One of the most frequent questions that I get at seminars or workshops goes something like this:
"Art, I’ve read your leadership book, I’ve listened to you in the workshop and I understand how important it is for me to put time into the development of leaders on my team. Where should I start?"
It’s actually a great question, and one which some creative and conscientious leaders have offered me some great, low-cost, easy to implement ideas that I am happy to share with you.
1. The Executive Director of a Not-for-Profit e-mailed me a few weeks after one of my workshops to say that she decided to start her leadership development activities by working with each of her managers to create Individual Development Plans. She realized after the workshop that she almost never talked to her key managers about their career aspirations and next steps.
She reported back after one month and indicated that she had worked with each of her key managers to identify developmental assignments, to set near and long-range career goals and to establish a follow-up discussion one per quarter. She was floored by the positive and almost grateful response of her managers.
Art’s comment: What a great way to start. Sometimes the most powerful and effective steps are the easiest and cheapest to implement. Of course, one meeting is good, but the regular follow-on meetings with actions/milestones and progression will be priceless.
2. A financial services company created a Leadership Book Club using the suggestions outlined in the article, Promoting Professional Development With A Leadership Book Club by Rich Petro. This project started with the executives and their enthusiastic response translated into the development of several additional groups for any interested managers.
Art’s comment: The book club approach is a low-cost and potentially great way to get your team thinking about and talking about the right issues. Consider augmenting the readings with occasional movies. A great associate of mine teaches Management At The Movies at DePaul University, and I’ve guest lectured for her several times. Studying and talking about leaders and their behaviors in movies like Dead Poet’s Society and White Squall (and many, many others), is a great way to inject some fun into the process.
3. A technology firm decided that those ubiquitous "values" posters hanging on the wall in every conference room and in the corporate lobby weren’t doing anything but serving as decor, so they created an in-house "Leading According to Our Values" workshop. The sessions were led by executives and provided periodically to existing and new managers and supervisors. Suddenly, the firm’s values had meaning and a place in day to day leadership activities. One executive who had taught the program reported back that he was, "amazed to see the lights go on about how useful and powerful our values truly are."
Art’s comment: If you are interested in establishing purpose and use for your values inside your culture, then teaching a program on how to leverage these powerful behavioral statements is a great way to get the point across and pass along some great leadership lessons. A firm’s values statements are useful and meaningful tools in interviewing, setting behavior expectations, dealing with challenging situations, encouraging professional development and reinforcing standards for collaboration and communication.
The Bottom-Line:
Jump-starting a leadership development activity does not require a tremendous investment in program development, outside consultants or big company meetings. Sometimes the best results come from simple approaches, and anything that gets people talking about the right issues can serve as a starting-point. The key point is for you to do something.