The future of leadership: Nurturing tomorrow’s business leaders
Leadership takes immense growth and dedication. Of course, it is not something we learn over night. Today’s business leaders have grown from their very first role into the senior C-Suite position they are in today.
That’s why it’s especially important for today’s leaders to nurture the future business leaders. We recently discussed succession planning and hiring internally, so thought this was a great topic to focus on. If a company is succession planning, how exactly can they develop the potential future leaders?
Nurturing tomorrow’s leaders today
A passion for developing a team is one of the best traits a leader can show. Alongside the many responsibilities senior management has, it’s not always easy to dedicate time to this. However, there are simple ways to nurture employees and prime them as a future leader of the business.
Invest in a culture of learning
Is a monthly training session at the office going to really encourage invaluable learning? We are not saying they won’t take positives from this, but great leadership takes investment from the very start. This is a continuous development and sometimes requires external resources. If there is a specific course you believe is beneficial, invest in it. Should an employee find a course for themselves, encourage their enthusiasm and passion to grow. This will give future leadership teams the same growth mindset, promoting adaptability and innovation.
Recognising when your own leadership could improve
Leaders are humans at the end of the day. Employees want to see this human side and in turn it will encourage their own ability to not permanently wear the ‘manager’ hat. Admitting when you can improve as a leader demonstrates more self-confidence than you think. It will then allow employees to look at their own areas of improvement and have the confidence to express that they wish to act on this. A culture of honesty and transparency always starts at the top.
Show trust – let someone else take the wheel
If you can’t show you trust an employee to lead on a certain project, how will they ever trust themselves? Autonomy is so important as a leader and it should be encouraged across a whole business. Taking ownership and accountability are key foundations for any leader. Empowering people early on allows them to cultivate these characteristics – they’ll know what they did right and understand areas they could have improved. It also improves decision making exponentially. Every leader will remember a time where they were faced with an extremely difficult decision, how they tackled it and what the conclusion was. Letting the team face their own decisions will increase confidence and encourage collaboration.
Avoid being too rigid and welcome creativity
As a leader, it is easy to fall into a routine that works. Structure is important after all. However, it is important to show the team that not everything has to be this way. New ideas, creativity and simply enjoying the role means you sometimes have to stray slightly from the obvious path and think of new ways to succeed. Not every idea will stick, but every leader already knows this. Allow the future stars of the business to realise this too. Creating and collaborating makes the job worthwhile.
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