Here is a brief excerpt from an article by Anita Bowness for Halogen Software’s TalentSpace blog. To read the complete article, check out others, learn more about the firm, and sign up for email alerts, please click here.

* * *

Great leaders can make or break a company. They inspire, motivate, work with and coach others to achieve common goals or they do the complete opposite.

To be successful in their role, leaders need to have tools and resources made available to them to develop. After all, people aren’t necessarily born with leadership traits. Gallup’s State of the American Manager: Analytics and Advice for Leaders report found that great leaders share five attributes:

o They motivate employees.
o They are assertive when faced with challenges.
o They create a culture of accountability.
o They are good at creating trusting relationships.
o They make decisions for the good of their team and company after careful thought and planning.

The same report found that only one in 10 people have all five leadership traits. This tells us there’s clearly an opportunity for organizations to get ahead of the curve and develop the strength of its leaders.

We asked a few of our customers what development activities and programs they use to develop great leaders.

Here’s what two of five had to say!

1. Create a leadership engagement program: “Our Learning Engagement department built a new supervisor learning experience that completely orients any new supervisor we bring on board. The training allows us to show new leaders where all of our supervisor training material is and fosters constant interaction with both their staff and peers at the leadership level.”

Melanie Griffin
Special Assistant to HR
Richland County Public Library

2. Start a book club: “We recently started a leadership book club and one-third of the leaders volunteered to participate. All 22 leaders participated in the first session held during the lunch hour. The hour went by quickly and the conversation was engaging and action oriented. Originally, the plan was to meet once a month, but now the group wants to meet every three weeks because they see how powerful this group can be. As the training leader, there is nothing more gratifying than seeing leaders volunteer to be a part of learning activities. The group has developed action items that they as a group will work on individually with their teams and together to change thought processes and behaviors within the organization.”

Janice Love
Director Learning & Development
Swipe Health Services

* * *

There are many different ways to structure a leadership development program. But, the bottom line remains: Everyone wants to work for a great leader. Employees want to be treated with respect, compassion, and understanding. They also want to know that their work matters and want to be recognized for their efforts.

To be able to do this, frontline managers need development in key leadership skills to be able to understand their employees as individuals and help them succeed based on their own values, motivations, learning styles and preferred working conditions.

Being a great leader isn’t just going to happen. It takes work and the responsibility is split two ways. It’s up to organizations to present leaders with opportunities to develop key competencies. Then, it’s up to leaders to take any and all opportunities made available and make the most out of them.

* * *

Here is a direct link to the complete article.

Anita Bowness joined Halogen in 2014 with nearly 20 years’ experience in consulting and professional services, the majority of which has been spent enabling client organizations leverage the talent of their workforce to achieve desired strategic results. As a Business Consultant with Halogen, Anita draws upon her prior HR and consulting experience in the areas of recruitment, onboarding, performance management, learning and development, succession planning, organizational development, competency mapping and change management. Her consulting experience has spanned many sectors, including IT, government, defense, retail, telecommunications, healthcare, education, logistics and professional services. Anita holds a Bachelor of Commerce with a Major in HRM from the University of Ottawa, and a Masters in HRM from the University of Leeds.