Why is Leadership Development Important?

Picture this.. Joe is offered an entry level position with a company as he begins his career. In the months that follow, he works as hard as he possibly can to develop the skills necessary to excel in his new role. Joe is extremely dependable and is outperforming most of his peers by the end of his first year in the organization. 

About 18 months in, Joe’s supervisor accepts a position with another company. Based on everything he’s done to hone his technical skills and learn the ins and outs of the process, Joe is offered the supervisor spot! 

Mary graduated at the top of her class with an expertise that resulted in several employers making her outstanding offers right away. She chose the one that was the best fit for her and she’s been one of their top performers for more than a decade. While she’s an absolute master of her craft and gets genuine fulfillment from everything involved, there have been times where she’s considered taking that next step into management. A position opens up, she nails the interview, and she accepts the position. Now Mary will be responsible for overseeing the entire department she’s been a part of for the last ten years!

Exciting success stories, huh? Absolutely! How many times have you seen folks work through scenarios similar to either of those and grow within their company, or get offers from other companies? When an organization can offer a career path that allows someone to grow into new roles with increased responsibility - and pay - it can become known as one of the best places to work in the area. And even when someone accepts a better position with another company, aren’t we still happy to see their hard work get rewarded?

So here’s the question: How many times have you seen someone work incredibly hard to do a great job, earn a promotion into a role where they’re now responsible for a team of people doing the same or similar jobs, then struggle to accomplish results even similar to what they had been achieving on their own? Unfortunately, we’ve probably all seen this happen a time or two…

Regardless of the industry, being a great individual contributor and being an effective leader requires two VERY different skill sets! There are definitely times where a top performer has a level of charisma that helps rally their new team around them. But all too often, the skills that got them there are no where close to the ones they’ll need to get results from a team of people who they may have been working side by side with previously.

This is a move from ME to WE, and mastering this craft almost always requires a completely different set of skills!

In most organizations, there’s a premium value placed on the folks with strong technical knowledge - and they deserve it! But not nearly as many put the same type of focus on developing what’s so commonly labeled as the “soft skills” in those same people who are becoming experts in their field. This can end up getting an organization out of balance; just like  could happen if we only curled dumbbells with our right arm and only ate pizza with our left…

Why is leadership development important? Over the next few posts, we’ll take a look at some of the issues we can face, as well as some of the increased costs we can expect, without building an intentional balance into how we develop our top performing team members as they grow in our organizations!