How to Maximize Leadership Development Plans in Business

What is a Leadership Development Plan

LDPs often happen informally, through conversations and individual goals. There is however a formal way to plan for an employee’s leadership development that adds clarity and intention, leading to more success for your business and the individual.

A formal LDP is best understood through the following steps:

1. Identify which employees are capable and actively seeking more responsibility through leadership roles. You may have high performers who are happy where they are, or you may have employees who seek growth but need more experience before they are ready for a new role. More on how to identify candidates later…
2. Gain an understanding of where the employee is currently in their skills and knowledge. This includes strengths, weaknesses, and interests to build on. This can be accomplished through their direct supervisor’s observations and self-assessments.
3. Set realistic goals with the employee. Work together with the employee to understand where they would like to be within a given time frame and what the organization needs. There might be a gap between these two items, the organization might need a certain skill set or position filled that the employee has no interest in pursuing. By understanding each other’s goals, you can maximize your employees’ potential for mutual benefit.
4. Lastly, create action items and provide leadership training for the employee to gain the necessary skills and experience for their next role. This could be through education, job shadowing, self-learning, taking on additional tasks, or enrolling them in a leadership development program such as TEC Advancing Leaders or TEC KEY Executive

Why Leadership Development Plans are Important for Businesses

Covering all your bases when it comes to organizational strategy is essential for SMEs to remain competitive. It creates an efficient and happy place to work where employees feel valued and find purpose in their work.

In the fast-paced business environment, employees are changing jobs more than ever, approximately every 36 months. Retaining employees can be challenging, especially the good ones. Having a plan and knowing their leadership goals within the organization can help them see growth rather than a ceiling, leading to greater retention.

How to Determine Who Is Capable of Leadership

There are innumerable ways to define the traits that make up a good leader. However, in Jim Collins’s book From Good to Great, he defines Level 5 Leaders as the best people for the job. In various case studies, he examined companies that achieved long-term, unprecedented growth, all of which had level 5 leaders at the helm.

According to Collins, the following character traits are most important in level 5 leaders:

• Humility
• Ambition

And that’s it!

These two traits may seem contradictory, which they are, but it is what makes level 5 leaders special. They have ferocious ambition, not to lift themselves to a higher level, but to lift their organization and community to its highest potential. Their ambition is not tied to themselves but to those around them, which creates a collaborative environment rather than a top-down dictatorship.

They have confidence in their ability to lead, but the humility to understand that being a leader is not about them. Personalities such as these can be seen throughout history in leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Steve Jobs, Winston Churchill, and Martin Luther King.

Other traits that align with humility include being a good listener, a skilled collaborator, emotionally intelligent, empathetic, accountable, patient, and eager to learn.

Other traits that align with ambition include courage, focus, innovation, optimism, passion, resilience, respect, and eagerness to learn.

• Side note: Level 4 leaders have ambition but not humility.

When identifying who in your company can lead, the right combination of humility and ambition might be the key.

Types of Leadership Styles

Aside from assessing character when choosing who to develop, it might be useful to examine your current business challenges and promote within accordingly. Different leadership styles will be useful for different scenarios.

While many sources state that there are anywhere between 4 and 10 different leadership styles, truthfully, everyone has nuances that will make them a unique blend of styles. That being said, it’s important to know the common and effective styles and see which you require.

According to psychologist Daniel Goleman, these are the main six types of leadership styles:

• Coercive leadership style demands immediate compliance (likely a level 4 leader).
• Authoritative leadership style mobilizes people toward a vision.
• Pacesetting leadership style expects excellence and self-direction.
• Affiliative leadership style centers around building emotional bonds.
• Democratic leadership style creates consensus.
• Coaching leadership style focuses on developing people for the future.

Different circumstances will require different approaches and leadership. The best leaders can take on the style needed for each purpose. However, most will lean toward one style above the others.

• Side note: All of the above (aside from the Coercive style) could be level 5 leaders, it depends largely on the individual’s values and personality.

Matching Styles

When developing an LDP, understanding where your company stands and the challenges it’s likely to face will help you bring the right candidate forward. For example, if you are experiencing headwinds in your industry, a drastic change carried forward by a coercive or authoritative team leader might be necessary. If you see opportunities to expand your company in the future, a coaching, pacesetting, or democratic leader could be a good choice. If you see cracks forming in the culture of your company, an affiliative leader can help bring people together.

It’s also important to note that some of these leadership styles can be damaging to an organization if they are employed at the wrong time. A coercive leader might help make necessary cuts to streamline a business, but they might not be a long-term choice when building culture and inspiring innovation.