Creating a leadership development plan/framework

A leadership development plan is essential to learn that a company has an efficient pipeline of dedicated future leaders. The consistent advancement and success of a company are linked to the constant growth and development of its leadership. Creating a well-defined leadership development plan helps shape the right steps to know and nurture the new generation of leaders in a company.

What is a leadership development plan?

A leadership development plan is a tactical planning frame to help employees acquire and develop leadership skills and prepare them for a company’s effective leadership and management roles.

The plan is well-structured, properly outlined, and aligned with the organization’s goals. It is long-term and customized for the individual needs of an employee and the company. It defines learning goals, and activities employees should follow to gain leadership qualities to lead their company well.

Why is a leadership development plan important?

As per the studies done by Conference Board, Bersin by Deloitte, and McBassi and Company, Leadership development is a highly pressing problem that companies face today. Leadership is of grave importance because it represents a chance for companies to gain a competitive edge in their sector.

Suppose a business is dedicated to developing leaders in its company. In that case, it will notice a major competitive benefit by advancing the bottom line:

• Attracting
• Evolving and retaining the workforce
• Promoting strategy implementation and enhancing success while bringing change

A leadership development plan prepares employees for future leadership responsibilities. 

• Leadership development promotes sustained growth and success

So, what makes a leadership development plan so essential? As per a study, leadership development allows companies to do four main things that initiate sustained success:

1.Enhance bottom-line monetary performance

Organizations that invest in human capital offer stock market returns almost five times more than those companies that don’t invest in human capital. Leadership development develops the ability to lower expenses, promote new ways of income and enhance customer satisfaction.

2. Hire, develop and preserve talent

Leadership development promotes workforce engagement, enhances the company’s capacity to handle the talent pipeline’s challenges, and lowers the problem and expenses linked with turnover. 

Major leaders attract, hire and motivate their teams. Management with no major leadership abilities will fight to hire and preserve its best-performing employees.

Also, it is often less costly to train, coach, and develop a team internally in the long run than hiring someone from outside, making leadership development an efficient investment.

3. Promote strategy implementation

Efficient leadership development is not just for one’s sake. Companies require a leadership strategy that links with business strategy and empowers workers with the leadership abilities needed to execute them. Leadership development program helps companies shape their work culture and business strategy.

4. Add to successfully navigating change

Leadership development enhances a person’s capability to work in a disruptive environment. When companies look ahead to developing high potentials and managers to unlock the abilities of their complete workforce, agility is enhanced.

Who can benefit from a leadership development plan?

A business includes leaders, managers, and employees who benefit from a leadership development plan in many ways. 

The Leader

For leaders, leadership development coaching is not about learning leadership guidelines but about how to pass them on to others. While leaders can gain knowledge about leadership principles, the training enforces training tactics into their skillset. 

When your company has prominent leaders, you look ahead to expand the abilities of your workforce; motivating leaders to choose leadership training can aid your business.

It helps leaders know how to coach, train, efficiently interact and showcase confidence in leadership training. As leaders have great communication abilities, leadership coaching helps them understand how to create specialized presentations.

The Manager

Managers may require leadership training to coach the workforce. They choose leadership workshops, offline and online coaching, and seminars to boost their leadership abilities. Some leadership abilities help managers with good communication, confidence, interpersonal abilities, presentation, and emotional intelligence. 

The Employee

• Enhanced workplace efficiency: Leadership abilities help employees communicate efficiently, work as a progressive team, and accept change. If employees are coached well, they can understand these changes better by communicating with their managers and boosting their productivity.
• Management communication: Interaction between managers and employees helps employees in their work. Even though employees are not in a leadership position, the skills will help them understand a manager’s perspective, motives, and goals.
• Future presentation: With time, leaders and management change. By preparing a workforce with leadership development, you help them prepare to be future leaders for your business.
• Represent your business: Leadership coaching offers employees a chance to refine and equip employees. They can interact and take the initiative to represent your business in a better way. 

These are a few company members that benefit from a leadership development plan. Let’s find out how an organization can benefit from it.

How does your organization benefit from a leadership development plan?

Leadership development coaching can benefit an organization in several ways:

Enhanced productivity

Managers trained to become future leaders can enhance their aggregate workforce productivity. Good leaders can offer better instructions to staff, measure challenges, and render creative solutions. Leadership helps managers anticipate goal expectations, draft plans, and develop teams to reach goals. 

Lower staff turnover

Employees given higher responsibilities in a company enjoy higher organizational loyalty. Training employees lower the costs of new appointments, advertising, and fees of recruitment agencies. A manager with zero leadership principles will directly impact an organization’s turnover rate.

Develop future leaders

Investing in human capital by choosing an appropriate leadership development plan can help you develop future leaders. Leadership training boosts businesses’ and employees’ futures effectively.

Better risk management

Employees undergoing leadership training know ways to handle risk and make decisions valuable to their business. Leadership training also enhances the strategic ability of workers, making them valuable assets for any business.

Lead projects

With efficient leadership abilities, leaders can manage projects effectively. Prominent leaders can complete a project on schedule and enhance profits. With abled leaders over projects, team morale may also rise to meet deadlines successfully.

Enhanced work culture

When a company chooses leadership coaching, it shows the employee that it cares about their progress and wants them to be successful. Coaching employees enhances their morale and makes your business a better place to work in. It helps companies reinforce their values.

Handles change

A leadership development plan trains the workforce to manage changes in the consistently changing market. It prepares your company for unexpected market changes.

Improves teamwork

Leadership coaching helps every employee by helping them understand their leader’s decision well. It leads to improvised teamwork, quicker decisions, and a cohesive workforce. 

How can your employees benefit from a leadership development plan?

• Your employees become efficient decision-makers

When done appropriately, leadership training for the workforce teaches them to measure the risks, advantages, challenges, and benefits and predict several possible results.

Applying the thought process in your work helps develop soft skills in the business. Managers and executives need to take ownership[. But, imagine, if the employees are trained in this mindset, how smooth your daily business operations would get.

Leadership training is not just useful for those who lead others. Leaders use discipline, self-reliance, self-awareness, and sufficiency. Employees who undergo the training learn about applying this forward thinking and become more decisive. The advantages of leadership training for employees are extensive. 

Owning a trained workforce is the first step toward success for any business. Employees who are good decision-makers are the true foundation of a successful business, irrespective of their industry. 

• Your employees are better equipped to manage the unexpected.

Leadership is essential in business when you think of evaluating and handling risks. And, it doesn’t include just current leaders, but team managers and employees- almost anyone in a company. 

Training a workforce indiscriminately with leadership abilities is the ability to eliminate future risks. When key information is shared with every person in an organization, knowledge is transferred, and risks of operations coming to a stop are reduced significantly.  

• Attract and retain talent

Regardless of the industry, employee turnover is expensive. So, it is essential to keep the turnover rates low to avoid unwanted expenses. 

Leadership development in the workplace will help employees look for ways to grow and sharpen their abilities at minimal expense. By choosing a corporate leadership program, you offer them a reason to join and stay in one company happily. It also helps discover talent under your roof and preserve them there. 

Framework for a leadership development plan

Irrespective of the leadership market being around $366 billion, there is a lack of science to acknowledge the specific leadership competencies that can positively affect organizational performance.

The absence of a blueprint makes the leadership assessment process complex. Hence, you should have a proper framework for a leadership development plan. Here are your options:

• Context is important

The type of leadership development framework you want depends on your context. The need for an MNC with thousands of workers will not be the same as a scale-up company. Hence, it is recommended to have a basic model in action that defines how managers should lead.

• Concentrate on the end goals

Concentrating on the organizational goals and the workplace culture you want to develop, you can develop a framework that will help you accomplish those objectives soon.

• Know the expected leadership competencies

Identify the abilities, talent, and behaviour a company’s leader should possess to accomplish goals and work culture. It is suggested to keep things simple. Companies don’t get the best results from complex frameworks.

• Offer feedback about the leadership model

Evaluations can highlight leaders’ strengths and weaknesses and highlight the abilities and behaviours they should adopt. 

Eventually, you want to develop a feedback culture where leaders consistently provide constructive feedback on how well employees are growing with expected leadership competencies.

• Select a model aligned to your strategy

A one-size-fits-all leadership framework is not feasible for all companies. There are different models recommended for different companies:

• Purpose-dependent models: They focus on leadership roles in search of a purpose. The motives are beyond profits here.
• Value-dependent models: The models are designed on the company’s underlying values.
• Competency-dependent models: The models are designed on underlying skills.
• Theoretical models: Models are designed depending on what a perfect should be.

The leadership analysis results will help you know which framework works for you. Different frameworks include different attributes to help make leadership more effective. It depends on the specific context or condition.

While it is important to get the right framework, you should also know how to implement a leadership development plan effectively.

Implementing a leadership development plan

• Link the program goals to business goals

Ensure your leadership development program goals are aligned with your business’s strategic goals. Review your company’s strategic priorities and consider the abilities your leaders need to acquire them. Have a clear vision of how the skills you aim to develop in your leadership development program link to the company’s leadership roadmap.

• Develop a learning journey needed for your team

Ensure the kind of learning journey you want for your team. What do you expect your leaders to do, and the behavior you want to develop? 

Consider the format you need to develop depending on your learner’s requirements, needs, and preferences. Do you need an external or internal coach if you want an in-person or virtual learning journey? 

• Provide managers with tools to help learners succeed

Besides getting your sponsors and allies on board, involve the managers to support and reinforce the program. The sessions help managers support the participants and make it simpler for managers of learners to succeed. It also helps managers understand how important the program is for the success of their business. 

• Discover the elements which need to be adjusted and the ones that need to be consistent

A major lesson for implementing a leadership development plan is to decide which elements should be consistent and what needs to be changed. 

So, it is important to acknowledge the central core, which should be consistently taught to ensure leadership consistently grows. It will make the learners more engaged and retain them. 

Checklist for implementing a leadership development plan

• Know the leaders of your organization

1. The formal committee such as officers, executives, and managers
2. The informal group, such as volunteers

• Know who will host the leadership development process
• Add leadership development in strategic planning
• Choose if you need a formal plan
• Form a search committee to develop a database of members needing the program
• Ask questions to candidates regarding their interest, capacity, etc.
• Develop a list of candidates
• Acknowledge coaches for candidates

Pitfalls to avoid while implementing a leadership development plan

83% of companies accepted that developing leadership at all stages is essential. However, only 5% have implemented it. 

To take on the abilities a company needs, employers should avoid leadership development pitfalls given below:

• Thinking leadership development is not a big deal. 
• Practicing pre-planned teaching schedules
• Lack of instilling confidence
• Teaching just one way to lead
• Offering leadership development for current needs
• Lack of an adaptive and consistently evolving plan

How can uExcelerate help organizations and employees set up a leadership development plan?

uExcelerate takes the Leadership Development Journey to a whole new level. uExcelerate works to recognize your developmental goals and then establishes a customized program to fit your needs. 

One of uExcelerate’s biggest objectives is to help employees, leaders, and managers realise their full potential and unlock the leader within. The AI-based coaching platform provides on-demand online coaching programs to organizations to help their leaders achieve personal transformation and organizational goals.

The leadership development platform offers customized programs for organizations and employees by addressing their skill development requirements through one-on-one or group coaching. 

At uExcelerate, we enhance the best qualities in leaders and help them emerge as top performers to do their best in their respective fields. The leadership programs help learners identify their strengths and understand their weaknesses so that they can rise above them. So join us and instill a leadership coaching culture in your company to hone the skills of your future leaders. Contact us at [email protected] to find out more. 

Conclusion

Leadership development has become a major requirement for companies to gain a competitive edge and become known in their sectors. Finding the best program for your company to boost specific leadership skills may take some trial and error. However, with the help of uExcelerate you can create leadership programs that prepare leaders to excel in their field and lead employees with remarkable productivity.

So, go ahead and find the best leadership development plan for your company and make the most of it.