Leadership development in the digital age

Leadership development is a key task for companies. It is the responsibility of corporate management and personnel development. The ability to motivate, inspire, and lead employees are crucial attributes for successful leaders. After all, it is good managers who to bring out the best in individual teams in order to increase productivity and bolster company success. So it is vitally important to invest in the development of your leaders. We show you six steps for developing your leaders, and point out the mistakes they make it easier for you to avoid.

Leadership development refers to the process of training managers in a company. This is a central responsibility of the human resources department. HR is responsible for planning, organizing, and delivering appropriate leadership development programs.  Continually developing your managers improves and expands their leadership skills and abilities. The aim is to ensure successful and efficient management for your company. Leadership development therefore focuses amongst other things on teaching leadership skills, expanding social skills, promoting communication skills, improving employee motivation, and strengthening leadership. The targeted development of executives ensures your company will remain competitive and future-proof.

Leadership development has enormous potential for companies that want to foster healthy growth. It is an important investment in your company’s future that brings long-term benefits.
Successful managers make a significant contribution to the success of a company. Competent managers are able to motivate and inspire their employees, communicate a clear vision, and create a positive culture at work. As a result, employees work more effectively and achieve better results, which is in turn reflected in higher sales and profits.
In addition, effective leadership development helps to reduce staff turnover. Employees who are led by competent executives usually feel more comfortable. They are more inclined to be loyal to the company. This significantly reduces the cost of hiring and training new employees. Bearing in mind the shortage of skilled workers, it is cheaper and more effective to train and develop managers internally instead of recruiting them. 
Leadership development creates a successful corporate culture, because managers have a major influence on it. They help to create a work environment that heightens employee satisfaction and productivity. Great leaders motivate their team to perform to the best of their ability. This also enhances your company’s reputation, attracts workers with expertise, and gives your company a competitive edge.

As a manager, one of the biggest challenges is balancing company expectations with employee needs. A leader must be able to set clear goals and expectations, while at the same time taking into account the individual needs and viewpoints of staff. This is a balancing act. Focusing too much on results can lead to employee needs being neglected. Focusing too much on employee needs, however, can lead to ineffective working and targets not being met. On the one hand, your managers need empathy in order to understand employees and their circumstances as well as possible. On the other hand, they must also be goal-oriented and good communicators, both with top management and their own team.
Executives are role models who lead by example. Not always an easy task. Leaders need to be able to earn their employees’ trust and respect. This means that they must themselves have a high degree of integrity and a sound set of ethics. They have to live and breathe the company’s values and rules. 
Particularly in these fast-paced times, leaders need to react quickly to change. They need to adapt their goals and even their leadership style if necessary. This requires flexibility and the ability to identify and manage risks.
Motivating your employees is one of the most important parts of a manager’s job. Recognizing employee strengths and cultivating them is an art in itself. It requires a great deal of empathy as well as the ability to deploy effective coaching and mentoring methods.
Last but not least, leaders need to press ahead with their own development. They must constantly work on their own skills and keep expanding their knowledge. This includes skills such as strategic thinking, problem solving, time management, and communication. Overall, leadership requires a set of competencies and skills that need to be continually developed and adapted.

As a rule, leadership development is the responsibility of human resource management (HR) and personnel development. They have an overview of the company’s needs and requirements. They develop targeted programs and initiatives to help leaders improve their skills and performance. HR and personnel development identify the people with the appropriate talents and identify the training courses and development opportunities they need. They help executives implement changes in the company and promote a positive corporate culture. In leadership development today, HR and personnel development play a facilitative and supportive role. They pave the way for employees who want to become managers, and support managers with further development.

The content of leadership development programs differs depending on the industry and the company. The new managers are prepared for all the important tasks and challenges that lie ahead in the company where they work. Roughly speaking, development programs can be divided into two areas: soft skills and hard skills.

Tip: Put together an individual learning plan and syllabus for each leader. Every individual has their own strengths and weaknesses that can be used as the basis for a successful development strategy. First determine what your prospective manager’s role will be going forwards. This will allow you to work out the hard and soft skills they need.

Leadership development methods are as diverse as prospective leaders’ needs. When selecting your method, take account of your managers’ individual strengths and weaknesses. The specifics of your company and your company culture are also important factors.

Young aspiring managers in particular can benefit enormously from a mentoring program. Mentors don’t have to come from the same company. External mentors can be very enriching, as they bring fresh perspectives. Internal mentors are great for showing aspiring leaders the ropes and familiarizing them with corporate culture. Mentor and mentee can exchange views both in real time and asynchronously. If you are constantly developing managers, it is worth setting up an in-house mentoring program. Create a platform for exchanging views. Asynchronous exchange should preferably take place on the platform, where training materials and other courses can also be found. For a mentoring program to be successful, mentor and mentee should compare notes continuously and on the basis of trust.

Tip: Use an LMS (learning management system) as a platform where future managers and their mentors can exchange views. This allows you to control all activities centrally.

Rather than having mentors, prospective managers learn from each other. They exchange ideas, share what they have learned, and spur each other on. This can happen in regular group meetings and/or asynchronously. However, the social component is very important to these methods. Allow participants to have regular video meetings or, even better, meet face to face.

As a rule, coaches focus on a specific area that needs to be worked on. They provide training in the form of regular sessions, for example dealing with negotiating skills, resilience, or assertiveness. Coaching is very valuable for working on a particular weakness or learning new soft skills. 

Tip: A digital conversation trainer enables prospective executives to hone their soft skills in a safe environment. It’s very easy to provide digital training on conflict management, for example. A useful addition to live coaching and role-playing exercises.

eLearning platforms are ideally suited to leadership development. Online courses, webinars, and interactive modules allow managers to learn at their own pace. With eLearning, you can hone your executives’ professional and methodological expertise, and social competence. Instead of having to organize complex face-to-face training courses, you facilitate a pleasant learning environment. Whether they’re in the office, at home, or on the train, your prospective managers will enjoy learning and do so at their own pace.

Tip: Instead of relying on external platforms, you can create your own eLearning courses in just a few steps. This allows you to strengthen your employees’ commitment to the intervention and adapt the content to suit the precise needs of your company. We will be happy to help you create your content.

As the name implies, aspiring leaders learn on the job in real-world work situations. The advantage here is that prospective managers are doing productive work as they train. Putting what they learn straight into practice. Ideally they will be given continuous feedback to enable them to learn quickly. In addition to soft skills, on-the-job training also builds professional competencies

Designing a leadership development program is complex and time-consuming. However, the result is pretty much always worth it: You are rewarded with highly trained executives who are experts not only in their field and in team leadership, but also in your company. They are deeply rooted in your corporate culture and communicate it to their team. Here are the key steps for designing a successful leadership development program:

To develop your leaders, you should avoid known stumbling blocks and use tried-and-tested methods. Here are the most important dos and don’ts for successful leadership development: