Your Company’s Leadership Development Program Starts Tomorrow
My client’s company is experiencing significant growth and the management team is being pushed into new challenges. While everybody’s massively committed to the mission, vision and principles, and the culture is thriving, the team’s lack of experience at this level of the game is beginning to be felt.
I’m a huge believer in defining organizational leadership competencies at growth stage organizations. Implementing them for each level of management and as a baseline for individual contributors is a process that supports scale, facilitates hiring and sets the foundation for proactive bench development. This, in turn, increases the ability to promote from within and reduces turnover. These days when it’s already hard to find great candidates from the outside, it’s an even greater win when our team members can rise to new challenges with a less steep learning curve and greater confidence. It’s one of my favorite things to help growing brands understand and implement because when properly executed, it builds loyalty, deepens culture, and helps everybody rise. And, as a company grows and when it has the budget, sending key executives to places like the Center for Creative Leadership is a great way to get them their high-level development, especially as companies professionalize and more experienced executives join the group.
But what if you’re small? What if you don’t have the time, resources or even enough of a roster or track record to know what the competencies should be? How do you set benchmarks and get your scrappy leadership team the vitamins they need to get to the next level and stay ahead of the required learning curve? How do you keep them engaged and also meet the demands of the increasing complexities they’re facing? If this is you, try 4 great short chapter books and some good food! If you don’t have the bandwidth, budget or the knowhow to put together a leadership development program, then please spend $50 on these books and have lunch with your people once a month. We did this for years, even had mentors and buddies assigned to do micro-book clubs. I promise it’ll pay dividends.
With each chapter at about 2 to 3 pages, John gives us the key ingredients to train and inspire young leaders. Flip through the book to find a topic that’s important to your underling. Assign the reading and have them come back to you to let you know what they learned about the competency and what they learned about themselves. This will prompt meaningful conversations and create deeper connections. This is also a great chance for them to take an active role in their own development and for you to get reconnected to these vital concepts as well as to embody your role as Chief Education Officer.
Getting Things Done — The Art of Stress-free Productivity — David Allen
For those on your team who are strained by a need to get more efficient in managing their time and self-organization, share this practical book and have them come back with a plan on how they’re going to be more effective going forward. It’s hugely rewarding as they gain momentum, learn how to prioritize (in all areas), stay focused and get more done.
Getting Out of Your Own Way at Work — Mark Goulston, PhD
Again, short chapters describe the typical human to human issues that come up in the workplace. This book gives such practical advice and is written in such a naturally inclusive way, you’ll want to read it cover to cover. Have your team member read the chapter pertinent to the issue they’re having and present a potential solution to you. So much more self-confidence is generated when they feel like they’ve come up with the answer for themselves through their own research and thought.
Low Hanging Fruit — Jeremy Eden and Terri Long
Need to get your team thinking creatively about how to solve productivity or profitability issues? Lina O’Connor brought this book to our team years ago and I’ve been giving it to people ever since. This book is a great collection of clever thought-provoking chapters that will get the juices flowing and get your team talking. A great tool for a small company executive team or larger company’s director group.
Of course leadership development can take on many different forms. From the profoundly simple impact of MBWA, all the way to 9-Box assessments leading to fully fleshed out competency-based career path development plans and leadership coaching, our ability to deliver on-going personal and professional development to our team members is the highest commitment we can make to them — a pledge to support them becoming the best leaders they can be at work and at home.