We all know that good leadership in the workplace leads to benefits like employee retention, satisfaction, and drive. Yet, for all of these benefits, organizations never invest in formal leadership training to develop a good leader. This might be due to the belief that hiring a seasoned leader shouldn’t require training, or that delegating leadership responsibilities over time to a new leader will create experiences that naturally lead to good leadership. These beliefs may translate into success but are unproven and risky assumptions. Rather than taking the risk, you should look to formal training, which studies have shown to improve the odds of success by way of 25% in learning capacity improvement and 20% in performance (Journal of Applied Psychology).
A sizeable impact on creating effective leadership would surely guarantee higher investment by most businesses, but a 2021 survey from Training Magazine revealed that only 25% of total training investment was spent on leadership. This is a shocking statistic to me as someone who has felt the positive impact of formal leadership training over the past two years. I am fortunate enough that Twigeo has made such investments in formal training, and I am sharing my experiences to encourage others to speak up for more formal training and benefit the same way I have.
My First Experience Leading a Team in the Workplace
When I first started managing a team, I was admittedly lost. I had a new set of managerial/leadership responsibilities on top of a growing list of responsibilities related to my current role. Like the experience shared by all first-time managers, it wasn’t easy to balance these responsibilities. I had my fair share of positive and negative experiences in my first year that taught me the importance of active listening and effective communication. Missing one or both when making a decision will not only impact the effectiveness of that decision, but it can also negatively impact the individual and team in the long term.
Experiences and the reflection that followed are necessary for leadership growth, but it does not necessarily mean that the decisions I made and the perception I had at the time should guide my leadership principles. Every situation is different and while the past should be included in your approach when faced with it again, considerations reflecting the present should be weighted higher. The question then, is how can I avoid mistakes made in the past, and make the right considerations in the present? This is where formal education comes into play. It provides you with a new set of models, questions, and practice that allows you to carefully dissect the past while bringing a new eye to a wide variety of factors in the present that allow you to better understand a situation and make you confident that you are arriving at the best decision you can make.
Formal Leadership Development
Formal leadership development is like practicing for a game in sports. Practice is where the true development of an athlete and team happens through the repetition of skills, techniques, and strategies. It is what prepares individuals and their teams to execute a plan on the field and the confidence needed to have the highest probability of success in the game. This is no different from many qualities formal leadership development offers to an organization. It can equip you with a guide for managing common situations, broadening your perspectives, and evaluating decisions. Mental frameworks that break down the content into memory recall to avoid biases and can even provide you with roleplaying to help you become at ease with different situations and present with confidence.
Getting formal training can come in various shapes and sizes from independent online training to a full-scale on-site group program. For the past two years, I have had a recurring group leadership workshop for all of the leaders including our CEO. Each session tackles new areas of leadership and incorporates mental models, readings, scenario-based breakout sessions, and homework to get the practice we need to turn what we learned into reliable principles to live by.
Impact of My Formal Training and What I Know Now
The formal training I have been a part of has been a large part of the personal development that I have recognized compared to the first year I led a team. Not only has it given me a deep understanding of important leadership topics like effective communication, self-leadership, and motivational systems, but it has also created a noticeable difference in my ability to navigate biases, actively listen, and focus on perspective-building. I still have a lot to improve on, even in the topics I have shared, but the speed and quality of my development would have never been possible without the exposure and practice I received from the formal training.
Push for Formal Training at Your Organization
I hope sharing my experience inspires those who are having a tough time transitioning into a leadership position and those currently in a leadership position who admittedly feel lost. You aren’t alone as I can personally attest to this by sharing my rough start as a leader. What makes leadership hard is that, unlike the linear journey your career has taken in the mastery of a skill, leadership can take many paths and does not follow a script. It is constantly changing and evolving with each new experience you face. While these experiences lead to the greatest leadership development, having formal training prepares you for these experiences in a way that can significantly improve the handling and outcome of a decision.