What are the signs that your organization could benefit from leadership development and training? Here are some indicators of a deficiency in leadership skills in organizations:

1. The organization has a “doing” culture as opposed to an “achieving” culture: Discretionary effort is low and your employees are compliant versus committed.
2. Inconsistent performance from your front line managers. Leadership skills are inconsistent and varied across similar levels.
3. There is no common language or expectations of leadership by level.
4. There is no clear “line of sight” from the lowest to the highest levels. Leaders are unwilling or unable to explain “what” the company does and how their direct reports contribute to the bottom line.
5. Leaders do not coach and develop their direct reports. Many leaders are looking up the chain for their next opportunity rather than taking pride in developing their teams.
6. Managers are “glorified” individual contributors – and often they continue to do same jobs as before, with management and leadership relegated to their “end of the day” tasks.
7. Leaders cannot develop and set SMART objectives. They do not have a clear, concise language to determine how things need to get done.
8. The organization has no succession planning and they must recruit from outside the organization to meet leadership needs…and consequently miss viable leadership talent they already have on board.
9. Leaders are not developing future leaders – Leaders should be evaluated on their ability to develop future leaders for the organization along with their business performance.
10. Leaders do not hold their direct reports accountable…and along with accountability should come recognition and reward for discretionary effort.

Organizations facing these critical issues will benefit from leadership development training with a focus on transactional and transformational skills. We consider transactional skills to be those essential to all leaders in getting the job done.  Transformational skills are considered to be those key to inspiring, motivating and building an organization and a culture. Invest in both aspects of leadership training, and you will reap the benefits of having prepared leaders within a dynamic, nimble organization.

Post by Mark Mueller.