Training Our Future Leaders NOW!
As the new year begins, it’s time to create effective habits and break ineffective habits, both personally and professionally. Professionally, when it comes to influencing organizational goals, I highly recommend reading the Harvard Business Review article We Wait Too Long to Train Our Leaders. Preparing future leaders early on will impact your organization’s success, so why wait?
Jack Zenger, an author and leadership development expert, comments that around half of the participants in his programs were between 36 and 49, while less than 10% were under 30, and less than 5% are under 27. These number might not mean much until you learn that the average age of a supervisor is 33 years old. If you do the math, it’s clear that most of these supervisors are therefore receiving no leadership training as they enter their new supervisory position. In fact, they average nine years of being in a leadership position before they receive leadership training.
Zenger makes the case for why this matters: Zenger mentions teaching basic leadership principles to a group of 3rd graders, who actually caught on very quickly. This demonstrates that leadership principles can be taught, and the earlier you begin to instill these principles into employees, the better. So what can your organization do to help your future leaders succeed?
Group training and development programs can help create authentic, honest leaders. When an employee hasn’t had the chance to learn from other leaders who have gained management expertise through experience, it’s easier to pick up bad habits. Training early on demonstrates to all employees the value of looking to others for advice, and knowing that a single person doesn’t have all the answers.
Picking up these good habits earlier also allows young leaders to actually use them on a daily basis and tweak their approach as they develop their leadership skills. Or as Zenger puts it, perfect practice makes better performance. Learning effective skills or concepts early on can shape how high-potential employees later lead. Though these skills may not be well developed by age 33, if you start training early, your organization may be in better hands in the future.
So how can you begin to groom and train leaders early in their career? Start by looking at your orientation program. Do you even have one? If so, what kind of information do new employees receive as they start? Do they have access to other, more established employees who could serve as potential mentors? Consider revamping the “entry” phase for new employees to give them a better introduction to the teams they will be connected to, as well as other teams they may be interested in learning more about.
Even if your organization doesn’t have the budget to send employees to formal training or create its own training system, it pays to think strategically about the skills and core competencies your future leaders need to learn. Eric Basu points out in a Forbes article that personal skills, team-focused skills, and corporate-focused skills are essential for future organizational (and personal) success.
After all, what’s the harm in giving your future leaders guidance and skills early on? Trust me, it won’t hurt your organization. As I mentioned in a previous blog, your employees are an investment worth making.
