The American Society for Training & Development (ASTD) estimates that organizations in the United States spend more than $165 billion on training for employees. However, leadership development accounts for only 15% of that amount. Here’s four reasons why you should be looking to increase your leadership development budget.
Leaders are key to employee satisfaction
Employees don’t leave organizations they leave their boss. A positive relationship between a manager and the people in their direct team creates the backbone for a robust, effective organization. A recent study cited by Forbes showed that of 20,000 employees interviewed the second most important driver for employee satisfaction at work after job alignment, was the relationship they had with their immediate supervisor or manager.
The higher the rate of employee satisfaction the lower the turnover rate, the higher productivity rate, leading to increased profitability for your business.
Engaged employees are more productive employees
When employees are engaged at work, they feel a connection with the organization. They believe that the work they’re doing is important and therefore work harder. As Daniel Pink said in his work supporting his Drive Theory, a feeling of purpose in something bigger than simply themselves, motivates employees to give of their best.
Writing in Forbes, Ann Latham explains: “Employees who are succeeding and feeling good about their contributions to your company are naturally more likely to be proud to work for your company, be happy to come to work each day, and feel valued.”
Effective leaders are able to find ways to engage people, through setting them stretching challenger or giving more responsibilities, which means they’re also finding ways to boost the organization’s productivity.
The most effective leaders are also great performance coaches
Leaders should not underestimate the impact of how their ability to be an effective coach impacts their employees. Effective coaching often creates a fundamental shift in the employee’s approach to work. This shift in attitude results in:
Enabling employees to be more resilient and assertive.
Empowering individuals and encourages them to take responsibility
Increasing employee engagement
Improving individual and team performance
Identifying and developing high potential employees
Motivating individuals to excel Your leadership bench strength may not be deep enough
In a recent survey of over 200 North American organizations, over 60% said they did not have sufficient leadership successors in the pipeline. That means that a large number of today’s organizations are facing a tough challenge when the current group of Boomers start to retire over the next 5 to 10 years. Is your organization in this position? Do you have sufficient leadership bench strength prepared for smooth leadership transition to fill the knowledge/skills gap retiring Boomers will create. If not, this could spell trouble for your organization.
So, are you spending enough money on leadership development?Because leadership development is perhaps the one category in your training budget with the longest, widest reach.
Bluegem Learning, in partnership with Corporate Culture Shift has developed a systematic program to assist managers at all levels to develop the essential leadership skills they need to effectively.
The Leadership Success Series is a workshop series truly unique in it’s inception...
Each individual workshop is designed to provide experiential learning to managers with the aim to improve in four key areas:
Knowledge (yes, we still provide EDUCATION your managers need to grow in their position)
Skills (we provide hands on training and give participants the opportunity to practice in safe settings through the use of tools like live actors and personal coaching
Attitude (it all starts here. We get your managers excited about being the best leaders they can be)
Behaviours (we focus on long term change so that participants leave each workshop with the foundation for new habits and ways of doing things.
For further information check out our website www.bluegemlearning.com