Leaders are an integral part of every business. They set standards, lead by example, and drive the organization forward with their focus and determination.
There is a popular turn of phrase that says that “great leaders are born, not made”.
However, that’s not entirely accurate. Good leaders possess a particular set of skills, and while those skills might come more naturally to some, anyone can learn them with practice and dedication.
It’s in every business’s interest to develop leadership skills as it helps build the next generation of company leaders in-house.
What Makes A Good Leader?
Before you can develop your employees into good leaders, you need to understand what separates them from everyone else. In essence, that means knowing what leadership is.
The best leaders are able to:
- Create a vision of the future that’s inspiring
- Motivate people to engage with the vision in a positive way
- Effectively manage the delivery of the vision
- Coach and build a team who will work together to achieve the vision
Each of those points requires a particular set of soft skills that can be developed over time, and combining these skills together allows leaders to execute business strategies and achieve success.
With the help of targeted leadership training, L&D teams can help their organization’s managers build these skills and deliver increased business impact.
Why Do Leadership Skills Matter?
Leadership skills are important at every level of an organization, and every employee benefits from developing their own leadership abilities.
At the highest level of a company, members of the C-Suite and Heads of Departments need leadership skills to help them steer the business in the right direction and communicate the company’s big-picture vision to the rest of the employees.
Mid-level managers require leadership skills to effectively motivate and get the best results out of their subordinates, and junior employees will progress in their career faster and contribute more to the business if they develop these important skills.
That means from an L&D perspective, leadership training is an important pillar that needs to form part of any training strategy.
Leadership vs. Management
Leadership skills and management skills, while similar, refer to different sets of skills.
Leadership skills are more creative, big-picture, and human-focused – think communicating a strategy and vision, motivating and inspiring teams, and being innovative.
On the other hand, management skills focus more on the operational side of things. In this bucket you have the actual day-to-day execution of tasks and resource organization.
Both are important, but we’re focusing specifically on developing leadership skills in this article.
Developing Leadership Skills For Managers
As we mentioned earlier, some people are natural leaders. But others need specifically tailored leadership training to develop these skills. If you want to help managers in your organization become better leaders, there are a few steps you need to take.
Build a Training Plan
To train a cohort of leaders and managers to improve their leadership skills, you need a plan of action. Sporadic training sessions and one-off workshops just don’t stick in learners’ minds as strongly.
That means your L&D strategy should map out:
- What specific outcomes you want your learners to achieve
- What steps you’re going to take to help them achieve those outcomes
- How you’re going to measure whether those outcomes were achieved
Being vague or unclear with objectives will only reduce the effectiveness of your training plan.
Specificity is key – build a timeline, map out training modules that target particular skills, and decide on what qualitative and quantitative metrics you’re going to track early.
Tailor Training to Each Managers’ Specific Needs
Different managers will have different strengths and weaknesses, so where possible, personalize your training to suit each individual’s specific needs.
One manager might have great active listening skills but struggles to communicate to large groups, while another might be charismatic and a great speaker, but forgets to make conversations a two-way dialogue.
For example, VirtualSpeech can help you identify skill gaps among your managers, helping you deliver training that actually supports them in their learning journey.
(To add an element of fun to your training, encourage your leaders to take our Leadership Style Quiz and compare the results!)
Ensure Training is Flexible and Accessible
One thing is true for every leader and manager – they are short on time. With packed calendars and busy schedules, it gets hard to justify blocking a whole hour (or more) off for workshops and training.
Bite-sized and just-in-time approaches to L&D allow managers to access training when they need it and without taking up too much of their day. This helps the training feel more worthwhile – while also making it easier to justify taking people away from their desks.
VirtualSpeech leadership training allows learners to spend even just 5-10 minutes in an AI-powered roleplay that simulates a leadership scenario, encouraging them to practice in between meetings or whenever they have a bit of free time to upskill.
Key Leadership Skills: Three Examples
Communication
Perhaps the most important aspect of being a leader is communication. A manager could be incredibly innovative and technically gifted, but if they lack the skills in order to effectively communicate their ideas and methods, they will struggle to get off the ground.
Great communication is grounded in active listening, two-way dialogue, and the correct tone and body language. VirtualSpeech’s roleplay exercises can assess learners on all of these aspects, identifying how they can improve in these specific areas.
With practice, managers can learn to communicate their message effectively even in challenging workplace situations.
Emotional Intelligence
The best leaders show empathy and have a great understanding of how their actions and the actions of others will impact those around them.
Leaders with strong leadership skills make decisions only when they’re fully aware and appreciative of how they will affect the rest of their organization, from the most senior employees right to the most junior team members.
These skills fall under the category of emotional intelligence (sometimes referred to as EQ), and allow leaders to navigate difficult conversations tactfully and defuse conflict, which is essential in business.
This extends to change management. Businesses are constantly changing, and navigating and communicating those changes in an effective, empathetic manner is essential to being a great leader.
Creativity
To be a strong and successful leader, it’s important to be creative. This means being able to drive business results by being innovators rather than following the rest of the market, but it also means being a great problem-solver.
Problem-solving often requires taking a creative or unconventional approach to overcoming a challenge, and the best leaders can quickly come up with creative ideas to tackle issues facing their business.
Creating a big-picture vision or strategy for a business is also a process which requires creative thinking, and leaders who lack this skill will struggle to steer their organization to the next level.
Next Steps To Improve Your Organization’s Leadership Skills
If you’re ready to instill your organization’s managers with the skills to become great leaders, reach out to our team to learn how VirtualSpeech can support your L&D department’s training strategy.
VirtualSpeech is an immersive learning platform built to train managers of all levels in the key leadership skills discussed in this article like communication and emotional intelligence.
