Why Do Leadership Training Programs Fail?

Effective and memorable leaders drive change within an organisation. They do not just uphold the status quo; instead, they challenge norms that may be losing relevance in today’s world.

If you wish to successfully lead your team, whether it be in business or in an educational institution, you need to understand how your style of leadership—whether it’s transformative, autocratic, or hands-off—affects those around you. While it is perfectly fine to follow a certain style as your default, you should still be able to change your approach depending on the context or situation you find yourself in.

For one thing, it is helpful to get to know your team and the role that you have in it. You can do this by holding regular meetings, reflecting on your progress, and investing in leadership coaching. Familiarising yourself with your team’s collective skills, the nature of your role, and your work objectives is key to becoming a successful leader. Indeed, understanding how these factors interact and how you affect them makes it easier to contextualise your leadership style. Done correctly, you can be sure to achieve the outcomes that you want.

Taking Care of Your People

Your organisation is only as strong as your team members are. As your team scales up, you will likely be hiring more people to join your team. This introduction of new people can pose a number of challenges that you need to help your team overcome.

As the leader, it is your job to facilitate this formation of a team dynamic. Your leadership style should be able to help form and maintain a professional but symbiotic relationship with your team members. When your staff is well-managed, motivated and understand their role in the organisation, your business can grow organically.

In order to keep your staff members’ spirits and productivity levels high, consistently using a coaching leadership style is quite beneficial. This style is more dynamic when compared to a commanding leadership style. Generally speaking, you’ll focus more on encouraging your team members to collaborate and develop their skills.

Additionally, you can use your leadership style for good by ensuring that your team members are supported and taken care of. However, knowing when to tighten the reins and be more commanding when tough calls have to be made is also an essential part of effective leadership.

Making Both Informed and Timely Decisions

Depending on the context of the situation, your leadership style will also have an impact on your decision-making skills. There will be many circumstances in which your team members will be looking to you for guidance and encouragement to help them keep going.

However, some decisions may require you to get input and suggestions from everyone in the company. This more democratic style of leadership is effective when you want to make an informed decision that is fair for all concerned parties.

However, using this leadership style can cause some situations to unnecessarily drag on and can lead to bigger problems in the process. As such, there will be times when you’ll have to decide on something on your own to avoid wasting time. In highly stressful situations, it is more urgent and important for you to decide on something right away to resolve the matter more quickly. If too much time is spent on the decision-making process, chaos may ensue. If there is a more pressing issue, you need to prioritise thinking quickly and being steadfast enough to come to a decision using your discretion.

Improving the Overall Performance of the Business

In order to keep operations on track for your business, you may have to implement new processes and procedures. This may result in an awkward period of adjustment as you and your staff members get used to these new protocols. However, you need to go beyond just scaling up and maintaining the usual rigour if you want to transform your business. You have to strive to make things better and aim for profitability and growth in the long term.

An effective leader is goal-oriented and does a good job of communicating that with their staff. When you set clear goals and ensure that your subordinates are aware of them, they have a strategic plan that they can align their own objectives with. As a result, the work with the greatest potential impact can be prioritised. Specific processes can also be maximised to increase productivity and profitability. If your goal is to boost the metrics of your business as a whole, the way you lead should be conducive to that.

Your leadership style can have lasting effects on your long term success. It can influence your teams’ morale and efficiency, and your organisation’s metrics. Regardless of what your main style is, you need to be able to navigate relationships and analyse situations with a critical mind if you want your organisation to thrive and evolve.

Improve and impact your leadership style by sending Carrie Benedet a message today.