Why You Can’t Neglect Leadership Development

One of the biggest mistakes I see is leaders who work tirelessly to get to the top, and then when they do, they just flatline. You can’t do that. Getting to where you are is a significant accomplishment, but the work isn’t done. There is still much to do! One area of work many leaders forget about is leadership development. If you neglect leadership development, you are effectively neglecting yourself and your team. So, let’s choose against that.?

Your Revenue Will Pay the Costs?

If you don’t invest time and energy in leadership development, your organization’s revenue will suffer. When you put in the effort to grow as a leader, engage with your team, invest in your innovation and decision-making skills, and effectively grow the culture and environment, your revenue will grow in return as you and your team are all working on the same page and success is close by. But when none of that is done, and no growth and development is being made, you will not make and will likely lose money.??

Productivity and Engagement Will Plummet?

Leadership development is not just about you; it is about your team as well. When you grow individually and are able to learn topics such as coaching, identifying employee talents, managing performance, communicating, and empowering the business’s mission and values, your team will reap the benefits. A leader who neglects themselves and their growth will cultivate a team that is unmotivated, unproductive, and disorganized. As a leader, one of your priorities should be the growth and well-being of your team, and to harness that, you must look at yourself first.?

Your Career Will Stall

Now, if we focus on you individually, it is important to acknowledge that your career will stall without leadership development. You worked extremely hard to get where you are, but it is essential to remember that there is always room for improvement. Leadership development can help you learn the skills necessary to better yourself, manage your team, foster a healthy culture, manage crises, adapt to change, and be a better leader for yourself and those around you. Through mentorship, coaching, workshops, or leadership team sessions, you can learn invaluable skills to help you continue to grow in your career.

Retention and Turnover Will Have The Opposite Numbers

You want your retention to be high and your turnover to be low, but you will see these numbers swap when you don’t develop as a leader. Leadership development is there to help you understand what it means to cultivate a healthy and motivating culture while fostering an organization that implements its missions and values into each of its goals. When these consistencies are not there, and there is no unified goal for everyone to understand and follow full-heartedly, you will have a team of confused and disorganized employees, all working toward different goals. All of this will result in a higher turnover rate as employees seek stability in their workplace. As their leader, you must help develop and implement that stability.?

Your Team Will Work by Example?

The most important factor I want to point out is that your team will follow you as an example. The phrase “lead by example” is essential when you get into a leadership position where team members look up to you as their inspiration and role model. If you are not taking the time to improve yourself or slacking on ways to innovate and better the organization, your team members will see that. They will see that since you are not doing X, Y, and Z, they don’t have to either. Lead by example. Find those mentors or coaches who can help you excel so you can create a team of innovators and future change-makers like yourself.?

Leadership development is not just for yourself; it reflects in every area of your organization, from its culture to your team members. If you want a striving team, you must strive as well. If you have further questions or wish to become a stronger leader, send me a message or contact the team at Wickham James.