Most organizations recognize that effective leaders net better results. And yet, not all act on that need or invest time and energy into developing leaders. There are plenty of reasons including ineffective prioritization, poor results from past leadership development efforts, and, well, there is always a crisis to manage…
While there are plenty of things you can do, many of them require planning, effort and financial investments. Here are five things you can do today to start developing your leaders at no or very little cost. And – good news – some of them may get you more lasting results than the more expensive and time-consuming processes.
Ask leaders what they need
This does (at least) three important things. First, it lets them know you care about their needs and development. Second, understanding their needs helps you find specific ways to help them. Lastly, discussion helps them acknowledge their needs and take the first step toward finding solutions for themselves.
Start a book club
Pick a book on a topic relevant to the needs you hear from leaders. Or better yet, let them select the book themselves. Let the group own the process of reading and discussing the book and applying the lessons they learn. What about for the non-readers? Have those in the club share the big ideas with others. This not only spreads those ideas/practices but improves the chances others join for the next book.
Create peer learning partnerships
Encourage people to have a learning partner. Leadership can be lonely work. Having someone else in the organization coach and mentor can be a powerful way to encourage leaders to grow and try new things. We often use these partnerships in conjunction with formal learning processes, but they don’t have to be. Encourage people to partner with colleagues from other departments and facilitate the pairings as needed.
Provide coaching
Leaders need coaching too. Sure, you can use internal or external coaches, but you likely can’t start that today. You can encourage/influence/urge the leaders of leaders to have coaching sessions with those they lead. This can create personalized development, and both the mentor and the mentee grow.
Leverage free content
The proliferation of free content on leadership topics is astounding. While the quality varies, the amount that is top notch is incredible (humbly, I hope we are your list). Find short videos, articles, podcasts, or other content to share with other leaders in your organization. (You can find all of those things right here on this blog!) These can be fodder for the peer partners and coaches, or just regular feeding of solid content to your leaders.
Developing leaders is an activity that belongs to the entire organization. But if you are the leader of a department or a division, you can implement any (all) of these ideas immediately. Increased leadership skills, confidence, and organizational results can begin today with these low/no cost investments.
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