When you become a leader, whether it be that of a small team or a large company, the prospect is always daunting. Leadership is always a large responsibility and it can be a crushing burden if not handled properly. History is littered with leaders who weren't able to handle the pressure. Thankfully, we've learned a few things from history – which is where leadership development programs come in.
Being a good leader is not a trait that's spread out in the human population. It's kind of like being a good soccer player or a good player. Some people have the natural talent to be a leader. Some people need a little push in the right direction. The problem with being suddenly handed the big chair is that, unless you've had previous experience, you might not know which of the two are you.
Which is why most employers initiate leadership development programs for those who are in a management position. You might be confident enough in your leadership abilities but those higher-up have to make sure that you are doing the best that you can at the job. The following are two reasons why leadership development programs are good for you:
a) Better self-assessment – Most of the time we're often blind to our own faults. A cursory self-examination will always come up with the result that you may not be perfect but you're not that bad. That's a completely wrong way to do it. When evaluating yourself, you need to be your own worst critic. This is mostly because most other people are not as forgiving of your own faults.
Having a faulty high opinion of oneself is a recipe for disaster – everyone's heard of the arrogant boss or supervisor. You should identify your personal shortcomings before your subordinates do and do something about them. Leadership development programs have a strict self-assessment portion that helps you do this. Additionally, the professional counselors who run these programs can help open your eyes to any troublesome personality traits or habits that you may have.
b)A more aware learning experience – Most leaders learn on-the-job. It's not exactly optimal but sometimes the best way to learn something is to experience it. These learning experiences are often problems at work. The problem with experiencing crises it is sometimes we don't think of it as a learning experience and just pass it off as being part of the job. They do not care to examine deeper into the problem.
This is why they do the same mistakes that resulted in the situation in the first place. Leadership development programs usually give you a better handle on these incidents. A more positive outlook and an inquisitive mind are what these programs encourage and they often result in leaders who know how to identify roots of problems and eliminate them at that level.
There are, of course, several other reasons why you should join leadership development programs but these two are the primary ones. Enter one as soon as possible and prepare to learn to become a better leader.
Today, there seems to be a clear movement in viewing leadership and leadership development not only in terms of leader attributes, skills and traits. Lately, competencies (or requirements) seem to be the center of focus.
In other organizations, leadership competencies have even become the core dimension of leadership development activities.
Competencies
Recently, a 2002 study found that leading-edge companies define leadership by a set of competencies. These are now used to guide leadership development at all levels.
By the same token, a majority of organizations have, on their own, identified and defined the characteristics and qualities of successful leaders.
The question now at hand is this: How then are competencies used in a most effective way in leadership development?
Strategies and business models
In the past, leadership development programs that were put into action had not been very successful in bringing profound changes. This brought a change in perspective among those who implemented them.
Organizations began to develop leaders and leadership competencies that matched and were specific to their particular business challenges and goals. Leadership competencies were then fitted to a best-practice organization’s particular strategy and its business model.
Individual application
Needless to say, this particular perspective had also been implemented and brought to the individual level. This is in answer to the argument that it is not likely for all leaders to possess the same set of competencies to make themselves or the organization a success.
The new perspective is this: Leaders should not be accountable for their particular set of behaviors. Rather, they are to be held responsible only for the desired outcomes.
Beyond competencies
This new perspective goes beyond competencies. The competencies have a tendency to focus on what needs to be fixed rather than attention on the whole person.
In addition, focus is also placed on people’s strengths and natural abilities, and not just on competencies that can sometimes border on the eccentric. Today, development is viewed as leveraging your strengths and minimizing the impact of weaknesses.
Health and leadership
Well-being and individual health at work are also brought out as issues of growing interest and attention, including their relevance to leadership. One question is the relentless stress of constant change and competition in the workplace.
Managing stress and personal styles in avoiding burn-outs are also becoming additional factors to integrate in leadership development. One known factor is that leadership effectiveness is correlated with better health and exercising.
Work and family
Another challenge for leadership development that veers away from standard competencies is the competing demands of career and personal/family life. It had also been recognized that a person’s work and personal life have mutual effects on each other.
At present, there is a need to understand which factors about organizational life are challenged by the concept of work/life integration. There is also a need to pinpoint organizational changes to make way for greater work/life integration.
Leadership effectiveness
So far, the effectiveness of individual leaders is enhanced when they manage multiple roles at home. In leadership development, it is imperative that we continue to learn not just more about organizational benefits but also the benefits a person brings to family and the community as well.