The LeadershipIQ blog

Leadership Development and Employee Engagement

Unfortunately many organizations treat concepts such as leadership development, change management,  management training, and employee engagement as catchphrases or buzzwords.

These terms get thrown around at the company meeting or trotted out in the CEO’s annual speech then get forgotten as soon as everybody returns to work.

To make matters worse, many organizations take a look at these concepts after they have failed or are facing a changing environment. To survive and succeed in today’s world, an effective organization must adopt these concepts before the crisis occurs not during it.

Leadership Training can Lead to Effective Employee Engagement and Change Management

Part of the reason why organizations fail at employee engagement is that they do not understand it. Many people believe that employee engagement means everybody in the company auditorium clapping their hands and singing the company song.

Nothing could be further from the truth, employee engagement means that everybody in the organization understands what the mission is and knows how to achieve it.

An engaged employee is not a fanatic or a cheerleader, instead an engaged employee is hard working and committed.

The only way to make people hard working and committed is through effective leadership. Workers must have more than managers they must have leaders that they trust and believe in. This can only be achieved through effective leadership development.

Leadership development is an ongoing process in which managers are turned into leaders by showing them what leadership is and how it works. Leadership training programs are only the beginning of this process.

Successful companies emphasize leadership training rather than management training. Management training means mastering the technical skills needed for management such as understanding technical processes.

Leadership training shows managers how to motivate and inspire other people. Leaders create engaged employees, managers tell others what to do. Almost anybody can function as a manager, only a few people can function as leaders.

Leadership development consists of three stages:

• Identifying those who are capable of leadership. This does not just mean those who are proficient at their jobs but those who can inspire others. Many organizations make the key mistake of promoting employees simply because they are good at their jobs. In many cases all this is turn a good worker into a half decent manager.

• Management training to give those individuals the basic skills necessary for management.

• Leadership training programs to give the individuals the tools they need to inspire and motivate others.

Ongoing help and support so that managers develop into the leaders they have the potential to become and achieve employee engagement.

Surveys Are For Information Not Ego Stroking

 
    One way that many companies gather feedback is with employee surveys.  A survey is a good way to learn what your employees are happy with, what they would like to see changed, and what they could not care less about.  In order for your surveys to be effective you need to be willing to act on the suggestions your employees make.  They will only be responding to questions that you have asked them, and when you ask that question, you imply that you are willing to make those changes if that is what the results show your employees want.

Surveys are only as good as the people designing them.  If the wrong questions are asked then the feedback you get does nothing for you.  Part of the goal of an employee survey is to find out the things that would make your employees enjoy their jobs more, thus making them more dedicated, and productive in their job. 

One question you find on nearly all employee surveys has to do with their overall satisfaction at their job.  This question tells you nothing.  If you are looking for a pat on the back, then you should ask this question.  Very few of your employees are going to put that they are not satisfied.  If they were not, they would have either already quit, or they are going to be afraid that somehow you will find out it was they that said them were not happy at their job and then fire them.  When using employee surveys to gather information all of your questions have to give you information you can use, and asking about their overall satisfaction gives you nothing.

If you would like to learn about our to-the-point surveys, contact us at Leadership IQ to find more information.

Leadership Development Training

     Leadership development training is something vital when it comes to a business, for it is something that any business needs to get good revenue. Leaders today are very creative and to keep up with the competition you also have to be able to match up to their skills and bring a new, fresh wave of success over the company or business you are currently working for. It doesn’t matter if you are working in public relations, for new marketing strategies or new programs. One thing is certain and that is that creativity and innovation must the center a leader should revolve around.

One of the biggest problems in any industry that involves a type of business is decision making. Managing ourselves is something that we must constantly review and always try to evaluate and see if what we are currently doing, how we have developed up until this point really is the best way into offering complete solutions that are viable and also engaging for other people to copy, in the belief that it will get productivity on the rise.
 
That’s why productivity and success in a business is hardwired to the talent and the attraction towards it. If you staff is composed out of people who are dedicated and love what they are doing they will surely provide your company with firm and good solutions that will rapidly increase production and thus generate more revenue. This is no dreamlike scenario, for there are hard working people out there who have a thing for challenges and they will always take on the hardest ones and thus overall they are those hard-to-get employees any company would wish to have under contract and this is why leadership development training often comes into play. To make people do better at their workplace.

All About Leadership Development

     Leadership development encompasses self-insight.  It gives us many approaches that we are able to take in every aspect of life.  Many of us wait for things to happen, but with insight, we can prepare for what it coming.  Part of leadership is guiding your decisions on your natural instincts.  This helps you see the consequences of each action you take.
 
Self-guidance provides us potential approaches so that we may get around each corner in life. Some of us just wait for things to happen and then there are those that house self-guidance to see them through.  This is an important skill to have in leadership.  Through proper development combined with the guidance inside of you, you will be one of few that soar in professional growth and being a profound leader.

Many courses exist out there for leadership.  Take some time and look over each course out there to decide which one will work the best for your situation.  We all need to house better skills to move in to action and be the insightful, witty and experienced leader.  Many companies around the globe are encouraging their staff to develop their skills further.  So many offices require that you have at least minimal skills in computer technology in order to obtain a position.  It is the same for leaders of the world.  You need to have ongoing knowledge to achieve the level of success your company needs.

Do well for yourself and continue learning.  It never gets old and you are never too old to learn.  Leadership development is a process.  Take the leap!

Help Employees be Satisfied in their Jobs…Take a Survey!

      Is there a positive spin on an employee engagement survey?  Absolutely!  Your employees are the meat and potatoes of an organization!  They know inside and out what it is like to work at the company and what customers are sharing with them.  They usually are willing to give the information on what they are unsatisfied about or what you are doing right as a company.  Where would your company be without its employees?  No where!  It is so important to know what needs to be done to add to the customer satisfaction ratings, productivity and quality of work. 

It is a fact that very satisfied employees are more engaged in their jobs than just merely satisfied employees.  A company can facilitate trainings and ask questions straight out but they will not get honesty in most cases for fear of putting their job in jeopardy.  So, the human resources department will often get involved and put together a survey that is anonymous for everyone.  In doing this, it allows for each employee to be completely honest, give specific feedback and expect that a change will happen.  These types of surveys are extremely effective in change as well as cost.  Comprehensive information is shared with management, upper management and human resources to determine areas that need improvement.

An employee feels important and engaged with their tasks when they feel involved in productivity and have an opportunity to build relationships with their clients.  Build on your company and its employees.  It is an easy and cost effective task to put together and report on an employee engagement survey.

Born to Lead

  Harold Geneen once said “Leadership management cannot really be taught.  It can only be learned.  It is practiced not so much in words, as in attitude and in actions.” 

Have you ever been part of a team and knew that someone from the team was destined for leadership?  This person had so much charisma, energy, honesty and loyalty that just glowed with the management title?  Too bad he’s only been working here a week.  Can you believe most companies believe that?  Why should it matter how long?  If a company can benefit by having an additional natural born leader, why would that matter?  Train the person on the necessities of the company and let them fly!  Being a great manager starts with building on the existing capabilities you have and the experiences you come with while understanding others.  It is with a sweeping sense of integrity that we can be realistic with what happens and move on to the next level of management.  Some of us can soar to the top of the ladder, but who will last there?  Appreciate who you are and the skills you bring to the table.  You just may be the next leadership management superstar!

Management Development

Every company is formulated with the sole intention of reaching its aims and objectives by relying on its employees by making sure that they perform to their maximum levels of output. The progress of an employee is gauged by leadership experts where they conduct a number of surveys so as to ascertain that work efficiency is maintained at the highest possible standard. While an employee is considered to be an asset of an organization, competition has always been a key factor. At a rising times of promotions as well as salary incentives, every company loves to see their employees in a competitive mood. Such competition can be only measured within an employee when certain management development programs and other skills are shared with them.

It is a binding factor that leadership development needs to be maintained by an effective executive team. Many successful companies hire the experts to perform group discussions, personality development classes and other teamwork exercises for their employees. These are just a few steps which organizations look to gain insight of their employees. It is an essential factor in developing a successful management during the infancy of the company. More start-up businesses focused on personnel asset development where they help transform the employees of today into leaders of tomorrow. Executive management development plays a vital role in the functionality of this transformation. Strategic games and exercises are designed to help an employee participate individually as well as in teams. These exercises are performed with the sole intention of finding out where an employee's talent lies and can be maximized towards the company's goals.

Leadership development is today considered as one of the prime factors in every organization where employees look forward to a future in their prospects. While contributing towards the corporation's goals and objectives, workers are given an opportunity to outperform themselves and prove their capabilities in a field that they are most suitable in. While many companies may find it ahead of investment in the teething stages, it has yet managed to be an impeccable asset of great value for the future.

Ways to Acquire Leadership Training

In a work environment, it's not enough that you're good at giving orders. As the quoted dictum goes, in order to become a leader, one must also be a good follower. But is leadership innate or one that can be honed through leadership training? Ideally, leadership training shouldn't only be provided to those who are in the top most part of the corporate ladder. Even regular employees should have access to these trainings of sort. Why? Because it is through these seemingly insignificant workers, holding no positions, who could possibly be at the root of the next big thing in your company. They may not be the loudest, most aggressive, and pushy worker the company holds, but they sure got the knack that will gradually be revealed in due time if given proper training. That is the reason why leadership coaching shouldn't only be for the selected few, but for all workers who once dream of being a leader himself. There are many ways to obtain leadership development, and the information that follows will show you how and where: *Leadership Programs are now made available online - There are a lot of management training programs offered on the web. So you won't have to leave home just to go to your training. You will be provided with manuals and even videos similar to that of sitting on one of those chairs in the training room. *Leadership programs can be accessed through your company - Oftentimes, doing the initiative to ask for such training will not only provide a great opportunity on your end, but will also be a way for the higher-ups to notice your willingness to enhance and develop your craft. If there is no leadership program in place, suggest one! The message is to start to acquire leadership training despite your current level of management. Once completed, you will become an integral member of a highly efficient and highly productive work environment.

The Secret Why Most Management Training Fails

Anyone who has experienced the horrors often involved with management training will quickly tell you that a few key factors can make a huge difference in the results that are achieved. There are a few small details that can often times lead to complete and utter disaster if not watched closely.

The first on our list of details that make all the difference in management training is, lead. Many people are followers regardless of how rebellious and free spirited they wish they were or try to be. They will follow your energy and your example so lead them. Sometimes it can be difficult to maintain the energy necessary for pulling a company along but that is your job. The good news is that constantly leading the way with passion and energy will begin to create a momentum that will carry the company along much more quickly than you could ever hope to do on your own. Most people never truly lead and then they wonder why no one is willing to follow.

The next secret here is to understand that things are changing and they are doing so very quickly. We have very quickly gone from a society that believed in being loyal to a company into a generation of questioners. The mindset in the market today wants bigger, better, and more of everything. Many people in leadership positions never look close enough at providing management training that enables these minds to question while moving the company in the direction of their vision for the company.

The final secret we will reveal here is passion. Our lives are like computers in terms of the statement "you get what you put in". If you put junk in you get junk out and if you put good in you get good out. If you approach other people with your vision of your company and you do so with passion, others will naturally follow who want to be a part of that vision. More importantly, it allows your management training to be created in a way that involves passion which will always get better results than just words on paper.