A leader at home and now in the workplace
Career

A Leader At Home And Now In The Workplace

As a mum, you are already a leader, whether you realise it or not. Now, in the workplace, you are tasked with building up leadership. Where do you begin? Well, leadership development is critical for every business – not just in terms of being a leader yourself but ensuring there are leaders working for you. It is a lot easier said than done, though, which is why consulting can be beneficial. Read on to discover everything you need to know…

Leadership Development: Why Is It So Important?

Leadership development is one of, if not thee, most important development in an organisation or business. It’s an activity that not only enhances the leadership qualities of individuals within an organisation – it enhances the organisation’s leadership too. There are a range of ways it can be achieved – such as through courses at university business schools, or online via the likes of Exeter University Online, or at executive retreats – but the best method is still disputed. Ultimately, it’s about developing leaders and leadership at a collective level. Why? Well, perhaps your organisation isn’t functioning that it should be? Perhaps you’re looking to develop successors to your current leadership base? Whatever the reason, you’re here. So let’s walk through why it’s important, no matter what type of business you run.

Leadership Within Your Business Development Strategy

When it comes to business development strategy, it’s incredibly easy to let pride and sentimentality get in the way. But, within this volatile world, things change – you need to be ready for change. Constantly. Businesses sense that change is needed. This is why a lot of people are turning to leadership consulting. However, for that level of cash, you’ll want someone who can ensure you get the change you need. After all, you are not bringing in someone to train your staff and your management. No – it’s about finding someone who will develop your leadership program. Too much focus is put on homogenous training schemes that create ‘ident-a-kit’ leaders. No two people are the same; no two situations are the same; no two organisations are the same. So why do we train people the same way ad infinitum? It should be about developing leaders within your staff. This enables staff to be reactive, more focused on growth than maintenance, and more focused on growth as a person rather than growth into a role. It takes people from out of the box and gives them the ability to explore the unknown and to push your organisation’s boundaries. It’s impossible to grow and evolve if your leadership development doesn’t encourage your management to grow and evolve too.

Why HR Development Is At The Heart Of Change

One of the areas where this reliance on the formal training process can be best demonstrated is within HR development. Your HR professionals shouldn’t be relying on this process – they should be impacting with strategy and out-of-the-box thinking that increases their leadership brand. HR professionals should be stepping up to lead the way. It’s important to have a functioning and creative HR department to help your company grow and reach the next level. It doesn’t happen by repeating the same tactics over and over – it comes from pushing the boundaries. Any business coaching should help develop HR professionals who take on roles and projects that cut through the organisational lines to create cohesion. In order to do that, they need to have the ability to network. Not just network with the circle of people in their everyday role, as that only breeds the same results. You want your HR professionals to be dynamic and networking with opinion leaders – who are not within the organisation – to learn what is new to help stimulate new ideas. It’s all about readdressing the balance between insight and outsight. Insight comes with internal knowledge, past experience and thinking; but outsight develops external knowledge, fosters new experience and facilitates action.

Understanding Why You Need Leadership Consulting

It’s not about who has the biggest footprint in this world anymore – businesses both big and small must transform their operations and culture to survive. It’s why leadership consulting is so favoured. There is so much changing in this world. Technology accelerates rapidly, the democratic nature of countries worldwide changes constantly and the world’s climate is also changing. It’s key to understand and accept that practically everything can affect your business today. The complexities of modern life mean that organisations can become unfit for purpose in the blink of an eye. Even customers’ needs and perceptions change as a result of this flux. Political upheaval can change how customers perceive your dealings with certain governments and states; technology makes your business, services and products more transparent; and climate change has seen many customers move towards greener products and services. There’s no doubt about it: there’s been a major shift in power from the producer to consumer as a result of this digital world. This is why you need a business development consultant. You need someone who can come in, offer leadership development and drive that much needed transformation. However, organisational transformation can succeed as much as it can fail. You need someone with a proven track record to help drive these changes.

The Basics Of Capacity Building

Study after study into the strategic priorities of businesses today always draws up the same important conclusion – increasing leadership capacity is number one on the list for organisations. So you need to stimulate capacity building. But what is it? It’s derived from the tenets of organisational development and focuses specifically on the ‘building’ aspect – this isn’t a finished product, ever. You’re consistently building your organisation’s capacity. It’s all about giving people the skills, knowledge and resources to further their own development – which, in turn, will further the skills development of your organisation. It’s a continual cycle and an approach – there’s no pre-packaged intervention here. You need to have an organisation that continually enhances its systems, resources and knowledge. This is reflected in your ability, at both an individual and organisation-wide level, to solve problems, perform functions and complete objectives.

Hopefully, you now have a better understanding regarding leadership development. As a parent, you are already a leader. Of course, this is of a different nature when compared with the business world. However, it’s a great starting point. You have skills of leadership, even if you don’t realise it. Nevertheless, in the business world, leadership needs to be ingrained into your strategy, and often consulting is needed to assist with this. Explore whether that is the case for you business.

Claire x

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