but not all of it is paying off.
Here are a few key findings from the report:
- Around 77% of organizations report they’re experiencing a leadership gap
- Leaders who spend more time managing than interacting with employees on a personal level are 32% less engaged
- Leaders are feeling less confident in helping team members avoid burnout and making hiring decisions
- There's a 40% drop in how leaders rate their effectiveness in virtual leadership and empathy toward others
If you’re still not convinced, here are five other ways that leadership training benefits workplaces:
- Sharpens everyone's communication skills so that people have a better understanding of how to work as a team, boosting teamwork and collaboration
- Helps guide a business toward success and growth opportunities
- Helps to manage change and demonstrates what adaptability looks like
- Demonstrates confidence and authority in project leadership
- Promotes an educating, empowering, and encouraging company culture
For the future: Looking at different approaches
Experiencing the benefits of leadership training is exciting for you and your team. Your newly developed self-awareness will help other team members flourish and be more productive while you learn what's most important to you.
Seeing how effective leadership impacts the workplace makes it hard to settle for anything less. You'll know what type of leadership you want to exude, and leadership building will help you achieve that.
The format will depend on things like the group’s size and needs. Here are a few different ways leadership training might be offered:
- Leadership workshops: This is the most common way of going through leadership training, focusing on one topic at a time. Workshops usually involve hands-on activities or example scenarios.
- Leadership seminars: Seminars are for larger groups of people and offer an interactive way for teams to learn together and network with other professionals.
- Online courses: If you’re looking to learn at your own pace, an online leadership course is best for you. Everyone works independently with the same resources and materials, and it’s great for people starting out as leaders.
- Leadership conferences: Conferences help those already in leadership positions strengthen existing skills, share what they’ve learned, and listen to other people’s experiences.
Your leadership training format might look different than expected since it's not usually sitting in a classroom and listening to someone speak. Keep an open mind when adopting new learning styles and your skills will only get stronger.
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