Leadership Development Goals – When you think about leadership, what comes to mind? Is it inspirational speeches, strategic planning, or commanding a platoon?
It’s likely that you see leadership as a collection of specific traits that only a select few are capable of exhibiting. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth.
The truth is, leadership is an organizational function that involves the collaboration and collective actions of everyone within the unit.
In order to truly master your leadership skills, you must first understand their significance. Assuming that you recognize the value of embracing leadership as a whole, now let’s take a look at the K-CAPS Development Goals.
Leadership is a buzzword today, and for good reason. It’s so important that there’s a whole body of thought around it.
The term itself is broad, but the actions that come from it are much more specific. Every company has a leadership team, and every team requires leadership. Anyone who leads others — whether it’s one person leading a department, a CEO overseeing a company, or a head coach leading a team of players — needs to be better equipped to do their job.
That’s why we’ve outlined seven key leadership principles that every leader should keep in mind. They’ll provide you with a framework for taking your company, team, department, or family to the next level.
10 Development Goals for Better Leadership
You’ve read the articles, watched the videos and attended the workshops. You know what it takes to be a great leader. But are you leading your team to greatness? If not, you’re not alone. If you’re like most leaders, you probably don’t spend a lot of time thinking about leadership and the role it plays in your team’s daily operations. You focus on getting stuff done and giving your team the skills they need to do their jobs well. You hope your team is happy and motivated to give you their best efforts.
When you take a step back from the day-to-day, however, it’s likely that you have some questions about leadership and whether your team is getting the support it needs to achieve the organization’s goals. That’s why you’re reading this article. Maybe you’ve heard that the world is ending and you need to figure out what you’re doing wrong.
Or maybe you’re just starting to think about leadership and your team. Either way, you’re ready to take action. In this article, you’ll read about the three key drivers that drive organizational performance and discover the ten leadership development goals that you must meet in order to lead your team to success.
Understanding Organizational Performance
The purpose of this chapter is to help you understand how you and your team are performing against your organization’s business strategy so that you and your team can align around a common vision.
If your organization’s strategy is to grow its markets, increase its sales volume, or lower its costs, then you want your team to be prepared, skilled and resourced to meet those expectations. If your organization’s strategy is to improve its reputation, gain new customers, reduce its number of complaints, or reduce the length of time it takes to resolve complaints, then you want your team to be skilled and confident in delivering high-quality customer service.
And, if your organization’s strategy is to increase its financial results, increase its profits, or decrease its number of days without pay, then you want your team to be prepared, skillful, and resilient in handling periods of tight cash flow.
Goal 1: Decide what matters
When you’re leading a team, it’s important to have a clear sense of what matters most to the organization. For example, if your organization’s top priority is to increase its sales volume, but your team is struggling with lack of confidence in delivering high-quality customer service, then your success will be negatively affected. In this case, you should be thinking about how you can best support your team as it works to improve its customer service skills.
Goal 2: Align around a common vision
When you’re leading a team, it’s important to have a common vision for how you want to play together. For example, if your organization has a mission to “improve the quality of life for everyone,” but your team’s current focus is on delivering high-quality services, then your team’s performance will be negatively affected.
You should be thinking about ways to align around a common vision by thinking about the values that are important to your team’s success.
Goal 3: Enable team members to do their best work
When you’re leading a team, it’s important to enable team members to do their best work. For example, if your team members are frustrated because they feel that they don’t have the resources necessary for success, then your team’s success will be negatively affected.
You should be thinking about ways to enable team members to do their best work by thinking about the roles that are most important to your team’s success.
Goal 4: Build trust and collaboration
When you’re leading a team, it’s important to build trust and collaboration. As you know, “trust is built one situation at a time,” and “collaboration is achieved one person at a time.” As a leader, you have a key role to play in helping to build trust and collaboration on your team.
Goal 5: Build skills and confidence
When you’re leading a team, it’s important to build skills and confidence. For example, if your team members are frustrated because they feel that they don’t have the skills necessary for success, then your team’s success will be negatively affected.
As you know, “skills are what you do when you have time,” and “confidence comes from doing.” As a leader, you have a key role to play in helping your team members develop their skills and build their confidence.
Goal 6: Build capability to achieve the organization’s goals
When you’re leading a team, it’s important to build capability to achieve the organization’s goals. For example, if your team members are frustrated because they feel they don’t have the capability necessary for success, then your team’s success will be negatively affected.
As you know, “capability is what you do when you don’t have time,” and “achievement is what you do when you do have time.” As a leader, you have a key role to play in helping your team members develop their capability and achieve their goals.
Goal 7: Build resilience and prevention
When you’re leading a team, it’s important to build resilience and prevention. As you know, “resilience comes from doing,” and “prevention is better than a cure.” As a leader, you have a key role to play in helping your team members build their resilience and prevent future problems.
Bottom line
When you’re leading a team, it’s important to meet each person where they are and help them to move forward.
Goal 8: Become more efficient.
Business leaders often manage various conflicting responsibilities, which is why time management is so crucial. Identify ways you can become more efficient (in your individual responsibilities as well as business operations) and work toward those goals. As you become more efficient, you will have more time to spend improving other skills and accomplishing other tasks.
Goal 9: Build dynamic teams.
The best organizations are diverse and inclusive, comprising unique individuals. A good leader can objectively identify the best employee for a job to create a successful, well-rounded team.
Klein said leaders often tend to hire people who are a lot like themselves. However, to thrive, businesses are better served by an eclectic team with a dynamic skill set.
“Business leaders need to get good at evaluating if an individual is right to fulfill the outcome that the business has while being a great fit for the culture,” Klein said. “The more eclectic teams that they can build that are still in coherence with each other, the better.”
Goal 10: Show appreciation, recognition and empathy for your team.
Every great leader recognizes that a business’s biggest asset is its employees. Express gratitude and appreciation for your team, especially when they reach a new milestone. Having a team of satisfied employees can boost productivity and reduce turnover rates.
“Recognize your staff publicly so they know that they are valued and appreciated,” said Snow. “Acknowledge that all of the work they are doing is not taken for granted and they are a very important asset to your company. Have a companywide meeting where staff can give a shoutout to each other on who has been helping them in every way possible or who has gone above and beyond.”
Where do you go from here?
You’ve now read the articles, watched the videos and attended the workshops. You know what it takes to be a great leader. Now it’s time to put all of this knowledge to use by leading your team to greatness. Congratulations! You’ve come a long way.
The leadership development process is an iterative one that requires constant and committed effort. So before you rest on your laurels, and before you think about the next leadership development goal, take a moment to reflect on how far you’ve come and what you’ve accomplished. This is your moment. This is your opportunity. If you’ve made it this far, you’ve got this. Now it’s time to go for the gold.
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