Your employees are the backbone of your business. They are the people who come into the office every day and work hard to improve the business that you have built. This is why you should take steps to improve their skills, by sending them on leadership development courses or by using in-house ideas. Below are some tips on how to turn good employees into great leaders.
Encourage your employees to network
Networking is not only a great way to meet people, it can also help with personal and business growth. If your employees are not highly sociable people, you can start small by encouraging networking among colleagues during lunchtimes or after-work events.
Networking will teach them how to forge powerful connections, initiate conversations and will teach them how to have the confidence of a leader. It can also provide business opportunities and allow them to share ideas and knowledge with other industry professionals. Their reputation in the industry will also improve, helping not only their CV but your business’s status in the eyes of your competition.
Maintain feedback
One of the best ways to help your employees grow and develop into leaders is to maintain a ‘feedback loop’ with them. This means that you provide them with regular feedback on their performance, and allow them to query or comment on any criticisms.
Leaders know that feedback does not mean they are performing badly but rather use it to their advantage to improve themselves and help the business grow. This is what your employees will learn if you maintain feedback with them and provide them with constructive criticism. Have regular, one-on-one meetings with your employees but be certain to remind them that these catch-up sessions are not ‘scary’ and should be positive experiences.
Be a transparent leader
Leading by example is an effective way to encourage leadership development amongst your employees. You should be a transparent and authentic leader, showing your employees that your actions align with your core values and beliefs.
A transparent, authentic leader inspires confidence and loyalty in his or her employees, which is contagious in the workplace. This means that your employees will become transparent too, creating a workplace that breeds accountability and encourages honesty. These are vital characteristics of great leaders, which your employees are hoping to become. If your employees have a positive role model to learn from, they will be able to become better leaders.
Allow them to struggle a little
Let’s face it, nobody is perfect, not even leaders. Which means that you need to allow your employees to struggle a little, in order to learn how to deal with mistakes. They might turn to you for help with how to solve issues or accomplish a task, but they will need to learn how to solve problems on their own too.
Allowing your employees to struggle a little will help to build their character and will also help them to think creatively when faced with a difficult situation. While you should not turn down your managerial duties altogether, allowing your employees to come to a solution on their own or figure out how to perform a task without your help will build their skills and can save you time, too.
Communicate effectively
Great leaders are effective communicators. If you lead by example with your communication skills, your employees will soon learn how to communicate with the same effectiveness. Without the ability to make their goals and plans understood, your employees will not become good leaders.
People management skills and supervisor responsibilities include having to communicate efficiently, clearly and succinctly with the rest of their teams, a skill which leadership development plays a large role in building up. You could send your employees on communication courses to teach them communication skills or you could organise a workshop for the whole office to attend.
Ignite their passion
Passionate employees make fantastic leaders, which means that you should try to ignite your employees’ passion in their roles and in your company. If you, yourself, are genuinely passionate about your company, this will rub off on your employees and create the same fervour in them.
Leaders need to have passion for their role in the business and should have goals that are aligned with the business’s goals. This passion is seen and felt at any level of management, whether you are at the top of the ladder or have your foot on the bottom of the rung.
In order to turn your good employees into great leaders, you will need to encourage networking, maintain a feedback loop, be a transparent leader and allow your employees to solve problems on their own. This will show them that not only do you trust them, but you believe in their abilities over and above their current position. Ignite their passion and watch them (and your business) reach new and exciting heights.