Leadership Training: 6 Benefits Of Using Training Catalogues
Leadership training programmes can develop the key skills base that all leaders require. So rather than wait on the off-chance that a ‘natural’ leader emerges, use leadership training to establish a pipeline of talent that will help lead your organisation now and in the future.
The Benefits Of Leadership Training
Leadership isn’t confined to those at the top. Many employees play leadership roles in departments and teams across an organisation. Effective leadership improves productivity. If leaders understand the people they manage and direct, those people are more likely to perform better for them.
They’re also more likely to stay in an organisation. It’s been said that employees don’t so much leave an organisation, they leave their boss. Clearly, staff retention is an important driver in productivity, so if you have leaders that people value and trust, they’re more likely to stay and work.
Another key to retention is developing the people within your organisation. Leadership training recognises talent and achievement, and lets people invest their futures in a business. There’s a virtuous circle here: by recognising the potential in developing leaders and training those leaders to provide positive feedback and reinforcement, you encourage other employees to develop.
Leadership training also helps leaders make more informed decisions by giving them the background, context, supporting information, and skill sets to take the right actions. This is particularly important with people new to leadership roles, and lack experience. Training allows leaders the time and space to hone their skills and develop a leadership style that works best for them and your organisation.
And, finally, keep in mind the adage that if there’s one thing more expensive than training, it’s not training. So, unless you have a constant supply of natural-born leaders, leadership training is worth the investment.
Which Skills Make A Leader?
Perhaps the fundamental skill required of leaders is communication. You have to communicate clearly and effectively what you need and expect from those you lead.
An understanding of how the message will be received is the other key component. Leaders require a great deal of emotional intelligence to empathise and engage with employees. Like any effective communicator, you need to know your audience, understand how they will perceive the message and tailor it accordingly. A well-developed emotional intelligence helps manage stress and resolve conflicts in a team.
Leaders are faced with critical decisions that don’t just affect them but also the teams they lead. A knowledge of leadership strategies and appreciation of what works well makes for better decision making. The key skill here is the ability to manage and develop teams.
But leadership is not just about keeping a steady ship and maintaining the status quo. Leaders are frequently called upon to lead innovation and manage change, which requires powers of motivation. At the same time, you need to manage for efficiency and effectiveness, helping the organisation achieve its goals and objectives according to a strategic plan.
Never Stop Learning
Leadership training can provide the skills to develop managers, but it doesn’t stop there. There’s a constant demand on leaders to learn and adapt as their responsibilities grow and organisations embark on change. Leaders not only need to work on their own skills sets and professional development, they also need to be aware of the training needs of the people they manage and develop them through training too.
And to add to the heavy burden on leaders, all this training and development is additional to their need to do their own job. There’s no space for potential leaders to be taken out of their jobs and sent off on training courses. It’s supplementary to their own work.
How eLearning Benefits Leadership Training
Let’s look at 6 ways in which eLearning training catalogues provide a solution to an organisation’s need for leadership training.
1. Range And Value
Leadership training involves a whole mix of skills. eLearning catalogues cover a range of disciplines. They are produced by leading Subject Matter Experts providing the latest thinking and best practices. Many are approved by industry bodies and offer accreditation, so you can be sure that your potential leaders are being trained to the highest standards.
They represent a cost-effective solution to your training needs, with new titles being added and content updated. They also give you the opportunity to place your own stamp on the training by customising content to reflect your organisation’s values.
2. Appealing To Modern Learners
The eLearning modules in leadership training catalogues allow learners to move through the material at their own pace and discover what they need to know. This learner-centric approach mirrors the way modern learners learn: having constant access to material and discovering what they need to know for themselves.
The modules also allow you to test what you already know so that you focus on what is missing, filling the gaps in knowledge rather than endlessly repeating training. Nevertheless, eLearning modules also provide refresher training and allow content to be repurposed and made available in different formats, as a library of resources, for example.
Multimedia features make training more memorable and increase impact. Gamification of learning increases engagement and appeals to learners familiar with computer games.
3. Mobility And Flexibility
eLearning content can be accessed on a variety of devices and across platforms. Mobile connectivity means we are used to accessing information where and when we need it. As leadership training is additional to work, it’s important to maximise its accessibility. Bite-sized microlearning allows people to learn and update their knowledge while they’re on the go, without needing to attend a formal training session or enroll in a suite of online training. This flexibility is important in a fast-paced working environment where taking people away from their work won’t fly.
4. Putting Practice Over Theory
There are many theories of leadership associated with the personal style of a well-known leader, but most leadership requires a grounding in practical skills. eLearning modules emphasise the importance of context, and provide a fail-safe environment to practise leadership strategies and decision-making.
eLearning uses story-led, scenario-based training to emphasise the importance of applying what you’ve learned in a real-life setting. Training simulates the working environment and allows learners to hone their techniques and learn by doing without the pressure and consequences associated with the real workplace. It provides transferable skills and demonstrates how to apply them.
5. Tracking Performance And Measuring Impact
Much of the talk of leadership effectiveness is anecdotal. With leadership training catalogues you can easily measure progress and attainment through tracking and scoring. You can also measure feedback from learners, which allows you to refine and enhance the training you offer.
The ability to customise and reuse digital content means you can improve the returns on your initial investment by making it available beyond the classroom and LMS. It can be repurposed as a refresher or just-in-time training, or as a collection of resources that can be referenced when needed. This approach develops responsibility amongst learners for their own training and increases their buy-in.
6. Training In The Workflow
It’s becoming increasingly clear that training needs to be more relevant, more accessible, and something that happens in the working environment rather than in the classroom. Training needs to be anchored in the working environment and never more so than in the area of leadership, which is first and foremost about enabling and empowering employees to work better.
eLearning allows you to bring training into the workflow and make it accessible where it’s needed. Rather than controlling and restricting the flow of information to the learner, with eLearning always accessible, you allow the learner to access what he or she wants or needs, when and where necessary. People can then direct their own leadership training and come away with an enhanced sense of its utility and relevance to their work and development.
Leadership is about setting and maintaining standards. Leadership skills training catalogues reflect industry standards, and provide a base to develop a cohort of well-trained and highly motivated leaders in your organisation. They engage and motivate modern learners by providing a combination of flexibility and accessibility that traditional training programmes can’t match. They ensure that your leaders have the right skills to drive your organisation forward.
Sources:
- Becoming an Effective Leader - business e-learning module
- Leadership Training For Managers: 8 Activities And Ideas That Work
- Context In Leadership Training: Without Context, Leadership Training Will Fail
- eLearning In Leadership Training And Development: Strength And Synergy
- 3 Reasons Why eLearning Is Key To Leadership Training And Development
- E-learning for leadership development is on the rise
- How E-Learning is Key to Effective Leadership Development
- Leadership Development Made Easy Through E-Learning
