Too often people get promoted to leadership without any training.  Then they struggle or fail.  It’s not fair.  They were good or even superstar team members previously.  

Why not train them on the essentials of being a great leader before and after they are promoted so they can thrive?

What are leadership essentials?

Here is a Goldilocks-length list of essential skills that we train in our Manage 2 Win Leadership Essentials 6-month training program:

1.  Leadership - We teach a simple yet powerful 3strands Leadership approach and the four management disciplines of how you hire, manage, develop, and retain great people.

2.  EQ / Emotional Intelligence – Leaders must comprehend – not just lightly understand – their strengths and weaknesses, and daily be growing.  This is required to be effective, efficient, sincerely caring, and a role model for excellence.

3.  Time Management - How to improve focus, deliver on time, and mentor your team to do the same.  This includes how you schedule time to do your best work, lead and participate in a lot of meetings, and communicate with others.

4.  Goals - How to define, pursue, and consistently achieve targets / objectives / rocks… individually and as a team.  This includes having an employee strategic plan (“SP”) for every player’s success.

5.  Engagement - Leaders must know how to fully engage each individual member of their team.  A lot of our work is coaching and applying what is learned in our Talent Assessment service to help people be their best and fully connected to meaningful work in their role and with their team.

6.  Workplace Drama - Leaders have to be role models all the time, but particularly when your workplace becomes “adult daycare” because one or more people choose to behave unprofessionally or there is other drama.  We teach how to avoid these situations and rapidly diffuse them when emotions run high. 

7.  PIP – Too many leaders fail to promptly and properly address poor performance on their team.   We teach a simple three-step approach that rapidly restores a good team member, or terminates one who cannot meet your standards.

There are other issues such as compensation, building company culture, team bonding activities, etc.  However, if you or one of your managers are weak in any of the areas above, then it is costing your organization thousands if not millions of dollars.

Upgrading a leader’s skills often increases the outcomes of their team by 25-100% or more.

A person can be born with leadership attributes, but that does NOT mean they have leadership skills.  Stop assuming your leaders are well-rounded or good enough.  Go for excellence!  To be their best, you must teach, test, and train (our 3T Process) leadership skills for years before and after your team members move into management.

If your hiring system is good but not championship quality, then reach out to Hire the Best.  We have a proven system to help you get where you want to go.

This blog was originally posted on Hire the Best on 6/4/24.