Does a good employee make an excellent leader? Well, this chicken-and-egg question has no clear-cut answer. However, one thing is clear – a good employee can be a great leader if they have the knowledge or have undergone leadership training. So, in this blog, we will talk about the top reasons why Leadership Training is important for all employees.
- Why Everyone Needs a Leadership Training
- How Leadership Training Helps Your Employee
1. Improves Decision Making
2. Increases Productivity
3. Increases Employee Engagement
4. Improves Structure and Organization
5. Equips Employees to Handle Risks - Conclusion
Why Does Everyone Need Leadership Training?
A 2017 research says that while leadership training causes an increase of 28% in leadership behaviors, the overall performance also improves by 20%.
While it is only natural to expect an improvement in leadership capability, this research also shows one more thing about leadership training. It clearly proves that providing leadership training to entry-level employees can increase their individual performance and smoothen the workflow.
How Leadership Training Can Help Employees?
An employee trained in leadership will not only become better at executing their tasks but also become a higher value asset to your organization. Mentioned below are some of the importance of leadership that benefit your employee and business.
1. Improves Decision Making
No matter your experience level, you must have the ability to make decisions efficiently and effectively. With the help of leadership training, you will be able to learn about the complete leadership process, right from aspects that constitute a “good” decision, to understand the pivotal role social, political, and economic factors play in the process. Also, you can improve both individual and group decision-making and inspire a mindset of inquiry within your organization.
2. Increases Productivity
What does an individual need when stuck in a tricky situation? Timely guidance? Precise assessment of problems? Practical solutions? The truth is, all three of these are equally important, and a trained leader can come up with all of them in no time. Providing leadership training to the employees hence multiplies the productivity of the business.
Also, an employee who has undergone leadership training would be keen on taking their career to higher levels and will put in more effort to enhance their performance. A person working towards their individual goal, along with the company’s, will have a higher level of motivation.
3. Increases Employee Engagement
The odds of employee engagement go up by a whopping 845% when leaders connect their people to a common purpose or each other. And it is leadership training that develops employees into individuals who can get everyone on the same page.
From an organizational point of view, when the employer invests in the employees’ training, they pay back in engagement and enthusiasm. Not to mention the fact that it is always more economical for the company to train and upskill existing employees than to hire new ones.
4. Improves Structure and Organization
In a classic setting, most companies have a pyramidal structure of leadership, where the who’s who of the company would be at the top. As the pyramid widens down, they will be followed by General Managers, Managers, and at the end, employees. Though this linear structure is old and tested, it has also been seen that organizations with collective leadership are more likely to make better informed and more employee-centric decisions.
Collective leadership is when a team is led by more than one person in a hierarchical way. Leadership training to more employees will create a flat workforce structure and the information will be spread out more evenly in the employees. This will also make the employees feel more valued and heighten their motivation levels.
Also Read: Leadership theories
5. Equips Employees to Handle Risks
It is a known fact that businesses and risks go hand-in-hand. It might lead one to wonder, “how do businesses sustain, then?” Effective risk management is the answer. No matter what level of responsibilities an employee handles, it is crucial to manage risks. And leadership training provides them with the skills and prepares them to deal with the threats coming their way.
Moreover, knowing the tricks and trade of risk management can help an employee map out all potential risks and then work to prevent them or best manage them. It is impossible to anticipate every small possible risk scenario and address them, but a risk manager makes unpleasant surprises less likely and severe.
Conclusion
The process to create leaders cannot be completed overnight, and leadership training requires both time and money. But this investment will yield immense results with higher productivity, a better work environment, and greater profits being some of the key outcomes.
If you’re wondering where to get one such program for yourselves, you can check the NUS Future Leaders Program offered by Asia’s No.1 Business School, which is tailormade to create future leaders.
