In a world that’s changing at an accelerated pace, being set in your ways is a detriment. A dynamic working world requires that you take on dynamic mindsets. Leadership development programs, and the leadership styles they produce, need to represent the realities of the current marketplace. Emerging leadership development programs do exactly this.
If your business isn’t already utilizing leadership development programs, here’s 10 reasons you should shift your focus to emerging leadership programs to improve your business.
1) Your workforce is changing
The younger segment of the workforce was raised into a different environment, with different expectations, than their older counterparts. Today’s workforce doesn’t just want directions on what to do they want to know the purpose behind it — the bigger picture.
Offering a bigger picture means communicating the connection of day to day tasks with the organization’s foundational Why. And, while this may seem overly idealistic, it has shown to be an incredibly effective marketing tool. Just consider how major brands like Apple and Starbucks have been propelled to success by effectively communicating their vision.
Emerging leadership development programs place a heavy emphasis on purpose and can provide your business’s leaders with the tools to offer a bigger picture to the teams they lead.
2) Work itself is changing
Many of our lingering ideas about work are leftovers from the 20th century model of work based on linear career paths in established straightforward industries. Today, this model of work still exists, but is declining — fast. If your leadership expects 9-5 workers who will stay indefinitely with the company, then they will be caught off guard. This is because the existing labor market is tight — meaning that workers have more freedom to leave and go elsewhere than they have previously. Projections show that this tight labor market will not relent any time soon.
The 20th century model of work relied heavily on rigid and clear hierarchies that offered authority mostly without question. Today, many organizations have flatter structures that lead to a need for more nuanced leadership techniques.
Your company’s leadership should be able to address these changes in the world of work every step of the way. Utilizing emerging leadership development programs will help your leadership act proactively to developing challenges.
3) Your competitors are focusing on leadership
Leadership development programs are increasing in popularity across industry lines. This means it is likely that competitors of yours have already begun to leverage the benefits of emerging leadership development programs.
By utilizing emerging leadership programs, you position your company to meet the competition. Don’t sit idly by while your competitors build cutting edge leadership.
4) Middle management is underdeveloped
The career history for middle managers is usually just several years of experience in their profession and a few promotions. During that time, very little formal leadership training is given. This has been a perpetual problem for generation.
This is why your businesses leadership development strategy would benefit from emerging agile leadership development programs. While middle management is crazy busy, emerging programs offer the flexibility needed to meet the needs of managers — by integrating leadership training throughout the day in little doses.
5) Turnover is costing you
While leadership development programs cost money — poor leadership of your workforce costs more. Poor leadership is leadership that fails to engage those they lead and low engagement means high turnover. The turnover of vital talent can cost 20% of their annual salary and increases the more senior the talent is. When turnover is high these costs can quickly add up and eat into profits.
With the right leadership development program your front line leadership can learn effective strategies for engaging and retaining top talent.
6) Your brand depends on it
Your brand isn’t just the logo and ads you send out — it’s your culture too. With the high visibility of organizational culture today, poor internal leadership could affect the external image of your brand. A single social media post about your organization’s culture could go viral and negatively affect the brand as a whole. Ensuring that leadership practices organizational values is a must.
With the right leadership development your business could leverage the visibility of its culture to strengthen the brand.
7) Poor leadership is detrimental to your business
When leadership is ineffective it’s not just opportunity costs that you face — it can actively harm your company. Poor leadership can lead to teams misplacing their efforts and causing damage to the company and the corrosion of culture.
Consider, for example, the damage that a culture of strong individual egos can do to team culture. When a whole team is out to pursue only their own interest they may withhold valuable information or even sabotage each other to get ahead. This sort of behavior can cause severe bottlenecks that can remain hidden for years.
By taking the initiative to develop leadership within your company you can drastically cut down on the costs that poor leadership can incur.
8) Psychology keeps offering new insights
Given the wealth of insights that the leadership psychology can provide it doesn’t make sense to ignore it. Many old common sense beliefs about leadership might be outdated or shown to be completely false.
For instance, we know that traditional classroom instruction for leadership has very little effect on the actual behavior of leaders in the field. This means that successful leadership development programs look to improve leadership at the point of action within the workplace.
With a leadership development program, grounded in the latest insights into the psychology of leadership, you can gain a competitive advantage.
9) New technologies are broadening the possibilities
When people think about leadership development they usually think of a traditional set up with seminars and a lot of time spent away from the day to day work. While this is still a viable option new technologies are emerging that offer different strategies for businesses to employ.
With the new technologies available business leaders no longer have excuses to avoid investment in leadership development.
10) It’s easier than ever
With the technology we are developing at ProHabits effective leadership development is now more accessible than ever. Utilizing an automated platform we send customized content straight to organizational leaders allowing for them to engage in daily MicroActions. Little by little, MicroActions create macro changes.
