Studies show that in organization, a strong sense of leadership is a must for its operations to run smoothly. It is for this reason that many companies now offer leadership development to potential leaders in various business organizations and also for people who would want to discover the inner leaders in them.
Leadership development pertains to activities that help a person enhance his or her leadership skills. This can either be through formal seminars or in other means such as a team building activity or a retreat. No matter what type of leadership development is preferred—the formal or the laidback setting—experts say that there is one surefire way to get the best our of people. This is by helping them discover the power of self motivation.
A different leadership development approach
Leadership is effective when an organization runs orderly and its people are working in a harmonious setting. This type of leadership, say experts, can be achieved only if the leader is motivated towards one common goal to success.
Studies show that leadership development that incorporates the concept of self-motivation is far more effective because it helps the person look forward to better things in life. These days, there are less effective leaders because many of them have lost their innate means of motivating themselves. When motivation to accomplish a certain goal has diminished, it would be easier for a leader or a potential leader to just give up and live a remorseful life filled with negative things.
Today, more and more people who conduct leadership development try to incorporate motivating the participants because this is one of the keys in helping people get rid of negative emotions. When people are cleared from negative vibes, they will be able to think more clearly and would be able to see things in a positive way.
Helping individuals discover the inner leaders in them
One of the factors that hinder people to lead better is their personal issues and problems. If you are conducting leadership development, it would be best to address the problems of potential leaders and help them motivate themselves.
You can tell them to slow down and set their own pace. Although it is sometimes healthy to be competitive in terms of achieving goals, there would always be times when people will get tired of running after so many things because they don’t want other people to finish before they do. More often than not, people who compare themselves with others are the ones who are left behind without anything because they spend too much time thinking how they could outlast the other person, thus, neglecting his or her own priorities.
To help that person motivate him or herself to be a better leader during leadership development, it would be best that they understand the importance of self-motivation so they won’t feel too much pressure. Tell them that this is beneficial for them because they can rest whenever they want to since nobody is breathing down their necks to finish something.
The problem with being a leader is that it can be often a burden. This is because it's a hard thing to be responsible for other people. Most people try to avoid responsibility as much as they can. However, sometimes, you're drafted into being the head honcho of a team. It can be a small group of people or maybe even an entire department, but the pressure is all the same for you to lead them to success. This pressure to succeed is why leadership development programs are highly in demand nowadays.
Leadership development may sound like some archaic business buzzword but all it boils down to is that leadership can be trained into people. Of course, this is a fact – leading people is a skill like any other and can be taught. Some people are naturally skilled in it but not everyone can be Napoleon or Alexander the Great. Leadership development seeks to inculcate skills and values that will help you lead successfully. How does it do this?
First of all, leadership development focuses on planning. This is why you notice that most programs like these emphasize you to develop a personal plan for yourself. Plans are generally very helpful – like the old saw says “Measure twice and cut once”, it means that you have a clearly defined path to follow. This way there will be no confusion on the way you have to go to improve yourself.
Next, leadership development emphasizes strict self-assessment. People often say that they know enough about themselves but that is, most of the time, wrong. This is because most people like to think well of themselves – they don't like to get into the nitty-gritty details of their personality. This is why self-reflection is often unpopular – people would rather point out other people's faults than having their problematic traits pointed out to them.
Leadership development counselors are strict about you identifying your faults because it will help you deal with them in the future. People need a leader who can inspire them to do their best. A fumbling idiot or an arrogant micromanager is not an inspirational sight. The ability to recognize the problematic aspects of your personality and to either minimize or remove them is one of the hallmarks of good leadership.
Finally, leadership development isn't all just about navel-gazing. It's also about learning skills that are helpful in your job as leader. Some of these skills are administrative ones like balancing a schedule or writing an assessment report. Some of them are about interpersonal skills; part of being a good leader is being able to relate to your subordinates in a way that does not stifle them. Learning how to establish a positive rapport with your team is something that is very useful for a leader. Leadership development also teach you how to bring out the best in others – coaching and developing talent is an integral part of making a world-class team.
That's what leadership development is all about in the end – being able to do your best and to be able to get the best out of others.