For many business leaders, one of the most important things on their minds is their legacy. They know their time is limited and thus want to make sure their companies and organizations outlive them. Whether you are the president of a giant corporation or a small shop in your town, you don’t want this business to end when you are gone.
The best way to ensure your company’s future is to create other leaders, people who are capable of taking over and creating positive change. Here are four ways to develop leaders within your organization.
Promote Continuous Learning
Having a variety of skills in different business areas will never hurt your chances in the corporate world. If you can speak three languages instead of two, your products will penetrate a larger market. If, aside from management and negotiation skills, you possess marketing knowledge and sales experience, your career will go much further than somebody with only one or two abilities.
One of the most valuable things employees can get from the superiors is the opportunity to enhance existing qualities and learn extra ones. As a leader, it is your job to promote an environment of growth.
Whether you decide to hold in-house seminars or have your staff take useful courses at the Australian Skills Group is up to you. The key is letting your staff know that you care about them and wish to do whatever you can to help them become better versions of themselves.
Give People Chances to Lead
Imagine you are the head of a multi-national corporation and are currently engaged in a billion-dollar acquisition project with one of your main business partners. Would you let the first-year law school graduate you just hired handle the proceedings? Would he or she be granted the power to decide the terms and conditions of this legal process?
Anyone in the right mind would say no. Doing this would be both reckless and risky. Still, there are other instances in which you can allow younger employees to tackle leadership roles. For example, your first-year hire could attend some meetings and see how those with expertise handle different situations. You could also assign a mentorship role to one of your top salespeople, even temporarily.
Remember, leadership is not measured in size. Rather, it is about the ability to make decisions and guide others along the right track.
Put in Place a Career Path
There are many reasons why employees decide to jump ship and move to a different company. First, they are not satisfied with the management. They hate their bosses and would rather do pretty much anything else than spend more time with them.
Second, they have been offered a different position in another firm with a higher salary and more benefits.
Finally, they find themselves stuck in a dead-end job, one without room for improvement and growth. If you want to create leaders within your organization, you must have a clear, feasible career path for your workers to get to leadership positions. This path should include specific timelines and requirements. For instance, a junior accountant can become a senior accountant in two years and successfully produced 20 year-end financial reports.
If employees see where they are heading, they will be much more motivated in their daily tasks and driven to get there.
The Importance of Feedback
Some human resources experts believe the best approach to employee feedback is to give it twice a year. Others think it is better to do it every month, while a third group believes feedback should be given as often as possible.
As for what kind of feedback is best, opinions also differ. While one school of thought promotes a two-way method with both boss and employee participating, a second one agrees more with the notion of 360-degree feedback. This includes not only employees and bosses but also colleagues and customers.
As the saying goes, different strokes for different folks. The feedback method you decide to implement is based on various factors such as company size, department, or types of employees.
Even though this is important, the real value of feedback is two-fold. On the one hand, it highlights employee strengths and gives praise. On the other, it brings to attention areas for improvement, and most importantly, it shows how to do this.
These strategies could help you expand your organization when you recognize people who could help you grow it from within, and making sure they stay with you. By doing this, you are giving your firm the chance to thrive for many years to come