Leadership Development

Leadership. A word that is misunderstood over and over again. Leadership is often associated with a title, and though it’s true that there are many managers who are good leaders in the workforce, leadership is not a word reserved to describe those at supervisory level and above. In fact, there are many employees in supervisory level positions who do not possess good leadership qualities. At the same time, there are many non-supervisory level employees in any given organization who are natural leaders. With that being said, what truly defines a leader, and how are they developed?

To name a few characteristics a leader may posses, a leader:

• Can motivate others.
• Has good interpersonal skills.
• Can make decisions.
• Helps develop others.
• Takes initiative.
• Understands the organization.
• Continues to learn and educate themselves.

In an organization, it’s important for Human Resources to understand what it takes to develop leaders. To foster leadership within a company, a good HR department will:

• Research and assess their company’s needs.
• Work on a strategy and provide tools and training to develop various leadership skills.
• Identify potential leaders within the organization and set up a strategy to develop them specifically.
• Educate themselves to be better leaders and facilitators within the organization.

It is equally important for individuals and managers outside of HR to understand how to develop themselves and improve on leadership skills. To develop leadership, an employee should start with:

• Understanding and getting involved with their organization.
• Educating themselves by researching and taking advantage of any leadership training offered. This may include development and training for interpersonal, organizational or personal skills.
• Encouraging their HR department and managers to do more for their organization.

There are many tools available and easily accessible to help you get a head start in the area of leadership development as an individual or HR professional. A good place to start is OnlineTraining2Go.com. For more leadership information, click on the following link: http://www.onlinetraining2go.com/articles/OT2G_Leadership.pdf.