Previously, people treated machines as superior to men. Currently, men are treated as superior to machines. Machines deliver goods at the push of a button. However, men cannot do the same. Human beings are different and difficult to manage, as they have different feelings, emotions, and egos. Organizations realized the value of human resources and began providing regular training to continuously develop their skills and abilities. With the rapid growth in technology, it has become tough to predict the needs of people. Hence, there is an urgent need to train and groom precious human resources to predict and meet the growing expectations of customers.
Imagine that one fine day, the key senior-most executive leaves the company for better pastures, leaving the company in the lurch. What will the company do? Will it shut the shop? The company should not become rudderless, right? It should not become like a ship without a captain.
As you cannot hand over the keys of your car to a person who does not know how to drive, you cannot hand over the reins of your company to a person who is not equipped with leadership qualifications and competencies. Therefore, we need to train and groom people as leaders before handing over the reins. Leadership development is the mantra for employees who have a high potential to take on corporate battles with confidence and mettle. Designing the right leadership development program is the key to successful leadership development to ensure desirable outcomes.
Learning leadership
Learning leadership involves both theoretical aspects and practical activities. You need to be equipped with the theoretical concepts to experiment in your real-life environment. Learn lessons from your experience. However, the theoretical concepts that you learn from various sources will help you to minimize mistakes, thus enhancing your success rate as an effective leader.
People learn about leadership from multiple sources, such as books, by observing leaders both inside and outside the workplace, and through trial-and-error methods. You can perfect your leadership skills by undergoing training programs, wherein you involve yourself in role-plays and practical activities through blended and experiential learning. Above all, you need to get your hands dirty to excel as an effective leader. Therefore, learning the ropes of leadership is easier said than done.
Leadership is a trainable skill and one that is transferable from one person to another. It is more of a behavioral skill that can be learned by experience and through proper training and grooming. There must be mentors who can share their experiences from time to time and walk the talk to fine-tune the mentees. In addition, there must be coaches who can interact with, question, and grill coachees to get the best out of them.
Recruit the right talent
Hire the talent with the right attitude. Recruit the people who failed and learned lessons in their lives, as they can add value to the organization through their previous experiences. This does not mean you should encourage all failures, but only those failures with varied experiences, as it demonstrates their tenacity and resilience. Adversity teaches several lessons. For instance, Lincoln excelled as a great leader as he underwent trials and tribulations throughout his life. It helped him to handle the crises within America as President, thereby retaining the unity of America, and fighting against slavery. At the same time, don’t base your recruitment on too great a focus on academic background alone, or the nature of the educational institution one hails from.
Home-growing leaders
Home-grown talent within is ideal, as such people are aware of the system, culture, and values. In addition, it encourages others to perform well when they see that the company is promoting the people within, and talented people are not tempted to leave the organization. However, in rare cases, it is essential to hire outsiders, as they bring in fresh knowledge, skills, abilities, and expertise, thus adding value to the organization. Unlike the talent within, they do not have preconceived notions. Besides, hiring is ideal when time is short and there is an urgent need for talent with specific skill sets, mindsets, and toolsets.
Home-grown talent is more cost-effective than hiring talent from outside. Research reveals that homegrown talent is more competent in facing challenges than externally hired talent, as in-house talent knows the ground realities and can easily anticipate and gear up to face challenges.
Even if you hire an outside leader with a stellar track record, it cannot guarantee you success, as what worked in the past might not work in the present or the future. In addition, a leader may be successful in a particular context, but not in all of them. For instance, Winston Churchill was successful as a leader during World War II, but not during peacetime.
Although there are deficiencies in the leadership talent within the company, it is still better to promote them, as a known devil is often better than an unknown angel. When you hire outside talent, your judgment might not be correct, and it takes time for the new talent to understand and appreciate the organizational culture and climate.
In the case of talent within the company, the strengths and weaknesses of the employees become clear through performance appraisals. Hence, it is ideal to encourage homegrown leaders.
To survive and succeed in the long term, it is always advisable to spot, groom, and promote talent within the company, rather than hiring from outside. It ultimately engenders employee loyalty and commitment, thus preserving the organizational culture, climate, and employee morale.
There is a strong need for companies to catch up with the current global pace of change
What the future might hold in store is anybody's guess, but having competent leaders to battle complexity and uncertainty is clearly within the control of most companies. We are currently moving towards a dynamic business environment that demands different and unique skill sets, mindsets, and tool sets from leaders.
The current global financial crisis and the recent eruption of corporate scandals show that there is a dearth of leadership talent and ethical leadership at the top. Hence, there is a need to emphasize ethics while developing leaders. To conclude, there is an urgent need to invest in people by conducting leadership development programs regularly.
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“Things You Don’t Know about Professor M. S. Rao” http://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.com/2015/10/things-you-dont-know-about-professor-m.html
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