You want to grow your organization’s leadership. How can you identify and develop future leaders?

1. Talent identification: - Look for employees who show leadership potential. - Look at performance and positive interactions with team and colleagues. 2. Developing leadership skills: - Supporting potential leaders in developing their personal and social skills. 3. Boost confidence and motivation: -Show confidence in future leaders and give them opportunities to develop. -Set clear and inspiring goals for the team. 4. Providing professional development opportunities: 5. Personal communication and guidance: - Interact with future leaders. - Provide advice and personal guidance. 6.Encouraging innovation and creative thinking: - Support potential leaders in trying new ideas and innovative solutions.

Be cognizant of the fact that leadership is a trait and not a role or title so keenly observe behaviors of team members at any level and sense who is a leader . Leaders tend to be bold and not scared of sharing their views . They are comfortable leading efforts to troubleshoot new challenges without fear. Leaders tend to seek new ways of working and they tend to have a charisma that makes them appealing to the teams.

If I had to spot healthy individuals, I would look at them living their daily life and observe their lifestyle. I would observe the quality of their interactions with others - I wouldn't read their medical reports alone. The point of assessment reports is that they can only be a starting point on where to look for potential leaders. But as a talent scout in sports does, one has to observe the potential leaders in action. Which is why, if senior leadership isn't spending time interacting with junior staff, then they aren't going to unearth next set of leaders.

To grow leadership bench in an organization,you need to connect with the existing leaders to identify a pool of potential leaders from their 2nd line.Once identified,you can use psychometric tools to gauge their leadership potential and finalise the pool to work on. Basis the assessment of their capabilities and where they need to grow,design a program that has mix of classroom learning,stretch action learning projects and cross-functional assignments and coaching sessions.Use coaching to support individual learning challenges,internalization and application of the learning.Recognize existing leaders for their support to this effort.Have review process together with the stakeholders. Make adjustment in the learning inputs/focus as required.

Primarily this is the most important job to do. It should be a conscious act to be on the move at all times to identify potential leaders in different capacities. Once you have identified the leaders it is also important to train them and give them all the right set of skills to be able to lead the teams in the near future. Also along with this it is extremely important to evaluate whether there is the need for a new leader or not. The potential leaders should at all times be motivated to achieve larger goals and should be supported in all the efforts. Identify those who go an extra mile helping the team members or ensuring that the set agendas are achieved. Such individuals should also be given the opportunity to participate in planning.

What should senior leaders look for? Someone who has a mind of their own and is willing to express disagreement. Put junior leaders in a room with a senior leader, and most of them will be in awe, in agreement or fear. And therefore, will want to look agreeable to the senior leader. But it is those few who are unafraid to speak their mind, and don't mind disagreeing with a senior leader, or better still challenge them, that possess the self-assurance to be potential future leaders. Can leaders be groomed? Yes, but if some of these traits are missing, then you might be encouraging "yes-people" as leaders. Irrespective of gender or any other factor, this is one thing that will allow for divergent ideas to come up.

There are a few basic yet critical skills of leadership that should be staples for assessing potential: 1. Delegation 2. Decision-Making 3. Project Management 4. Communication Using these skills to assess emerging leaders on, gives you a rubric when using tools like behavioral interviews and assessments. Identifying gaps in those skills will set you up for designing activities that build on those skills.

Assessing the leadership to essential is no easy task. For this the previous leaders need to have an open mind and order to evaluate the current performance the past performance and the expectation levels of the potential candidates very carefully. At all times there should be constructive feedback provided to these young potential leaders without which it would be difficult for them to evaluate where they are right and where they are going wrong. The capacity to form teams and lead them and generate results should also be taken into consideration. Without a doubt its important that day should be liked by all not necessary every time but on the larger note in order to ensure that whenever they take strong decisions they would be supported

When it comes to developing leadership skills, senior leaders think that the "school" approach will help. Put the potential leaders through a series of developmental trainings and they will be on their path to being a leader. This is far, far, far, far, FAR - from how potential leaders are developed. Leadership is about dealing with and leading in diverse and often unknown situations. Putting leaders in situations where stronger instincts and a good feedback loop can be developed are more helpful. Along with this, a strong coaching mechanism must be in place to help leaders graduate from handling more complex situations at work. With traditional leadership development programs, all it does is fill up leaders' minds with more knowledge!

I've found when coaching potential leaders that creating a safe, confidential non-judgemental space helps potential leaders with their vision, strategy, mindset, skills development and confidence to experiment.

Potential leaders have to be spotted early & fast-tracked. There cannot be a late realization or a quota! To begin with, coaching for self-awareness is important. "With great power comes great responsibility", holds true at all times, and leaders must be groomed to handle the responsibility part first, before power. If this is lacking, there should be a filtering out process, to address this aspect before going forward. Too many organizations make the mistake to "just send" people to the next level, and with this trait lacking, and it creates future problems.

Without doubt coaching the young leaders in order to create rapport, trust and confidence among the team members is crucially important. Coaching just doesn't mean providing the right set of skills but also giving the fair share of experience is to the next generation which would have them take the right decisions at the right time based on the evaluation that they would be able to make from the predecessors experience. Coaching would support these young leaders to identify this set of skills that they really good at and also to be able to identify the loop house on which they need to work. Categorical coaching and simultaneous feedback can do wonders to the confidence of these young potential leaders

Identify future leaders through performance evaluations, feedback from colleagues, and observation of key traits such as communication skills and problem-solving abilities. Provide targeted leadership development opportunities such as workshops, training programs, and mentorship. Encourage leadership behaviors by delegating challenging tasks, fostering a culture of open communication, and recognizing achievements. Offer coaching and support to help future leaders navigate challenges and develop their leadership style. Create a culture that values and rewards leadership qualities, fostering a sense of ownership and accountability among potential leaders.

The success of any organisation depends on the cultures that it creates. The primary responsibility of any organisation's top management is to create an environment where leadership can flourish and that there is no age gender or any other set of barriers that stops people from coming forward to take responsibility. Along with this sustainability of these leaders is an essential responsibility that the top management must take on itself. Merely creating an environment and identifying leaders is not sufficient. The leaders should always have the confidence that they would not be discouraged or reprimanded for coming forward and seeking leadership opportunities. Also rewards for raising a hand should be fair not just a perk for the job

The next bit is to help leaders stay focused in the moment. Today's performance, mistakes and application, is what will get them ready for the next level. Thinking ahead of where they are won't serve them now, if they are thinking of leadership development as a means to promotion. And it won't help them later when they choose to ignore a significant risk over unreasonable gains. If leaders aren't grounded in the current moment, then there can't be expectation of ethics or social responsibility from them, as their sight is not set on what is going on now and its implications. This is also crucial to considering key factors which are involved in making decisions or knowing what to prioritize in crunch situations.

Before you start looking for leaders, I recommend taking the time to consider what it means to be a leader in your organisation. What are the values, mindsets and behaviours that exemplify leadership? What will your current context (external and internal) demand of your leaders? What will you look for in the individuals to suggest that they will be able to adapt as your environment changes? Only then can you start to identify potential leaders and build ways to develop capability that will deliver the outcomes you're after.

Leadership is not a skill. It's an outcome of behaviors, habits, attitudes, and how we show up every day. It's a mindset and a responsibility we embrace.