With Ongoing Leadership Development Long Island Businesses Gain An Edge

By Frances Stone


There has been a very big shift in the way large businesses are run. Most modern and successful enterprises have implemented a system whereby self directed teams pursue specific goals. Members of teams all have very specific roles to play and in most cases teams accept responsibility for achieving their goals. This approach can only work if the organization has strong leaders leading these teams. With leadership development Long Island companies strive towards improving the quality of their teams.

Everybody has the potential to be a leader. Studies have shown that there are certain characteristics shared by all great leaders. It has also been proven that people can develop new characteristics and shed undesirable ones. This means that anyone can be developed as a leader. This is the reason why so many companies spend a lot of money on programs aiming to develop and nurture leaders.

Companies employ a number of methods to develop their leaders. Mentorship programs are popular. They allow less experienced leaders to learn from respected and experienced senior leaders. Formal courses and seminars are also useful to impart new knowledge and attitudes and to gain essential skills in communication, conflict management, negotiations and a wide variety of other fields. Peer reviews have also helped leaders to find out how their colleagues view them.

It is not just leaders at the top of the organization that should benefit from programs developing leaders. Organizations need a depth of strong leaders and must therefore develop leaders at all levels of the organization. Even established and recognized leaders can benefit greatly from such programs. The modern view on training focuses on life long learning. It prevents people from becoming complacent or stagnant.

Good programs do not just focus on the development of new characteristics. They also cover the high value of failures and personal weaknesses. Many great leaders have said that the most valuable lessons they ever learnt were from mistakes and failures. Nobody is perfect and that is why good leaders must also have the ability to recognize their own weaknesses and to implement strategies to turn those weaknesses into strong points.

There is no shortage of courses, workshops, seminars and programs designed to develop leaders. It is always a good idea to ask service providers for references. Courses should have very clear objectives and service providers must be prepared to explain how those objectives will be achieved and what their instructional methodology will be. Programs under consideration should be properly accredited.

Formal courses and programs are certainly very useful for exposing developing leaders to new ideas and knowledge. It is at the workplace, however, that these ideas have to be tried and implemented. To this end some companies use independent coaches to guide promising new leaders. These coaches make no decisions. They simply act to motivate their clients, to make them think before acting and to be their sounding boards.

Strong leaders at all levels are one of the most important criteria for success in the modern competitive business environment. Without efficient leaders companies soon flounder and fail. Developing potential leaders should therefore be a high priority for every employer.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment