Why Leadership Training Matters
People don’t leave companies, they leave managers. Bad managers not only play a huge role in turnover at an organization, they also hold back people and teams from being agile, innovative and ultimately productive. When looking at the key factors that drive business success, most CEOs look to sales, marketing and operational efficiency. We often overlook the most obvious driver of business performance: the person who leads the new sales initiative or the team who creates the next great marketing campaign. These innovations come from engaged employees looking to creatively solve a business problem.
According to Gallup, 70% of a team’s engagement depends on the manager. It’s no surprise then that Gallup also found that teams with great managers see 27% more revenue per employee.
If you want your team to perform at its full potential, you need to start with your managers.
In this new world of work, where many of us are challenged to work and lead remotely and we can no longer separate our work life from our home life, the way our leaders show up matters even more.
A good leader, at the very core, brings their people together to drive toward a common goal. Without leadership, everyone in the boat will be rowing haphazardly in a variety of directions, ultimately getting nowhere. Organizations can no longer afford to waste valuable time and resources going nowhere.
When budgets tighten and an organization must get lean, investing in the training of their managers is often one of the first places to cut. Managers are stretched thin trying to do more work with fewer people while also trying to learn how to engage, connect and lead their people remotely. Managing in this new world is harder than ever before, and most managers — roughly one in every 10 — don’t naturally have the tools and skills to successfully lead.
If 90% of managers aren’t properly equipped to lead, what can we do?
Go upstream to the root of the problem and change that ratio by helping your managers build the skills required to be great leaders. I’ll peel back the curtain here and share the methodology we use when helping managers build strong leadership habits.
1. Learn the essential skills.
Teach your leaders the essential skills for management. We focus on four simple, yet hard to implement, skills: listening with intention and attention, asking powerful questions