How To Develop Leaders In Your Organization

If you need to develop leaders in your organization, you have a daunting task ahead of you. Employees need to be self-reliant and take initiative for the work that they do. However, a good workplace needs to have leaders and followers in order for it to be successful.

But even more than that, there needs to be true leaders of other people, departments, projects, and more. You can’t have too many followers or you won’t be able to get work done – same as you shouldn’t have too many leaders that everyone competes against each other.

As an HR leader, it is your responsibility to find that perfect balance. But what is the best way to do that? Especially in remote and hybrid environments where the best leaders aren’t who they used to be?

5 Important Ways to Develop Leaders in Your Workforce

Developing leaders is different depending on what field you are in – healthcare leaders are going to look very different from construction leaders. Even within similar fields, you will find differences. A leader in pharmaceuticals, for example, will look different than a nursing leader.

Even so, there are some overarching strategies that you can consider, no matter what industry you are.

Identify Who Is Already Leading In Some Way

Who are the leaders in your organization currently? What are they doing that works? You can find out who leaders are in a few different ways – you can talk to managers and employees about who they look to for advice and suggestions. You can also observe workers to see who naturally takes on those roles. 

Of course, you want to think about good leadership and bad leadership and who is a good leader. This is the type of person that people actually want to follow. Bad leaders are micromanagers and can even be passive aggressive.

You can also look at performance and see who your top performers are. Who did they learn from? What training did they undergo to get where they are now? Are they leading the way in certain areas or overall? For example, you might be able to target which sales representatives led the way in specific areas and then use them as leaders for certain initiatives.

If you want to get into the nitty gritty details about your workforce and find out who your top performers are, why they are succeeding, and more, you can check out Trakstar’s newest product, Insights.

Encourage Personal Leadership First 

Employees need to lead themselves before they lead others. The first thing you want to do is encourage employees to take responsibility for their own work and efforts above anything else. You can set these goals for your employees within their first 30 days of employment, during performance reviews, or at any point when an employee sits down to talk to you.

You can make personal leadership something they work towards or something they need to do right away. By taking more responsibility for the work they do and encouraging independence, you are growing their leadership skills. They will become more detail oriented and better at critical thinking, which are two key traits of good leaders.

Show Growth Opportunities 

Are you showing off your leadership growth opportunities in the way you should be? You need to provide the scaffolding to teach employees how to grow – especially when you have people who may not have had the chance to become leaders before now. You may need to provide them with extra guidance or training to get where you need them to be.

Whether you are providing training materials to them, sending them for training, giving them time out of their days to take training modules, or simply using the mentor method, you need to show them that they can become leaders. This is when the magic happens and you find out that the quiet employee has some fantastic leadership skills hiding beneath their exterior.

For more information about building leadership training modules – or modules for any kind of leadership training – you can click here to read about Trakstar Learn.

Ask About Leadership Right Away

Is leadership something that you need within your organization? If it is, make it one of the keywords you use when hiring someone, ask about it during interviews, and when you check references, ensure that you ask about their leadership skills.

Remember that you can teach leadership, but if you need someone who is a leader right away, it may be best to recruit someone who already knows how to be a leader.

Have An On-Demand Library Of Leadership Training Materials

If you are willing to train someone, be sure that you have the training materials ready to go. The longer you wait between a discussion about leadership to the time you actually start helping someone become a leader, the less likely it is that they will follow through and actually take those courses.

Build up leadership learning courses, modules, videos, worksheets, and more so that when someone mentions it to you in an interview, performance review, or even a passing conversation, you are ready to get them started.

Ready To Develop Leaders At All Stages Of The Employee Lifecycle?

Are you ready to build better employees and leaders at your company? It starts right when you post a job listing. To achieve a team that is filled with people who work well together, take initiative, and take responsibility for the work they do, you need tools.

In HR, it can sometimes feel like you wear too many hats. The Trakstar Platform automates some of your day and helps you to feel less like the work keeps piling up. Instead, it takes on a lot of the work you do on a daily basis when it comes to hiring, training, and performance management. It not only puts more of the work in the employee’s hands, it frees up your time to make a real difference in your organization. 

To schedule a demo of the Trakstar Platform, schedule a free, personalized demo today.