8 benefits of leadership development
Programme Director at the Sir George Buckley Leadership Centre, Sue Alderson, discusses eight benefits of leadership development.
Being a leader is no mean feat. It takes a lot of courage to make tough decisions, empathy, creativity, and good communication skills to lead an organisation and its people.
A great leader not only takes charge of their own interests and the common goal of the business but should also focus on the development and mental health and wellbeing of employees.
Here are 8 benefits of leadership development and how it can develop well-rounded, authentic leaders:
- Discover your leadership style.
Whether you are an extrovert, introvert, pacemaker or empathiser, all leaders have their own leadership styles. Leadership development training can help you identify what type of leader you are as well as provide you with tools to adapt your leadership style to suit different situations you find yourself in. There will be times when you need to be firm, but also times when empathy is the best way forward.
- Learn valuable new skills.
Being a leader has its challenges but by being given the skills such as risk management, communication, critical and strategic thinking, will help you develop into an authentic, strategic leader. These new skills will stand you in good stead as a leader and enable you to face any issues that come your way.
- Improve career prospects.
Improving your career prospects through personal development goes without saying. Having leadership training on your CV will highlight to future employers that you have proactively sought to improve your leadership skills, have ambition, and have also gained the right capabilities to successfully lead a team or organisation.
- Bring about success.
Ambition is a big part of being a leader. Many great leaders are driven to go on to do notable things. There is an argument that people are born leaders and there is some truth in that, however, leadership development can help develop managers and leaders by providing techniques that teaches them how to be dynamic and passionate about achieving great things.
- Boost your confidence.
As a leader you may be required to do public speaking or address the whole organisation and be expected to help drive a business forward. Leadership training can build self-confidence to ensure leaders are comfortable with communicating. You will also be called upon to make tough decisions in challenging times, so having the confidence to make those decisions is crucial.
- Become a better communicator.
Great leaders have the ability to communicate well with their employees and stakeholders, as well as motivate and inspire them, which requires skill, particularly for larger organisations. A leader needs to be able to inspire trust and convey authenticity. If they are unable to do that, they will find it difficult to win over their workforce. Techniques gained through leadership development will enable leaders to communicate more effectively.
- Learn from mistakes.
Leaders need to be able to accept responsibility or accountability for any mistakes that happen. People make mistakes, it is part of human nature. Leadership development will provide skills to be able to accept that mistakes have been made, but also the ability to learn from them, rectify them and move on.
- Influence others.
A leader’s main priority is to lead, inspire and empower others to achieve an organisation’s common goal. Great leaders should also be great teachers and be able to identify talent, judge how they fit within the business and pick the right team for the job.
Being a leader takes confidence and the skills to be able to develop, motivate and inspire employees but also have the drive to push forward creativity and ambition to grow an organisation and its people. To achieve all of these, the next step to becoming a great leader is leadership development.
Looking to invest in leadership development for your business? Check out our Level 5 and Level 7 CMI accredited programmes starting in September.